diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 14a72b871..379db1187 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -24,3 +24,5 @@ lerna-debug.log
 **/*.orig
 
 go.sum
+
+.df-credentials.json
diff --git a/api/commands/credentials.ts b/api/commands/credentials.ts
index afbb18268..b4a2cf7c8 100644
--- a/api/commands/credentials.ts
+++ b/api/commands/credentials.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ export type Credentials =
 
 export function read(warehouse: string, credentialsPath: string): Credentials {
   if (!fs.existsSync(credentialsPath)) {
-    throw new Error("Missing credentials JSON file.");
+    throw new Error(`Missing credentials JSON file; not found at path '${credentialsPath}'.`);
   }
   return coerce(warehouse, JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(credentialsPath, "utf8")));
 }
diff --git a/cli/index.ts b/cli/index.ts
index 05f1db163..1b44e2f79 100644
--- a/cli/index.ts
+++ b/cli/index.ts
@@ -154,11 +154,10 @@ const credentialsOption: INamedOption<yargs.Options> = {
   name: "credentials",
   option: {
     describe: "The location of the credentials JSON file to use.",
-    default: null
+    default: CREDENTIALS_FILENAME
   },
   check: (argv: yargs.Arguments<any>) =>
-    !argv[credentialsOption.name] ||
-    assertPathExists(getCredentialsPath(argv[projectDirOption.name], argv[credentialsOption.name]))
+    getCredentialsPath(argv[projectDirOption.name], argv[credentialsOption.name])
 };
 
 const warehouseOption: INamedOption<yargs.PositionalOptions> = {
diff --git a/version.bzl b/version.bzl
index ba7c014ca..7b7d699af 100644
--- a/version.bzl
+++ b/version.bzl
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # NOTE: If you change the format of this line, you must change the bash command
 # in /scripts/publish to extract the version string correctly.
-DF_VERSION = "2.3.0"
+DF_VERSION = "2.3.1"