diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f6c33f06b1..1fdb3fca01 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -171,12 +171,10 @@ To do this locally, please
 1. Install [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/)
 2. Check out this repo, go to the repo root, and switch to a development branch
 3. Execute `npm install` (once, repeat after merging upstream changes)
-4. Execute `npm run build-src` after changing `src/oas.md` 
+4. Execute `npm run build-src` after changing `src/oas.md` (this first executes `npm run validate-markdown`, which can also be run separately)
 5. Open output file `deploy-preview/oas.html` with a browser
 
-Before creating a pull request or marking a draft pull request as ready for review, please
-
-6. Execute `npm run validate-markdown` and fix any reported problems in `src/oas.md`
+Please make sure the markdown validates and builds using the above steps before creating a pull request or marking a draft pull request as ready for review.
 
 ## Reviewers
 
diff --git a/scripts/md2html/build-src.sh b/scripts/md2html/build-src.sh
index ff972b7f84..a8244dfb8e 100755
--- a/scripts/md2html/build-src.sh
+++ b/scripts/md2html/build-src.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 
 # run this script from the root of the repo
 
+npm run validate-markdown || exit -1
+
 mkdir -p deploy-preview/temp
 mkdir -p deploy-preview/js