Exit codes

CLI exit codes for scripting and CI/CD integration

Mind CLI returns specific exit codes to indicate operation status. Use these in scripts and CI/CD pipelines to detect success, failures, and specific error conditions.

Exit code reference

Code	Name	Description
0	Success	Command completed successfully
1	Failure	General failure (auth error, invalid args, operation failed)
3	MCP Startup Failure	MCP server failed to start (requires `--require-mcp-startup`)

Requiring MCP servers

By default, MCP server failures are logged as warnings but don't affect the exit code. Use --require-mcp-startup to fail fast when MCP servers are critical to your workflow:

mind chat --require-mcp-startup --no-interactive "Run task"

Use --require-mcp-startup in CI/CD pipelines where MCP tools are essential. This prevents silent failures where tasks complete without the expected tooling.

Scripting examples

#!/bin/bash
mind chat --require-mcp-startup --no-interactive --trust-all-tools "Run analysis"
exit_code=$?

case $exit_code in
    0) echo "Success" ;;
    3) echo "MCP servers failed to start"; exit 1 ;;
    *) echo "Failed with code $exit_code"; exit $exit_code ;;
esac

Hook exit codes

Hooks use a separate set of exit codes to control tool execution:

Code	Behaviour
0	Hook succeeded
2	(PreToolUse only) Block tool execution; STDERR returned to LLM
Other	Hook failed; STDERR shown as warning

Best practices

Use --require-mcp-startup in CI/CD when your tasks depend on MCP tools
Add verbose logging (-v or -vv) when debugging exit code issues
Check exit codes explicitly rather than relying on implicit shell behaviour
Separate MCP failures from general failures to provide better error messages