diff --git a/actions/ost-compare-ligand-structures b/actions/ost-compare-ligand-structures
index bbeaf5a1d2f34e1eb4b14742fc0f2e06feba889f..0a82242cdc00cf8ad9a19774e410ec9bc1763737 100644
--- a/actions/ost-compare-ligand-structures
+++ b/actions/ost-compare-ligand-structures
@@ -635,7 +635,8 @@ def _Main():
         out = dict()
         out["status"] = "FAILURE"
         out["traceback"] = traceback.format_exc(limit=1000)
-        out["exception"] = " ".join(traceback.format_exception_only(exc))
+        etype, evalue, tb = sys.exc_info()
+        out["exception"] = " ".join(traceback.format_exception_only(etype, evalue))
         with open(args.output, 'w') as fh:
             json.dump(out, fh, indent=4, sort_keys=False)
         raise
diff --git a/actions/ost-compare-structures b/actions/ost-compare-structures
index f1257f26a9a8a96dc3cc1cd1c789979db7839b9f..02fa365c00399733f8e56dfb40835593a4f456f0 100644
--- a/actions/ost-compare-structures
+++ b/actions/ost-compare-structures
@@ -903,7 +903,8 @@ def _Main():
         out = dict()
         out["status"] = "FAILURE"
         out["traceback"] = traceback.format_exc()
-        out["exception"] = " ".join(traceback.format_exception_only(exc))
+        etype, evalue, tb = sys.exc_info()
+        out["exception"] = " ".join(traceback.format_exception_only(etype, evalue))
         with open(args.output, 'w') as fh:
             json.dump(out, fh, indent=4, sort_keys=False)
         raise