diff --git a/bin/detect b/bin/detect
index e3a553c77dbd35cbf16d9b1fcc4cb9c95fccbeea..17597c053f6bb6eec62106d99b817099b4ffd141 100755
--- a/bin/detect
+++ b/bin/detect
@@ -1,8 +1,14 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# bin/name <build-dir>
+# bin/detect <build-dir>
 
 BUILD_DIR=$1
-[ -f $BUILD_DIR/requirements.txt ] || exit 1 # fail fast if no requirements.txt
 
-# 'Django' if there is a [mysite]/settings.py file present; otherwise 'Python'
-ls $BUILD_DIR/**/settings.py &> /dev/null && echo Django || echo Python
\ No newline at end of file
+function abort() {
+  echo $1 1>&2
+  exit 1
+}
+
+[ -f $BUILD_DIR/requirements.txt ] || abort "fatal: Not a Python app (no requirements.txt)"
+
+# 'Python/Django' if there is a [mysite]/settings.py file present; otherwise 'Python'
+ls $BUILD_DIR/**/settings.py &> /dev/null && echo Python/Django || echo Python
diff --git a/test/canary_python/requirements.txt b/test/canary_python/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391