diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 9f6d047..9ecc122 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ extend-exclude = 'deps\/.*$'
 line_length = 100
 
 [tool.cibuildwheel]
-skip = ["cp3{6,7,8}-*", "pp*", "*-win32", "*-manylinux_i686", "*-musllinux_i686", "*-musllinux_x86_64", "*-musllinux_aarch64"]
+skip = ["cp3{6,7,8,13}-*", "pp*", "*-win32", "*-manylinux_i686", "*-musllinux_i686", "*-musllinux_x86_64", "*-musllinux_aarch64"]
 # MPI needed for testing with mpi4py
 before-all = "yum install -y openmpi3-devel java-11-openjdk"
 environment = { MPICC="/usr/lib64/openmpi3/bin/mpicc" }
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/core.py b/src/functionalizer/core.py
index d83ae5f..2652d99 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/core.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/core.py
@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import pyarrow.parquet as pq
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from fz_td_recipe import Recipe
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
+
 from . import utils
 from .circuit import Circuit
 from .definitions import CheckpointPhases, SortBy
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/__init__.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/__init__.py
index 2d7b636..f0bc625 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/__init__.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """Module with filters to process edge data."""
 
-from .definitions import DatasetOperation, load  # NOQA
+from .definitions import DatasetOperation, FilterInitializationError, load  # NOQA
 from .helpers import enable_debug  # NOQA
 
 from . import helpers  # NOQA
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/definitions.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/definitions.py
index c3bab10..0381978 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/definitions.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/definitions.py
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import sparkmanager as sm
-
 from functionalizer.circuit import Circuit
 from functionalizer.utils import get_logger
 from functionalizer.utils.checkpointing import checkpoint_resume
@@ -38,6 +37,10 @@ def load(*dirnames: str) -> None:
             importlib.import_module(modulename)
 
 
+class FilterInitializationError(RuntimeError):
+    """Error to be raised when filters should be skipped."""
+
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------
 # Dataset operations
 # ---------------------------------------------------
@@ -108,7 +111,7 @@ def initialize(mcs, names, *args):
             )
             try:
                 filters.append(fcls(*args))
-            except Exception as e:
+            except FilterInitializationError as e:
                 if fcls._required:
                     logger.fatal("Could not instantiate %s", fcls.__name__)
                     raise
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/reduce_and_cut.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/reduce_and_cut.py
index f1faf42..6f09336 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/reduce_and_cut.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/reduce_and_cut.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 """Filter that matches distributions of synapses."""
 
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
 from functionalizer.circuit import touches_per_pathway
 from functionalizer.definitions import CheckpointPhases
 from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation, helpers
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_length.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_length.py
index 116bb68..8f10190 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_length.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_length.py
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 from operator import attrgetter
 
 import pandas as pd
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
-from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
+import sparkmanager as sm
+from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation, FilterInitializationError
 from functionalizer.utils import get_logger
 
 from . import add_bin_column, add_random_column
@@ -29,9 +29,12 @@ def __init__(self, recipe, source, target):
         recipe to obtain the desired distribution of spine lengths to match.
         """
         super().__init__(recipe, source, target)
-        self.seed = recipe.seeds.synapseSeed
+        self.seed = recipe.get("seed")
         logger.info("Using seed %d for spine length adjustment", self.seed)
 
+        if not recipe.get("spine_lengths"):
+            raise FilterInitializationError("'synapse_reposition' not in recipe")
+
         self.binnings = sorted(recipe.spine_lengths, key=attrgetter("length"))
 
     def apply(self, circuit):
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_morphologies.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_morphologies.py
index 1b1852e..6417c65 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_morphologies.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/spine_morphologies.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 import pandas as pd
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
-from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
+from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation, FilterInitializationError
 
 
 class SpineMorphologies(DatasetOperation):
@@ -53,6 +53,10 @@ class SpineMorphologies(DatasetOperation):
     def __init__(self, recipe, source, target):
         """Initializes the filter using the morphology database."""
         super().__init__(recipe, source, target)
+
+        if not target.spine_morphology_path:
+            raise FilterInitializationError("target nodes do not define 'spine_morphologies_dir'")
+
         self._morphologies, self._filter = _create_spine_morphology_udf(
             target.spine_morphology_path
         )
@@ -105,6 +109,7 @@ def _read_spine_morphology_attributes(spine_morpho_path: Path):
     Returns a dataframe with spine morphology properties.
     """
     files = sorted(spine_morpho_path.glob("*.h5"))
+    assert len(files) > 0, "no spine morphologies present"
     ids = np.ndarray((0,), dtype=int)
     lengths = np.ndarray((0,), dtype=float)
     morphologies = np.ndarray((0,), dtype=int)
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_properties.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_properties.py
index fedee9e..38d55f6 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_properties.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_properties.py
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 """Filters to add properties to synapses."""
 
