diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7d2f769..b05d370 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 * [PR-12](https://github.com/itk-devops/devops_itkdev-docker-server/pull/12)
   Clean up Taskfile and dev tooling for `docker compose`.
+* [PR-11](https://github.com/itk-devops/devops_itkdev-docker-server/pull/11)
+  Propagate command exit code instead of swallowing failed docker compose
+  commands.
 
 ## [0.0.14] - 2025-03-26
 
diff --git a/src/commands/docker.ts b/src/commands/docker.ts
index dba5787..05850f0 100644
--- a/src/commands/docker.ts
+++ b/src/commands/docker.ts
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@ exports.handler = function (argv: { [x: string]: any; base: string; debug: any;
 
   // Test env file exists.
   if (!utils.isFile(argv.base + '/' + env)) {
-    console.error('The env file not found!');
-    return;
+    console.error(`The env (${env}) file not found!`);
+    process.exit(1);
   }
 
   // Hack to parse the commands that should be sendt to docker.
diff --git a/src/modules/docker.ts b/src/modules/docker.ts
index a937652..4867096 100644
--- a/src/modules/docker.ts
+++ b/src/modules/docker.ts
@@ -83,7 +83,11 @@ export default class Docker {
 				if (err instanceof Error) {
 					console.error(err.message);
 				}
-				return null;
+
+				// Propagate the failed command's exit code so callers (CI, Ansible)
+				// detect the failure instead of seeing a false success.
+				const status = (err as {status?: number | null}).status;
+				process.exit(typeof status === 'number' ? status : 1);
 			}
 		}
 	}