diff --git a/src/bin/ch-remote.rs b/src/bin/ch-remote.rs
index 1d5d5d0ba..f9236e375 100644
--- a/src/bin/ch-remote.rs
+++ b/src/bin/ch-remote.rs
@@ -898,6 +898,7 @@ fn main() {
         .author(env!("CARGO_PKG_AUTHORS"))
         .version(env!("BUILD_VERSION"))
         .about("Remotely control a cloud-hypervisor VMM.")
+        .subcommand_required(true)
         .args([
             Arg::new("api-socket")
                 .long("api-socket")