diff --git a/providers/flagd/src/main/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/resolver/process/InProcessResolver.java b/providers/flagd/src/main/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/resolver/process/InProcessResolver.java
index a862bf7e4..86fbb8056 100644
--- a/providers/flagd/src/main/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/resolver/process/InProcessResolver.java
+++ b/providers/flagd/src/main/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/resolver/process/InProcessResolver.java
@@ -204,6 +204,15 @@ private <T> ProviderEvaluation<T> resolve(Class<T> type, String key, EvaluationC
         // check variant existence
         Object value = flag.getVariants().get(resolvedVariant);
         if (value == null) {
+            if (resolvedVariant.isEmpty() && flag.getDefaultVariant().isEmpty()) {
+                return ProviderEvaluation.<T>builder()
+                        .reason(Reason.ERROR.toString())
+                        .errorCode(ErrorCode.FLAG_NOT_FOUND)
+                        .errorMessage("Flag '" + key + "' has no default variant defined, will use code default")
+                        .flagMetadata(getFlagMetadata(storageQueryResult))
+                        .build();
+            }
+
             String message = String.format("variant %s not found in flag with key %s", resolvedVariant, key);
             log.debug(message);
             throw new GeneralError(message);
diff --git a/providers/flagd/src/test/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/e2e/RunInProcessTest.java b/providers/flagd/src/test/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/e2e/RunInProcessTest.java
index a662b4441..3a1c33f03 100644
--- a/providers/flagd/src/test/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/e2e/RunInProcessTest.java
+++ b/providers/flagd/src/test/java/dev/openfeature/contrib/providers/flagd/e2e/RunInProcessTest.java
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 @ConfigurationParameter(key = GLUE_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "dev.openfeature.contrib.providers.flagd.e2e.steps")
 @ConfigurationParameter(key = OBJECT_FACTORY_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "io.cucumber.picocontainer.PicoFactory")
 @IncludeTags("in-process")
-@ExcludeTags({"unixsocket", "targetURI", "no-default"})
+@ExcludeTags({"unixsocket", "targetURI"})
 @Testcontainers
 @Isolated
 public class RunInProcessTest {