diff --git a/Hadrons/Application.cpp b/Hadrons/Application.cpp
index ce3dfbbb..47353770 100644
--- a/Hadrons/Application.cpp
+++ b/Hadrons/Application.cpp
@@ -98,6 +98,11 @@ Application::Application(const std::string parameterFileName)
 void Application::setPar(const Application::GlobalPar &par)
 {
     par_ = par;
+    if (par_.fileDirMode.empty())
+    {
+        par_.fileDirMode = "755";
+    }
+    setFileDirMode(par_.fileDirMode);
     if (!getPar().database.applicationDb.empty())
     {
         LOG(Message) << "Connecting to application database in file '" 
diff --git a/Hadrons/Application.hpp b/Hadrons/Application.hpp
index d0e048d7..39952533 100644
--- a/Hadrons/Application.hpp
+++ b/Hadrons/Application.hpp
@@ -86,8 +86,9 @@ class Application
                                         std::string,                graphFile,
                                         std::string,                scheduleFile,
                                         bool,                       saveSchedule,
+                                        std::string,                fileDirMode,
                                         int,                        parallelWriteMaxRetry);
-        GlobalPar(void): parallelWriteMaxRetry{-1}, saveSchedule{false} {}
+        GlobalPar(void): fileDirMode{"755"}, parallelWriteMaxRetry{-1}, saveSchedule{false} {}
     };
 
     struct ObjectId: Serializable
diff --git a/Hadrons/Global.cpp b/Hadrons/Global.cpp
index 2a85c4c8..0a265984 100644
--- a/Hadrons/Global.cpp
+++ b/Hadrons/Global.cpp
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@
 
 #include <Hadrons/Global.hpp>
 
+#include <cstdlib>
+
 using namespace Grid;
 using namespace Hadrons;
 using namespace std::chrono_literals;
@@ -36,6 +38,7 @@ HadronsLogger Hadrons::HadronsLogMessage(1,"Message");
 HadronsLogger Hadrons::HadronsLogIterative(1,"Iterative");
 HadronsLogger Hadrons::HadronsLogDebug(1,"Debug");
 HadronsLogger Hadrons::HadronsLogIRL(1,"IRL");
+mode_t Hadrons::fileDirMode = S_IRWXU|S_IRGRP|S_IXGRP|S_IROTH|S_IXOTH;
 
 void Hadrons::initLogger(void)
 {
@@ -97,17 +100,33 @@ const std::string Hadrons::resultFileExt = "xml";
 #endif
 
 // recursive mkdir /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+void Hadrons::setFileDirMode(const std::string &mode)
+{
+    if (mode.empty())
+    {
+        fileDirMode = S_IRWXU|S_IRGRP|S_IXGRP|S_IROTH|S_IXOTH;
+        return;
+    }
+
+    char *end = nullptr;
+    unsigned long value = std::strtoul(mode.c_str(), &end, 8);
+
+    if ((end == mode.c_str()) or (*end != '\0') or (value > 0777))
+    {
+        HADRONS_ERROR(Definition, "invalid file directory mode '" + mode + "'");
+    }
+
+    fileDirMode = static_cast<mode_t>(value);
+}
+
 int Hadrons::mkdir(const std::string dirName)
 {
     if (!dirName.empty() and access(dirName.c_str(), R_OK|W_OK|X_OK))
     {
-        mode_t mode755;
         char   tmp[MAX_PATH_LENGTH];
         char   *p = NULL;
         size_t len;
 
-        mode755 = S_IRWXU|S_IRGRP|S_IXGRP|S_IROTH|S_IXOTH;
-
         snprintf(tmp, sizeof(tmp), "%s", dirName.c_str());
         len = strlen(tmp);
         if(tmp[len - 1] == '/')
@@ -119,12 +138,12 @@ int Hadrons::mkdir(const std::string dirName)
             if(*p == '/')
             {
                 *p = 0;
-                ::mkdir(tmp, mode755);
+                ::mkdir(tmp, fileDirMode);
                 *p = '/';
             }
         }
 
-        return ::mkdir(tmp, mode755);
+        return ::mkdir(tmp, fileDirMode);
     }
     else
     {
diff --git a/Hadrons/Global.hpp b/Hadrons/Global.hpp
index e73b2fe2..91c5c0a6 100644
--- a/Hadrons/Global.hpp
+++ b/Hadrons/Global.hpp
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 #include <regex>
 #include <Grid/Grid.h>
 #include <cxxabi.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 
 #ifndef SITE_SIZE_TYPE
 #define SITE_SIZE_TYPE size_t
@@ -295,6 +296,8 @@ typedef XmlWriter ResultWriter;
 
 // recursive mkdir
 #define MAX_PATH_LENGTH 512u
+extern mode_t fileDirMode;
+void        setFileDirMode(const std::string &mode);
 int         mkdir(const std::string dirName);
 std::string basename(const std::string &s);
 std::string dirname(const std::string &s);
diff --git a/application-template/par-example.xml b/application-template/par-example.xml
index 54bec009..4e42658d 100644
--- a/application-template/par-example.xml
+++ b/application-template/par-example.xml
@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@
     <scheduleFile></scheduleFile>
     <!-- save schedule file? (deprecated, use DB) -->
     <saveSchedule>false</saveSchedule>
+    <!-- mode for directories created by Hadrons output helpers (octal) -->
+    <fileDirMode>755</fileDirMode>
     <!-- Resilient IO, reread files after parallel file and try to re-write -->
     <!-- them if checksum test fails. parallelWriteMaxRetry is the number   -->
     <!-- of retry after checksum failure, -1 means no check at all.         -->