diff --git a/flex/CMakeLists.txt b/flex/CMakeLists.txt
index 3747e20334de..3ec503a64c47 100644
--- a/flex/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/flex/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -115,6 +115,13 @@ else ()
     include_directories(SYSTEM ${GFLAGS_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 endif ()
 
+# find yaml-cpp-----------------------------------------------------------------
+find_package(yaml-cpp REQUIRED)
+include_directories(SYSTEM ${yaml-cpp_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+if (NOT yaml-cpp_FOUND)
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "yaml-cpp not found, please install the yaml-cpp library")
+endif ()
+
 #find boost----------------------------------------------------------------------
 find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS system filesystem
              # required by folly
diff --git a/flex/engines/graph_db/grin/CMakeLists.txt b/flex/engines/graph_db/grin/CMakeLists.txt
index f62cd0285120..57be87af0657 100644
--- a/flex/engines/graph_db/grin/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/flex/engines/graph_db/grin/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -52,9 +52,6 @@ include_directories(SYSTEM ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../../../third_party/nloh
 # include odps cpp sdk
 include_directories(SYSTEM ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../../../third_party/odps/include/)
 
-find_package(yaml-cpp REQUIRED)
-include_directories(SYSTEM ${yaml-cpp_INCLUDE_DIRS})
-
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/..)
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../../..)
diff --git a/flex/storages/rt_mutable_graph/CMakeLists.txt b/flex/storages/rt_mutable_graph/CMakeLists.txt
index 6db4a18e095a..e3a5b5124ace 100644
--- a/flex/storages/rt_mutable_graph/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/flex/storages/rt_mutable_graph/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 
 # find yaml-cpp
-find_package(yaml-cpp REQUIRED)
-include_directories(SYSTEM ${yaml-cpp_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 
 file(GLOB_RECURSE RT_MUTABLE_GRAPH_SRC_FILES "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/*.cc")
 if (NOT BUILD_ODPS_FRAGMENT_LOADER)