diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/export.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/export.go
index 3a972913b..c2e450fb1 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/export.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/export.go
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ Currently, only OCI format is supported.
 			local = context.Args().Get(1)
 			desc  ocispec.Descriptor
 		)
+		if out == "" || local == "" {
+			return errors.New("please provide both an output filename and an image reference to export")
+		}
 		client, ctx, cancel, err := commands.NewClient(context)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go
index c155413b7..0550d4c29 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/pull.go
@@ -27,7 +27,9 @@ command. As part of this process, we do the following:
 		var (
 			ref = context.Args().First()
 		)
-
+		if ref == "" {
+			return fmt.Errorf("please provide an image reference to pull")
+		}
 		ctx, cancel := commands.AppContext(context)
 		defer cancel()
 
diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/push.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/push.go
index b8b2ee878..48cdee654 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/images/push.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/images/push.go
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ var pushCommand = cli.Command{
 			local = context.Args().Get(1)
 			desc  ocispec.Descriptor
 		)
+		if ref == "" {
+			return errors.New("please provide a remote image reference to push")
+		}
 		client, ctx, cancel, err := commands.NewClient(context)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err