diff --git a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/plugin.ci.ts b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/plugin.ci.ts
index 1fd0e3bde4f..317c409c6e5 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/plugin.ci.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/plugin.ci.ts
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ const packagePluginRunner: TaskRunner<PluginCIOptions> = async () => {
 
   fs.exists(jobsDir, jobsDirExists => {
     if (!jobsDirExists) {
-      throw 'You must run plugin:ci-build prior to running plugin:ci-package';
+      throw new Error('You must run plugin:ci-build prior to running plugin:ci-package');
     }
   });