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 from pyspark.sql import types as T
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
 from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
 from functionalizer.utils import get_logger
 
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_reposition.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_reposition.py
index 4d09656..c68e15b 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_reposition.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/synapse_reposition.py
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
-import sparkmanager as sm
 
-from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
+import sparkmanager as sm
+from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation, FilterInitializationError
 
 
 class SynapseReposition(DatasetOperation):
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ class SynapseReposition(DatasetOperation):
     def __init__(self, recipe, source, target):
         """Initialize the filter, extracting the reposition part of the recipe."""
         super().__init__(recipe, source, target)
+        if not recipe.get("synapse_reposition"):
+            raise FilterInitializationError("'synapse_reposition' not in recipe")
         self.columns, self.reposition = recipe.as_matrix("synapse_reposition")
         self.unset_value = len(recipe.get("synapse_reposition"))
 
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/touch.py b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/touch.py
index e226880..79934a5 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/touch.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/filters/implementations/touch.py
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
 from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
 from functionalizer.utils import get_logger
 
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/io/circuit.py b/src/functionalizer/io/circuit.py
index 7e972f0..50b7a43 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/io/circuit.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/io/circuit.py
@@ -9,11 +9,11 @@
 
 import pandas as pd
 import pyarrow.parquet as pq
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from packaging.version import VERSION_PATTERN, Version
 from pyspark.sql import DataFrame
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
 from functionalizer import schema
 from functionalizer.schema import OUTPUT_MAPPING
 from functionalizer.utils import get_logger
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/utils/checkpointing.py b/src/functionalizer/utils/checkpointing.py
index 9e73bf7..a9b196e 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/utils/checkpointing.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/utils/checkpointing.py
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 from functools import wraps
 from inspect import signature
 
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from pyspark.sql.column import _to_seq
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
+
 from . import get_logger
 from .filesystem import exists, isdir, size
 
diff --git a/src/functionalizer/utils/spark.py b/src/functionalizer/utils/spark.py
index 8054f26..4277d5f 100644
--- a/src/functionalizer/utils/spark.py
+++ b/src/functionalizer/utils/spark.py
@@ -2,9 +2,10 @@
 
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
+
 from . import get_logger
 
 logger = get_logger(__name__)
diff --git a/tests/circuit_1000n/circuit_config_invalid.json b/tests/circuit_1000n/circuit_config_invalid.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca7a636
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/circuit_1000n/circuit_config_invalid.json
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+{
+   "manifest": {
+      "$BASE_DIR": "./",
+      "$COMPONENT_DIR": "$BASE_DIR",
+      "$NETWORK_DIR": "$BASE_DIR"
+   },
+   "components": {
+      "biophysical_neuron_models_dir": "no comprendo",
+      "provenance": {
+         "bioname_dir": "$COMPONENT_DIR/bioname"
+      }
+   },
+   "networks": {
+      "nodes": [
+         {
+            "nodes_file": "$NETWORK_DIR/nodes.h5",
+            "nodes_types_file": null,
+            "populations": {
+               "All": {
+                  "morphologies_dir": null,
+                  "alternate_morphologies": {
+                     "h5v1": "$BASE_DIR/morphologies/h5"
+                  },
+                  "spine_morphologies_dir": "no comprendo"
+               }
+            }
+         }
+      ],
+      "edges": []
+   }
+}
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 1df8e9f..8db64fa 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import pytest
+
 from functionalizer import filters
 from functionalizer.core import Functionalizer
 from functionalizer.definitions import RunningMode as RM
@@ -29,6 +30,16 @@
     [str(DATADIR / "touches" / "*.parquet")],
 )
 
