diff --git a/main.py b/main.py
index c497999..fb1fe26 100644
--- a/main.py
+++ b/main.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import pathlib
 from asyncio import CancelledError
 from typing import Optional
 from uuid import uuid4
+from jinja2 import TemplateError
 
 import uvicorn
 import yaml
@@ -395,7 +396,7 @@ async def generate_completion(request: Request, data: CompletionRequest):
 async def generate_chat_completion(request: Request, data: ChatCompletionRequest):
     """Generates a chat completion from a prompt."""
     if MODEL_CONTAINER.prompt_template is None:
-        return HTTPException(
+        raise HTTPException(
             422,
             "This endpoint is disabled because a prompt template is not set.",
         )
@@ -416,13 +417,18 @@ async def generate_chat_completion(request: Request, data: ChatCompletionRequest
                 data.add_generation_prompt,
                 special_tokens_dict,
             )
-        except KeyError:
-            return HTTPException(
+        except KeyError as exc:
+            raise HTTPException(
                 400,
                 "Could not find a Conversation from prompt template "
                 f"'{MODEL_CONTAINER.prompt_template.name}'. "
                 "Check your spelling?",
-            )
+            ) from exc
+        except TemplateError as exc:
+            raise HTTPException(
+                400,
+                f"TemplateError: {str(exc)}",
+            ) from exc
 
     if data.stream:
         const_id = f"chatcmpl-{uuid4().hex}"
diff --git a/templating.py b/templating.py
index f1a86e3..fb4f030 100644
--- a/templating.py
+++ b/templating.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import json
 import pathlib
 from functools import lru_cache
 from importlib.metadata import version as package_version
-
+from jinja2 import TemplateError
 from jinja2.sandbox import ImmutableSandboxedEnvironment
 from packaging import version
 from pydantic import BaseModel
@@ -44,7 +44,15 @@ def get_prompt_from_template(
 # https://github.com/huggingface/transformers/blob/main/src/transformers/tokenization_utils_base.py#L1761
 @lru_cache
 def _compile_template(template: str):
+    """Compiles a Jinja2 template"""
+
+    # Exception handler
+    def raise_exception(message):
+        raise TemplateError(message)
+
     jinja_env = ImmutableSandboxedEnvironment(trim_blocks=True, lstrip_blocks=True)
+    jinja_env.globals["raise_exception"] = raise_exception
+
     jinja_template = jinja_env.from_string(template)
     return jinja_template