Exit codes - tally

tally uses distinct exit codes so scripts and CI pipelines can react to different outcomes with precision.

Exit code reference

Code	Name	Meaning
`0`	Success	No violations found, all violations are below the configured `--fail-level`, or a valid orchestrator file has no lintable invocations
`1`	Violations	One or more violations at or above the configured `--fail-level`
`2`	Error	Configuration, parse, I/O, CLI usage, or unsupported orchestrator error
`3`	No files	No Dockerfiles to lint from directory or glob discovery (missing file, empty glob, empty directory)
`4`	Syntax error	Dockerfile has fatal syntax issues (unknown instructions, malformed directives), including Dockerfiles referenced by an orchestrator

How `--fail-level` affects exit code 1

By default, tally exits with code 1 when any violation at style severity or above is found. Use --fail-level to raise or lower that threshold:

# Fail only on errors (ignore warnings, info, and style)
tally lint --fail-level error Dockerfile

# Fail on warnings or worse
tally lint --fail-level warning Dockerfile

# Never exit 1 due to violations (useful for SARIF upload workflows)
tally lint --fail-level none --format sarif . > results.sarif

# Default: fail on any violation including style issues
tally lint --fail-level style Dockerfile

Available levels from most to least severe: error, warning, info, style (default), none.

Orchestrator entrypoints

Bake and Compose entrypoints use the same exit-code family, with two differences from directory discovery:

A valid Bake or Compose file with no lintable targets or services exits 0, not 3.
Invalid target/service selection, unsupported inline Dockerfiles, profile-gated build services, multi-file Bake setups, and invalid flag combinations exit 2.

Examples:

# Code 0 when compose.yaml is valid but only contains image-only services
tally lint compose.yaml

# Code 2: --target is only valid for Bake entrypoints
tally lint compose.yaml --target api

# Code 2: --fix is not supported for orchestrator entrypoints
tally lint --fix docker-bake.hcl

See Build invocations for supported entrypoint behavior.

Script examples

Basic check

tally lint .
echo $?  # 0 = clean, 1 = violations found

Handling each exit code

tally lint Dockerfile.prod
status=$?

case "$status" in
  0) echo "No issues found." ;;
  1) echo "Violations found — review and fix before merging."; exit 1 ;;
  2) echo "Config or parse error — check your .tally.toml."; exit 2 ;;
  3) echo "No Dockerfiles found — check the path."; exit 3 ;;
  4) echo "Dockerfile has syntax errors — fix before linting."; exit 4 ;;
  *) echo "Unknown exit code: $status"; exit "$status" ;;
esac

Distinguish “nothing to lint” from real errors

Exit code 3 lets you detect a missing or empty path separately from a configuration error (code 2):

tally lint Dockerfile.prod
status=$?

if [ "$status" -eq 3 ]; then
  echo "No Dockerfiles found — skipping lint step."
elif [ "$status" -ne 0 ]; then
  exit "$status"
fi

Detect syntax errors before linting

tally lint Dockerfile
status=$?

if [ "$status" -eq 4 ]; then
  echo "Dockerfile has fatal syntax errors — fix typos or invalid instructions first."
  exit 4
fi

CI: fail only on errors

# In CI, treat warnings as informational rather than blocking
tally lint --fail-level error --format github-actions .

CI/CD tips

Use --fail-level error to allow warnings without blocking the build.
Use --fail-level none when uploading SARIF so the upload step always runs even when violations exist.
Exit code 3 distinguishes “the path was wrong” from “the config is broken” (code 2), useful in matrix CI jobs where not every service has a Dockerfile.
Exit code 4 indicates the Dockerfile itself is malformed — fix those before addressing lint violations.

See CI/CD integration for complete pipeline examples.

​Exit code reference

​How --fail-level affects exit code 1

​Orchestrator entrypoints

​Script examples

​Basic check

​Handling each exit code

​Distinguish “nothing to lint” from real errors

​Detect syntax errors before linting

​CI: fail only on errors

​CI/CD tips