+DEFAULT_ARGS = {
+    "recipe_file": DATADIR / "recipe.json",
+    "circuit_config": CIRCUIT_CONFIG,
+    "source": None,
+    "source_nodeset": None,
+    "target": None,
+    "target_nodeset": None,
+    "edges": [str(DATADIR / "touches" / "*.parquet")],
+}
+
 filters.load()
 
 
@@ -49,10 +60,11 @@ def circuit_config():
     return CIRCUIT_CONFIG
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(scope="session", name="fz")
-def fz_fixture(tmp_path_factory):
+@pytest.fixture(scope="class", name="fz", params=[{}])
+def fz_fixture(request, tmp_path_factory):
     tmpdir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("filters")
-    return create_functionalizer(tmpdir, RM.FUNCTIONAL.value).init_data(*ARGS)
+    kwargs = DEFAULT_ARGS | request.param
+    return create_functionalizer(tmpdir, RM.FUNCTIONAL.value).init_data(**kwargs)
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session", name="gj")
diff --git a/tests/test_data_input_nodes.py b/tests/test_data_input_nodes.py
index 5870e8e..f69a613 100644
--- a/tests/test_data_input_nodes.py
+++ b/tests/test_data_input_nodes.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 import pytest
 from conftest import DATADIR, create_functionalizer
+
 from functionalizer.io import NodeData
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_data_input_parquet.py b/tests/test_data_input_parquet.py
index fb2bf70..14ae744 100644
--- a/tests/test_data_input_parquet.py
+++ b/tests/test_data_input_parquet.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import numpy
 import pandas as pd
 import pytest
+
 import sparkmanager as sm
 from functionalizer.io.circuit import BRANCH_COLUMNS, EdgeData
 from functionalizer.utils.conf import Configuration
diff --git a/tests/test_data_input_sonata.py b/tests/test_data_input_sonata.py
index 0f0e234..0cfcf2d 100644
--- a/tests/test_data_input_sonata.py
+++ b/tests/test_data_input_sonata.py
@@ -5,8 +5,9 @@
 import h5py
 import numpy
 import pytest
+from conftest import DATADIR, DEFAULT_ARGS, create_functionalizer
+
 import sparkmanager as sm
-from conftest import ARGS, DATADIR, create_functionalizer
 from functionalizer.io.circuit import BRANCH_COLUMNS, EdgeData
 from functionalizer.utils.conf import Configuration
 
@@ -54,9 +55,8 @@ def test_branch_shift(edges_w_branch_type):
 @pytest.mark.slow
 def test_sonata_properties(tmp_path_factory):
     tmpdir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("sonata_properties")
-    fz = create_functionalizer(tmpdir, ["SynapseProperties"]).init_data(
-        *ARGS[:-1], edges=(os.path.join(DATADIR, "edges.h5"), "default")
-    )
+    kwargs = DEFAULT_ARGS | {"edges": (os.path.join(DATADIR, "edges.h5"), "default")}
+    fz = create_functionalizer(tmpdir, ["SynapseProperties"]).init_data(**kwargs)
     fz.process_filters()
 
     assert "delay" in fz.circuit.df.columns
diff --git a/tests/test_filters.py b/tests/test_filters.py
index 0ed533f..a805b4b 100644
--- a/tests/test_filters.py
+++ b/tests/test_filters.py
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 import pandas as pd
 import pyspark.sql.functions as F
 import pytest
+from conftest import DATADIR, DEFAULT_ARGS, create_functionalizer
+
 import sparkmanager as sm
-from conftest import ARGS, DATADIR, create_functionalizer
 from functionalizer.utils.spark import cache_broadcast_single_part
 
 NUM_AFTER_DISTANCE = 226301
@@ -33,9 +34,8 @@ def layer_counts(circuit):
         return dict(zip(res["mtype"], res["count"]))
 
     tmpdir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("fixed_probabilities")
-    fz = create_functionalizer(tmpdir, ["ReduceAndCut"]).init_data(
-        DATADIR / "recipe_fixed.json", *ARGS[1:]
-    )
+    kwargs = DEFAULT_ARGS | {"recipe_file": DATADIR / "recipe_fixed.json"}
+    fz = create_functionalizer(tmpdir, ["ReduceAndCut"]).init_data(**kwargs)
 
     before = layer_counts(fz.circuit)
     fz.process_filters()
@@ -48,6 +48,24 @@ def layer_counts(circuit):
     assert "L6" not in after
 
