diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index ca527d4..a6e68ca 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 argcomplete==2.0.0
-requests==2.27.1
 pyyaml==5.4.1
+requests==2.27.1
+simplejson==3.17.6
diff --git a/scripts/knotctl b/scripts/knotctl
index 3ae2f94..601cfbe 100755
--- a/scripts/knotctl
+++ b/scripts/knotctl
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ from typing import Union
 import argcomplete
 import requests
 import yaml
+from requests.exceptions import JSONDecodeError as RequestsJSONDecodeError
 from requests.models import HTTPBasicAuth
+from simplejson.errors import JSONDecodeError as SimplejsonJSONDecodeError
 
 
 # Helper functions
@@ -241,14 +243,18 @@ def main() -> int:
     if 'ttl' in args:
         ttl = args.ttl
     url = setup_url(baseurl, args.data, args.name, args.rtype, ttl, args.zone)
-    if args.command == "add":
-        run_add(url, args.json, headers)
-    elif args.command == "delete":
-        run_delete(url, args.json, headers)
-    elif args.command == "list":
-        run_list(url, args.json, headers)
-    elif args.command == "update":
-        run_update(url, args.json, headers)
+    try:
+        if args.command == "add":
+            run_add(url, args.json, headers)
+        elif args.command == "delete":
+            run_delete(url, args.json, headers)
+        elif args.command == "list":
+            run_list(url, args.json, headers)
+        elif args.command == "update":
+            run_update(url, args.json, headers)
+    except (RequestsJSONDecodeError, SimplejsonJSONDecodeError):
+        output(
+            error("Could not decode api response as JSON", "Could not decode"))
     return 0
 
 
diff --git a/stdeb.cfg b/stdeb.cfg
index cb52e6a..520385f 100644
--- a/stdeb.cfg
+++ b/stdeb.cfg
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 [DEFAULT]
-Depends3: python3-argcomplete, python3-requests, python3-yaml
+Depends3: python3-argcomplete, python3-requests, python3-simplejson, python3-yaml
 Debian-Version: 1
 Package3: knotctl