Exit code evidence — nullvuild

Exit code evidence is the small set of facts that tells whether a command failed, how it ended, and whether the captured logs are enough to explain the failure.

Node.js child_process documentation says the exit event provides either a final code or a signal, and one of those values is non-null. Node process documentation also distinguishes normal process lifecycle events and exit behavior. For CLI debugging, that means a useful failure note should not say only “the command crashed.” It should preserve exit code, signal, command name, arguments, working directory, stdout, stderr, duration, and the step that interpreted the result.

Exit code evidence matters because wrapper scripts can hide the real failure. A test command may fail with code 1 while the wrapper exits 0. A killed process may have a signal and no normal code. A script may write the actual error to stdout instead of stderr. If the note records only the final status, the next developer may debug the wrong layer.

The boundary is that an exit code is not a full root cause. It is evidence that the process boundary failed. The next step is matching that boundary to logs, environment, inputs, and reproducible command state.

Exit code evidence cli debugging 2026 06 26 k

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