diff --git a/apps/cli/src/App.tsx b/apps/cli/src/App.tsx
index 9e79209..f8a412e 100644
--- a/apps/cli/src/App.tsx
+++ b/apps/cli/src/App.tsx
@@ -184,11 +184,12 @@ const App = (props: {
   version: string;
   port: number;
   upgrade: boolean;
+  dir?: string;
   token?: string;
 }) => {
   const { exit } = useApp();
 
-  const { model, language, pkg, version, token, port, upgrade } = props;
+  const { model, language, pkg, version, token, port, upgrade, dir } = props;
 
   const [columns, rows] = useStdoutDimensions();
 
@@ -256,6 +257,7 @@ const App = (props: {
         `${port}`,
         ...(token ? ["-t", token] : []),
         ...(upgrade ? [] : ["-n"]),
+        ...(dir ? ["-d", dir] : []),
       ],
       {
         shell: true,
diff --git a/apps/cli/src/index.tsx b/apps/cli/src/index.tsx
index 34a4f07..791b196 100644
--- a/apps/cli/src/index.tsx
+++ b/apps/cli/src/index.tsx
@@ -43,9 +43,11 @@ const command = program
   .option("-n, --no-upgrade", "skip applying the upgrade")
   .option("-s, --simple", "simple mode")
   .option("-i, --ipc", "run in ipc mode")
+  .option("-d, --dir <dir>", "target directory for the upgrade")
   .parse();
 
-const { model, language, port, ipc, simple, token, upgrade } = command.opts();
+const { model, language, port, ipc, simple, token, upgrade, dir } =
+  command.opts();
 
 let [pkg, version] = command.processedArgs;
 
@@ -65,7 +67,7 @@ if (!resolvedToken) {
 
 const bumpFinder = makeBumpFinder({
   language,
-  projectRoot: process.cwd(),
+  projectRoot: dir,
 });
 
 const available = await bumpFinder.list();
@@ -110,7 +112,7 @@ const bumpgen = makeBumpgen({
     newVersion: version,
   },
   language,
-  projectRoot: process.cwd(),
+  projectRoot: dir,
 });
 
 if (simple) {
@@ -153,6 +155,7 @@ if (simple) {
       token={token}
       port={port}
       upgrade={upgrade}
+      dir={dir}
     />,
   );
   await app.waitUntilExit();
diff --git a/packages/bumpgen-core/src/index.ts b/packages/bumpgen-core/src/index.ts
index 2648430..fdcc1ee 100644
--- a/packages/bumpgen-core/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/bumpgen-core/src/index.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import path from "path";
 import process from "process";
 import { serializeError } from "serialize-error";
 import { v4 } from "uuid";
@@ -436,6 +437,10 @@ const bumpgen = ({
           data: errors,
         };
 
+        if (errors.length === 0) {
+          break;
+        }
+
         id = v4();
         yield {
           id,
@@ -559,7 +564,7 @@ export const makeBumpgen = ({
 }) => {
   model = model ?? "gpt-4-turbo-preview";
   language = language ?? "typescript";
-  projectRoot = projectRoot ?? process.cwd();
+  projectRoot = projectRoot ? path.resolve(projectRoot) : process.cwd();
   const languageService = injectLanguageService(language)();
   const llm = injectLLMService({ llmApiKey, model })();
   const graphService = injectGraphService();
@@ -586,7 +591,7 @@ export const makeBumpFinder = ({
   projectRoot?: string;
 }) => {
   language = language ?? "typescript";
-  projectRoot = projectRoot ?? process.cwd();
+  projectRoot = projectRoot ? path.resolve(projectRoot) : process.cwd();
   const languageService = injectLanguageService(language)();
   return bumpFinder({
     services: { language: languageService },
diff --git a/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/language/typescript/index.ts b/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/language/typescript/index.ts
index 732075b..553da8e 100644
--- a/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/language/typescript/index.ts
+++ b/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/language/typescript/index.ts
@@ -99,10 +99,11 @@ export const makeTypescriptService = (
 
   return {
     build: {
-      getErrors: async () => {
+      getErrors: async (projectRoot) => {
         let tscOutput = await subprocess.spawn(
           `npx tsc --noEmit --skipLibCheck --pretty`,
           {
+            cwd: projectRoot,
             rejectOnStderr: false,
           },
         );
@@ -228,6 +229,7 @@ export const makeTypescriptService = (
           console.log("Applying upgrades...");
 
           await subprocess.spawn(`${packageManager} install`, {
+            cwd: projectRoot,
             rejectOnStderr: false,
             rejectOnNonZeroExit: true,
           });
@@ -239,6 +241,7 @@ export const makeTypescriptService = (
         const { packageManager } = await findPackageManager(projectRoot);
 
         return await subprocess.spawn(`${packageManager} install`, {
+          cwd: projectRoot,
           rejectOnStderr: false,
         });
       },
diff --git a/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/subprocess/index.ts b/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/subprocess/index.ts
index 6573adf..e9ece32 100644
--- a/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/subprocess/index.ts
+++ b/packages/bumpgen-core/src/services/subprocess/index.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ export const createSubprocessService = (
     spawn: async (
       command: string,
       options?: {
+        cwd?: string;
         rejectOnStderr?: boolean;
         rejectOnNonZeroExit?: boolean;
         env?: typeof proc.env;
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@ export const createSubprocessService = (
     ) => {
       return await new Promise<string>((resolve, reject) => {
         const child = childProcess.spawn(command, {
+          cwd: options?.cwd,
           shell: true,
           env: options?.env ?? proc.env,
         });