diff --git a/scripts/mkinitrd.sh b/scripts/mkinitrd.sh
index 741df8c..3b82fed 100755
--- a/scripts/mkinitrd.sh
+++ b/scripts/mkinitrd.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 set -e
 
 outdir="${1:-./artifacts}"
+mkdir -p "$outdir"
 tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
 trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' 0