Exit codes and output contract

Use this page when scripting aeat invocations: it documents the process exit codes and the TTY/JSON output behavior shared by every command.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success.
1	General error or refused operation.
2	Invalid CLI usage (bad flag, missing argument).
3	Authentication required or credentials expired.
4	Resource not found.
5	Conflict or precondition failure.
6	Validation error in user-supplied data.
7	External service unavailable.
8	Operation not permitted by policy.
9	Unexpected internal error.
10	Partial success (some items succeeded, some failed).

TTY and JSON output contract

When output is to a TTY the CLI emits human-readable rich text. When --format json is passed (or when output is redirected) the CLI emits a single JSON document per invocation. Commands that have adopted the SchemaEnvelope wrap their result as {schema_version, command, result, warnings}. Commands not yet migrated emit their payload directly.