diff --git a/src/hr/__init__.py b/src/hr/__init__.py
index 0816f2557..6eae8c269 100644
--- a/src/hr/__init__.py
+++ b/src/hr/__init__.py
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ def main() -> None:
         sys.exit(_main())
     except (msgspec.DecodeError, msgspec.ValidationError) as e:
         print(f"invalid file format: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
+        sys.exit(1)
     # BrokenPipeError appears when stuff is piped to | head.
     except (KeyboardInterrupt, BrokenPipeError):
         pass
diff --git a/tests/bats/100-hr.bats b/tests/bats/100-hr.bats
index fcd880104..53fe31da5 100644
--- a/tests/bats/100-hr.bats
+++ b/tests/bats/100-hr.bats
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@
 	zstdcat "$BATS_TEST_DIRNAME/testfiles/log-01.json.zst" | awk '{print "<6>" $0}' | hr -
 }
 
+@test "pipe invalid data" {
+	run -1 bash -c "echo 'invalid json' | hr -"
+}
+
 @test "filter priority" {
 	local additional_line
 	additional_line='{"module": "foo", "data": "I am the line!", "host": "kronos", "datetime":"2020-04-23T15:21:50.620310", "priority": 5, "version": 2}'