diff --git a/R/collate.R b/R/collate.R
index ce93d01..e551413 100644
--- a/R/collate.R
+++ b/R/collate.R
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ collate <- function(pkg = ".", ...) {
   # where the return can be a list of file specs
   lst_spec <- flatten_file_spec(lst_spec)
   k <- length(lst_spec)
-  if (k == 0L) stop("Please provide at least one file specification")
+  if (k == 0L) stop("Must provide at least one file specification.", call. = FALSE)
   lst_collection <- lapply(seq_len(k), function(i) fs_to_df(path, lst_spec[[i]]))
   df <- do.call(rbind, lst_collection)
   # remove duplicates
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ fs_to_df <- function(pkg_path, file_spec) {
 #' @noRd
 flatten_file_spec <- function(lst) {
   if (!all(sapply(lapply(lst, class), `%in%`, c("file_spec", "list")))) {
-    stop("Input has objects that are not file specifications")
+    stop("All inputs must be file specification objects.", call. = FALSE)
   }
   do.call(c, lapply(lst, function(x) if (!is_file_spec(x)) flatten_file_spec(x) else list(x)))
 }
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ create_fc_df <- function(nrow) {
 #' @noRd
 get_pkg_name <- function(path) {
   path <- paste0(path, "/DESCRIPTION")
-  if (!file.exists(path)) stop("Package root does not have a DESCRIPTION file")
+  if (!file.exists(path)) stop("Can't find the `DESCRIPTION` file in package root.", call. = FALSE)
   desc_file <- normalizePath(path, winslash = "/")
   pkg_name <- unname(read.dcf(desc_file)[, "Package"])
   pkg_name
diff --git a/R/collection.R b/R/collection.R
index 35e49bb..8dbeb92 100644
--- a/R/collection.R
+++ b/R/collection.R
@@ -131,11 +131,11 @@ merge.file_collection <- function(x, y, ...) {
   lst_fc <- list(x, y, ...)
 
   if (!all(sapply(lst_fc, is_file_collection))) {
-    stop("All inputs must be file collection objects")
+    stop("All inputs must be file collection objects.", call. = FALSE)
   }
   pkg_name <- unique(sapply(lst_fc, "[[", "pkg_name"))
   if (length(pkg_name) != 1L) {
-    stop("Can only merge file collections for the same package")
+    stop("Can't merge file collections for different packages.", call. = FALSE)
   }
 
   rbind0 <- function(...) rbind(..., stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ merge.file_collection <- function(x, y, ...) {
   df <- unique(df)
   # ensure relative paths are not duplicated
   if (anyDuplicated(df$"path_rel") != 0L) {
-    stop("Some files share single relative path but conflicting absolute paths")
+    stop("Some files share the same relative path but conflicting absolute paths.", call. = FALSE)
   }
 
   new_file_collection(pkg_name, df)
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ prune.file_collection <- function(x, path) {
   if (anyNA(idx)) {
     warning(
       paste0(
-        "No matching files in file collection: ",
+        "Can't find files in file collection: ",
         paste0(path[is.na(idx)], collapse = ", ")
       )
     )
diff --git a/R/pack.R b/R/pack.R
index 4a83188..626dd6e 100644
--- a/R/pack.R
+++ b/R/pack.R
@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@ pack <- function(..., output, quiet = FALSE) {
   lst_fc <- list(...)
   npkgs <- length(lst_fc)
   pkg_names <- get_fc_pkg(lst_fc)
-  if (npkgs < 1L) stop("Please provide at least one file collection as input")
-  if (!all(sapply(lst_fc, is_file_collection))) stop("All inputs must be file collections")
+  if (npkgs < 1L) stop("Must provide at least one file collection as input.", call. = FALSE)
+  if (!all(sapply(lst_fc, is_file_collection))) stop("All inputs must be file collection objects.", call. = FALSE)
 
   # determine output file name ----
   output_default <- if (npkgs > 1L) "pkglite.txt" else tolower(paste0(pkg_names[1L], ".txt"))
diff --git a/R/spec.R b/R/spec.R
index 1a5b4cd..7297e88 100644
--- a/R/spec.R
+++ b/R/spec.R
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@
 #' )
 file_spec <- function(path, pattern = NULL, format = c("binary", "text"),
                       recursive = TRUE, ignore_case = TRUE, all_files = FALSE) {
-  if (missing(path)) stop("path cannot be empty")
+  if (missing(path)) stop("Must provide a non-empty `path`.", call. = FALSE)
   format <- match.arg(format)
 
   lst <- list(
diff --git a/R/unpack.R b/R/unpack.R
index 4999790..e0ede3b 100644
--- a/R/unpack.R
+++ b/R/unpack.R
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@
 #'   list.files()
 unpack <- function(input, output = ".", install = FALSE, quiet = FALSE, ...) {
   # handle input ----
-  if (missing(input)) stop("Please provide an input file")
+  if (missing(input)) stop("Must provide an input file.", call. = FALSE)
 
   # read input ----
   if (!quiet) cli_h1("Unpacking from pkglite file")
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ extract_value <- function(x) {
 #'
 #' @noRd
 extract_value_multi <- function(x, start, end) {
-  if (length(start) != length(end)) stop("start and end must have equal length")
+  if (length(start) != length(end)) stop("`start` and `end` must have equal length.", call. = FALSE)
   k <- length(start)
   lapply(seq_len(k), function(i) substring(x[start[i]:end[i]], 3))
 }
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 987c31f..6dd333d 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
 #'   pack(output = txt, quiet = TRUE) %>%
 #'   verify_ascii()
 verify_ascii <- function(input, quiet = FALSE) {
-  if (missing(input)) stop("Please provide an input file")
+  if (missing(input)) stop("Must provide an input file.", call. = FALSE)
   input <- file.path(input)
   x <- suppressMessages(showNonASCIIfile(input))
   has_only_ascii <- !as.logical(length(x))
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ verify_ascii <- function(input, quiet = FALSE) {
 #'   pack(output = txt, quiet = TRUE) %>%
 #'   remove_content(c("## New Features", "## Improvements"), quiet = TRUE)
 remove_content <- function(input, x, quiet = FALSE) {
-  if (missing(input)) stop("Please provide an input file")
+  if (missing(input)) stop("Must provide an input file.", call. = FALSE)
   y <- readLines(input)
 
   idx_content <- which(substr(y, 1L, 2L) == "  ")