diff --git a/examples/base/main.go b/examples/base/main.go
index 3e5e2861..abd1cc71 100644
--- a/examples/base/main.go
+++ b/examples/base/main.go
@@ -2,21 +2,40 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"log"
+	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
 
-	"github.com/labstack/echo/v5"
 	"github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase"
 	"github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/apis"
 	"github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/core"
 )
 
+func defaultPublicDir() string {
+	if strings.HasPrefix(os.Args[0], os.TempDir()) {
+		// most likely ran with go run
+		return "./pb_public"
+	}
+
+	return filepath.Join(os.Args[0], "../pb_public")
+}
+
 func main() {
 	app := pocketbase.New()
 
+	var publicDirFlag string
+
+	// add "--publicDir" option flag
+	app.RootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(
+		&publicDirFlag,
+		"publicDir",
+		defaultPublicDir(),
+		"the directory to serve static files",
+	)
+
 	app.OnBeforeServe().Add(func(e *core.ServeEvent) error {
 		// serves static files from the provided public dir (if exists)
-		subFs := echo.MustSubFS(e.Router.Filesystem, filepath.Join(app.DataDir(), "../pb_public"))
-		e.Router.GET("/*", apis.StaticDirectoryHandler(subFs, false))
+		e.Router.GET("/*", apis.StaticDirectoryHandler(os.DirFS(publicDirFlag), false))
 
 		return nil
 	})