diff --git a/src/CrestApiFs.cxx b/src/CrestApiFs.cxx
index e0146068800a8273ac359aa6836a2412e00ade9d..593cac604af02265066666da88ec97d9df69687c 100644
--- a/src/CrestApiFs.cxx
+++ b/src/CrestApiFs.cxx
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ namespace Crest
   CrestFsClient::CrestFsClient(bool rewriteIfExists, const std::string &root_folder)
       : m_root_folder(root_folder), m_isRewrite(rewriteIfExists)
   {
+    if (m_root_folder == "") {
+      m_root_folder = std::filesystem::current_path();
+      m_root_folder += "/crest";
+    }
     if (!std::filesystem::exists(std::filesystem::path(m_root_folder)))
     {
       std::filesystem::create_directory(std::filesystem::path(m_root_folder));