diff --git a/synthtool/gcp/common.py b/synthtool/gcp/common.py
index 3b7ea16ad..74aee51e4 100644
--- a/synthtool/gcp/common.py
+++ b/synthtool/gcp/common.py
@@ -56,14 +56,16 @@ def _generic_library(
         partial_files: List[str] = None,
         **kwargs,
     ) -> Path:
+        # load default values that used to render templates.
         defaults_path = self._template_root / directory / "defaults"
-        kwargs["metadata"]["defaults"] = {}
-        for default_file in defaults_path.glob("*-default.yaml"):
-            self.excludes.append("defaults/{}".format(os.path.basename(default_file)))
-            with open(default_file) as f:
-                kwargs["metadata"]["defaults"].update(
-                    yaml.load(f, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)
-                )
+        if defaults_path.exists():
+            kwargs["metadata"]["defaults"] = {}
+            for default_file in defaults_path.glob("*-default.yaml"):
+                self.excludes.append("defaults/{}".format(os.path.basename(default_file)))
+                with open(default_file) as f:
+                    kwargs["metadata"]["defaults"].update(
+                        yaml.load(f, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)
+                    )
         # load common repo meta information (metadata that's not language
         # specific).
         if "metadata" in kwargs:
diff --git a/synthtool/languages/java.py b/synthtool/languages/java.py
index cd829bfdc..468c831da 100644
--- a/synthtool/languages/java.py
+++ b/synthtool/languages/java.py
@@ -486,7 +486,8 @@ def common_templates(
     Args:
         :param excludes: List of template paths to ignore
         :param template_path:
-        :param partial_files:
+        :param partial_files: List of partial files to save customizations on
+        templates
         :param kwargs: Additional options for CommonTemplates.java_library()
 
     """