diff --git a/disscube/cli.py b/disscube/cli.py
index bc21538..1a8fad7 100644
--- a/disscube/cli.py
+++ b/disscube/cli.py
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ def main(argv: list[str] | None = None) -> int:
                 "record": str(report.record),
             }, indent=2, default=str))
             return 0
-    except PipelineError as exc:
+    except (PipelineError, ImportError) as exc:  # ImportError: a missing optional extra names itself
         if is_json:
             import json
             print(json.dumps({"status": "error", "error": str(exc)}, indent=2), file=sys.stderr)
diff --git a/tests/test_export.py b/tests/test_export.py
index be6ece9..710c7d0 100644
--- a/tests/test_export.py
+++ b/tests/test_export.py
@@ -216,3 +216,14 @@ def test_pipeline_export_records_the_pipeline_and_source_checksums(tmp_path):
         assert tags["PIPELINE_CHECKSUM"].startswith("sha256:")
         assert src.tags(1)["SOURCE_CHECKSUM"].startswith("sha256:")
         assert len(src.tags(1)["CONTENT_HASH"]) >= 32
+
+
+def test_cli_reports_a_missing_netcdf_backend_without_a_traceback(tmp_path, monkeypatch, capsys):
+    from disscube.cli import main as cli
+
+    for name in ("h5netcdf", "h5py", "netCDF4"):
+        monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, name, None)
+    code = cli(["run", str(QUICKSTART), "--workspace", str(tmp_path / "ws"), "-o", str(tmp_path / "q.nc")])
+    err = capsys.readouterr().err
+    assert code == 2
+    assert err.startswith("error:") and "disscube[netcdf]" in err and "Traceback" not in err