diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index d021a9984..6673b3b87 100644
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Copyright (c) OWASP Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
 
 import { Builders, Enums, Factories, Serialize, Spec, Validation } from '@cyclonedx/cyclonedx-library'
 import { Argument, Command, Option } from 'commander'
-import { existsSync, openSync } from 'fs'
+import { existsSync, mkdirSync, openSync } from 'fs'
 import { dirname, resolve } from 'path'
 
 import { loadJsonFile, writeAllSync } from './_helpers'
@@ -315,7 +315,11 @@ export async function run (process: NodeJS.Process): Promise<number> {
       }
     }
   }
-
+  const directory = dirname(options.outputFile)
+  if (!existsSync(directory)) {
+    myConsole.info('INFO  | creating directory', directory)
+    mkdirSync(directory, { recursive: true })
+  }
   myConsole.log('LOG   | writing BOM to', options.outputFile)
   const written = await writeAllSync(
     options.outputFile === OutputStdOut
diff --git a/tests/_helper/index.js b/tests/_helper/index.js
index cd01ed642..c3ea4fd6e 100644
--- a/tests/_helper/index.js
+++ b/tests/_helper/index.js
@@ -155,8 +155,17 @@ function getNpmVersion () {
   return v
 }
 
+/**
+ * @param {string} s
+ * @return {string}
+ */
+function regexEscape (s) {
+  return s.replace(/[\^$(){}[\]+*?.|\\-]/g, '\\$&')
+}
+
 module.exports = {
   hashFile,
   makeReproducible,
-  getNpmVersion
+  getNpmVersion,
+  regexEscape
 }
diff --git a/tests/integration/cli.from-setups.test.js b/tests/integration/cli.from-setups.test.js
index 6c3d7823b..a05c4c6e6 100644
--- a/tests/integration/cli.from-setups.test.js
+++ b/tests/integration/cli.from-setups.test.js
@@ -18,12 +18,12 @@ Copyright (c) OWASP Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
 */
 
 const { spawnSync } = require('child_process')
-const { join } = require('path')
-const { writeFileSync, readFileSync, mkdirSync } = require('fs')
+const { dirname, join } = require('path')
+const { writeFileSync, readFileSync, existsSync } = require('fs')
 
 const { describe, expect, test } = require('@jest/globals')
 
-const { makeReproducible, getNpmVersion } = require('../_helper')
+const { makeReproducible, getNpmVersion, regexEscape } = require('../_helper')
 const { UPDATE_SNAPSHOTS, mkTemp, cliWrapper, latestCdxSpecVersion, dummyProjectsRoot, dummyResultsRoot, projectDemoRootPath, demoResultsRoot } = require('./')
 
 describe('integration.cli.from-setups', () => {
@@ -37,9 +37,6 @@ describe('integration.cli.from-setups', () => {
   const formats = ['json', 'xml']
 
   describe('dummy_projects', () => {
-    const tmpRootRun = join(tmpRoot, 'with-prepared')
-    mkdirSync(tmpRootRun)
-
     const useCases = [
       {
         subject: 'bare',
@@ -60,7 +57,9 @@ describe('integration.cli.from-setups', () => {
 
     function runTest (subject, project, format, additionalCliArgs = []) {
       const expectedOutSnap = join(dummyResultsRoot, subject, `${project}.snap.${format}`)
-      const outFile = join(tmpRoot, `${subject}_${project}.${format}`)
+      const outFile = join(tmpRoot, subject, `${project}.${format}`)
+      const outDirExisted = existsSync(dirname(outFile))
+      // no need to create that outFile dir first - the tool is expected to do that for us
       const res = spawnSync(
         process.execPath,
         ['--', cliWrapper,
@@ -69,10 +68,11 @@ describe('integration.cli.from-setups', () => {
           '--output-format', format,
           '--output-reproducible',
           '--output-file', outFile,
-          '--validate'
+          '--validate',
+          '-vvv'
         ], {
           cwd: join(dummyProjectsRoot, project),
-          stdio: ['ignore', 'inherit', 'pipe'],
+          stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'pipe'],
           encoding: 'utf8'
         }
       )
@@ -84,6 +84,11 @@ describe('integration.cli.from-setups', () => {
         process.stderr.write('\n')
         throw err
       }
+
+      const expectStdErr = expect(res.stderr);
+      (outDirExisted ? expectStdErr.not : expectStdErr).toContain(`creating directory ${dirname(outFile)}`)
+      expectStdErr.toMatch(new RegExp(`wrote \\d+ bytes to ${regexEscape(outFile)}`))
+
       const actualOutput = makeReproducible(format, readFileSync(outFile, 'utf8'))
 
       if (UPDATE_SNAPSHOTS) {
@@ -97,8 +102,6 @@ describe('integration.cli.from-setups', () => {
     }
 
     describe.each(useCases)('subject: $subject', (ud) => {
-      mkdirSync(join(tmpRootRun, ud.subject))
-
       describe.each(ud.dummyProject)('dummyProject: %s', (dummyProject) => {
         describe.each(formats)('format: %s', (format) => {
           (skipAllTests