diff --git a/__tests__/integration/errors.spec.ts b/__tests__/integration/errors.spec.ts
index 3ecacdec..8df614a9 100644
--- a/__tests__/integration/errors.spec.ts
+++ b/__tests__/integration/errors.spec.ts
@@ -88,3 +88,10 @@ test("integration - type-only import error - abortOnError: false / check: false"
   expect(output.length).toEqual(files.length); // no other files
   expect(onwarn).toBeCalledTimes(1);
 });
+
+// integration test variant of parse-tsconfig unit test, to test how other hooks interact with an error thrown in buildStart
+test("integration - tsconfig error", async () => {
+  await expect(genBundle("semantic.ts", {
+    tsconfigOverride: { compilerOptions: { module: "none" } },
+  })).rejects.toThrow("Incompatible tsconfig option. Module resolves to 'None'. This is incompatible with Rollup, please use");
+});
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index a4bcdb8c..8a625663 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ const typescript: PluginImpl<RPT2Options> = (options) =>
 		if (!watchMode && !noErrors)
 			context.info(yellow("there were errors or warnings."));
 
-		cache.done();
+		cache?.done(); // if there's an initialization error in `buildStart`, such as a `tsconfig` error, the cache may not exist yet
 	}
 
 	const pluginOptions: IOptions = Object.assign({},