diff --git a/src/hictk/cli/cli_convert.cpp b/src/hictk/cli/cli_convert.cpp
index 56ef8cba..ee2dc1f0 100644
--- a/src/hictk/cli/cli_convert.cpp
+++ b/src/hictk/cli/cli_convert.cpp
@@ -225,6 +225,9 @@ void Cli::transform_args_convert_subcommand() {
   if (c.tmp_dir.empty()) {
     c.tmp_dir = c.path_to_output.parent_path();
   }
+
+  c.tmp_dir /= c.path_to_output.filename();
+  c.tmp_dir.replace_extension(".tmp");
 }
 
 }  // namespace hictk::tools
diff --git a/src/hictk/convert/cool_to_hic.cpp b/src/hictk/convert/cool_to_hic.cpp
index 468890dc..af723ceb 100644
--- a/src/hictk/convert/cool_to_hic.cpp
+++ b/src/hictk/convert/cool_to_hic.cpp
@@ -288,8 +288,7 @@ static bool dump_weights(const ConvertConfig& c, const std::filesystem::path& we
 void cool_to_hic(const ConvertConfig& c) {
   std::ignore = find_java();
 
-  const internal::TmpDir tmpdir{
-      c.tmp_dir / std::filesystem::path(c.path_to_input.filename()).replace_extension(".tmp")};
+  const internal::TmpDir tmpdir{c.tmp_dir};
 
   const auto chrom_sizes = tmpdir() / "reference.chrom.sizes";
   const auto pixels = [&]() {