diff --git a/src/main.cc b/src/main.cc
index 2ee80fec..4c257570 100644
--- a/src/main.cc
+++ b/src/main.cc
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ int main(int argc, const char *argv[])
     CLI::App app{"Clang-based PlantUML diagram generator for C++"};
 
     std::string config_path{".clang-uml"};
-    std::string compilation_database_dir{'.'};
+    std::string compilation_database_dir{};
     std::vector<std::string> diagram_names{};
     std::optional<std::string> output_directory;
     unsigned int thread_count{0};
@@ -245,6 +245,10 @@ int main(int argc, const char *argv[])
 
     LOG_INFO("Loaded clang-uml config from {}", config_path);
 
+    if(!compilation_database_dir.empty()) {
+        config.compilation_database_dir.set(compilation_database_dir);
+    }
+
     LOG_INFO("Loading compilation database from {} directory",
         config.compilation_database_dir());