 
+class TestFilterInitialization:
+    """Test initialization of optional filters"""
+
+    def test_spine_morphos(self, fz):
+        fz.process_filters(filters=["SpineMorphologies"])
+
+
+class TestBogusFilterInitialization:
+    """Test initialization of optional filters"""
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "fz", [{"circuit_config": DATADIR / "circuit_config_invalid.json"}], indirect=True
+    )
+    def test_spine_morphos(self, fz):
+        with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
+            fz.process_filters(filters=["SpineMorphologies"])
+
+
 @pytest.mark.slow
 class TestFilters(object):
     """Sequential tests of filters."""
@@ -71,7 +89,7 @@ def test_reduce_and_cut(self, fz):
     def test_resume(self, fz, tmp_path_factory):
         """Make sure that resuming "works" """
         tmpdir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("filters")
-        fz2 = create_functionalizer(tmpdir).init_data(*ARGS)
+        fz2 = create_functionalizer(tmpdir).init_data(**DEFAULT_ARGS)
         fz2.process_filters()
         original = fz.circuit.df.count()
         count = fz2.circuit.df.count()
@@ -80,7 +98,7 @@ def test_resume(self, fz, tmp_path_factory):
     def test_overwrite(self, fz, tmp_path_factory):
         """Test that overwriting checkpointed data works"""
         tmpdir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("filters")
-        fz2 = create_functionalizer(tmpdir).init_data(*ARGS)
+        fz2 = create_functionalizer(tmpdir).init_data(**DEFAULT_ARGS)
         fz2.process_filters(overwrite=True)
         original = fz.circuit.df.count()
         count = fz2.circuit.df.count()
diff --git a/tests/test_gap_junctions.py b/tests/test_gap_junctions.py
index 19858ad..b4c4fdc 100644
--- a/tests/test_gap_junctions.py
+++ b/tests/test_gap_junctions.py
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
-from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
 from pyspark.sql import functions as F
 
+from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
+
 # (src, dst), num_connections
 DENDRO_DATA = [
     ((987, 990), 10),  # 6 with exact or abs() == 1 match
diff --git a/tests/test_morpho_shift.py b/tests/test_morpho_shift.py
index 8584a65..a293fd4 100644
--- a/tests/test_morpho_shift.py
+++ b/tests/test_morpho_shift.py
@@ -4,11 +4,12 @@
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 
 import pytest
+from fz_td_recipe import Recipe
+
 import sparkmanager as sm
 from functionalizer.circuit import Circuit
 from functionalizer.schema import LEGACY_MAPPING
 from functionalizer.utils.conf import Configuration
-from fz_td_recipe import Recipe
 
 
 class MockLoader:
diff --git a/tests/test_morphologies.py b/tests/test_morphologies.py
index eb86130..e364299 100644
--- a/tests/test_morphologies.py
+++ b/tests/test_morphologies.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 import numpy
 import pytest
+
 from functionalizer.io.morphologies import MorphologyDB
 
 BRANCHES = [
diff --git a/tests/test_property_generation.py b/tests/test_property_generation.py
index b8c5bde..f35af91 100644
--- a/tests/test_property_generation.py
+++ b/tests/test_property_generation.py
@@ -3,11 +3,12 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import pytest
-import sparkmanager as sm
 from conftest import CIRCUIT_CONFIG, DATADIR
-from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
 from fz_td_recipe import Recipe
 
+import sparkmanager as sm
+from functionalizer.filters import DatasetOperation
+
 
 @pytest.mark.slow
 def test_property_assignment(fz):
diff --git a/tests/test_spine_morphology.py b/tests/test_spine_morphology.py
index 6791045..33532c6 100644
--- a/tests/test_spine_morphology.py
+++ b/tests/test_spine_morphology.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 import numpy.testing as npt
 import pandas as pd
 import pytest
+
 from functionalizer.filters.implementations.spine_morphologies import (
     _create_spine_morphology_udf,
     _read_spine_morphology_attributes,