diff --git a/object/saml_idp.go b/object/saml_idp.go
index 9a933a47..114dc64c 100644
--- a/object/saml_idp.go
+++ b/object/saml_idp.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"encoding/pem"
 	"encoding/xml"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"time"
@@ -195,6 +196,10 @@ func GetSamlMeta(application *Application, host string) (*IdpEntityDescriptor, e
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	if cert == nil {
+		return nil, errors.New("please set a cert for the application first")
+	}
+
 	block, _ := pem.Decode([]byte(cert.Certificate))
 	certificate := base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(block.Bytes)