diff --git a/bin/sequencer b/bin/sequencer
index 07e012fe51..2e8128c9fd 100755
--- a/bin/sequencer
+++ b/bin/sequencer
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ if [[ -d $site_path ]]; then
 elif [[ -f $site_path ]]; then
     echo Using site config file $site_path
     site_model=`jq -r .site_model $site_path`
-    [[ $site_model == null ]] && site_model=$(dirname $site_path)
+    [[ $site_model == null ]] && site_model=.
+    [[ $site_model =~ ^/ ]] || site_model=$(realpath $(dirname $site_path)/$site_model)
     project_id=`jq -r .project_id $site_path`
     [[ $project_id == null ]] && project_id=
     device_id=`jq -r .device_id $site_path`
diff --git a/bin/test_regclean b/bin/test_regclean
index 1e1089da64..55231ba92d 100755
--- a/bin/test_regclean
+++ b/bin/test_regclean
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ cat $pubber_config
 echo Corrupting site model to check error handling...
 mkdir -p $site_path/devices/XXX-1
 echo { > $site_path/devices/XXX-1/metadata.json
+mkdir -p $site_path/devices/XXX-2/out
+echo hello > $site_path/devices/XXX-2/out/exceptions.txt
 
 echo Clean out the registry to make sure devices get removed...
 bin/registrar $site_arg $registrar_project -d
diff --git a/common/src/main/java/com/google/udmi/util/SiteModel.java b/common/src/main/java/com/google/udmi/util/SiteModel.java
index bea6765c19..0cf165cc9b 100644
--- a/common/src/main/java/com/google/udmi/util/SiteModel.java
+++ b/common/src/main/java/com/google/udmi/util/SiteModel.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -121,18 +122,25 @@ private static boolean validDeviceDirectory(String dirName) {
   }
 
   public static Metadata loadDeviceMetadata(String sitePath, String deviceId, Class<?> container) {
-    Preconditions.checkState(sitePath != null, "sitePath not defined");
-    File deviceDir = getDeviceDir(sitePath, deviceId);
-    File deviceMetadataFile = new File(deviceDir, "metadata.json");
-    Metadata metadata = captureLoadErrors(deviceMetadataFile);
-    if (metadata != null) {
+    try {
+      Preconditions.checkState(sitePath != null, "sitePath not defined");
+      File deviceDir = getDeviceDir(sitePath, deviceId);
+      File deviceMetadataFile = new File(deviceDir, "metadata.json");
+      if (!deviceMetadataFile.exists()) {
+        return new MetadataException(deviceMetadataFile, new FileNotFoundException());
+      }
+      Metadata metadata = requireNonNull(captureLoadErrors(deviceMetadataFile), "bad metadata");
+
       // Missing arrays are automatically parsed to an empty list, which is not what
       // we want, so hacky go through and convert an empty list to null.
       if (metadata.gateway != null && metadata.gateway.proxy_ids.isEmpty()) {
         metadata.gateway.proxy_ids = null;
       }
+
+      return metadata;
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("While loading device metadata for " + deviceId, e);
     }
-    return metadata;
   }
 
   private static Metadata captureLoadErrors(File deviceMetadataFile) {