diff --git a/cmd/katana/main.go b/cmd/katana/main.go
index 5d18fed3..ac742f7a 100644
--- a/cmd/katana/main.go
+++ b/cmd/katana/main.go
@@ -183,11 +183,6 @@ pipelines offering both headless and non-headless crawling.`)
 		}
 	}
 
-	if options.KnownFiles != "" && options.MaxDepth < 3 {
-		gologger.Info().Msgf("Depth automatically set to 3 to accommodate the `--known-files` option (originally set to %d).", options.MaxDepth)
-		options.MaxDepth = 3
-	}
-
 	cleanupOldResumeFiles()
 	return flagSet, nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/runner/options.go b/internal/runner/options.go
index 5f003e53..f78aeafa 100644
--- a/internal/runner/options.go
+++ b/internal/runner/options.go
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ func validateOptions(options *types.Options) error {
 		}
 		options.FilterRegex = append(options.FilterRegex, cr)
 	}
+	if options.KnownFiles != "" && options.MaxDepth < 3 {
+		gologger.Info().Msgf("Depth automatically set to 3 to accommodate the `--known-files` option (originally set to %d).", options.MaxDepth)
+		options.MaxDepth = 3
+	}
 	gologger.DefaultLogger.SetFormatter(formatter.NewCLI(options.NoColors))
 	return nil
 }