diff --git a/.changeset/itchy-seahorses-compare.md b/.changeset/itchy-seahorses-compare.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..18ba4642831
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/itchy-seahorses-compare.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@sap-ux/project-access': patch
+---
+
+Improve function `refreshSpecificationDistTags` - prevent caching `specification-dist-tags.json` if an error is returned in the JSON from `npm view @sap/ux-specification dist-tags --json`
diff --git a/packages/project-access/src/project/specification.ts b/packages/project-access/src/project/specification.ts
index 80b116c1398..33ad0866909 100644
--- a/packages/project-access/src/project/specification.ts
+++ b/packages/project-access/src/project/specification.ts
@@ -107,6 +107,10 @@ export async function refreshSpecificationDistTags(options?: { logger?: Logger }
             logger
         });
         const distTags = JSON.parse(distTagsString) as Record<string, string>;
+        if ('error' in distTags) {
+            // Abort writing cache: received error in dist-tags response
+            throw new Error(distTagsString);
+        }
         await writeFile(specificationDistTagPath, JSON.stringify(distTags, null, 4));
         const uniqueVersions = new Set(Object.values(distTags));
 
diff --git a/packages/project-access/test/project/specification.test.ts b/packages/project-access/test/project/specification.test.ts
index cb944688146..64af7002fd9 100644
--- a/packages/project-access/test/project/specification.test.ts
+++ b/packages/project-access/test/project/specification.test.ts
@@ -151,6 +151,16 @@ describe('Test refreshSpecificationDistTags()', () => {
         await refreshSpecificationDistTags({ logger });
         expect(logger.error).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.stringContaining('NPM_ERROR'));
     });
+
+    test('Refresh specification dist tags - error in response. Contains code and summary.', async () => {
+        const refreshResponse = '{"error": {"code": "ENOTFOUND", "summary": "Request to uri failed."}}';
+        jest.spyOn(commandMock, 'execNpmCommand').mockResolvedValueOnce(refreshResponse);
+        const logger = getMockLogger();
+        await refreshSpecificationDistTags({ logger });
+        expect(logger.error).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+            `Error refreshing specification dist-tags: Error: ${refreshResponse}`
+        );
+    });
 });
 
 function getMockLogger(): Logger {