diff --git a/packages/loopover-miner/lib/discover-cli.js b/packages/loopover-miner/lib/discover-cli.js
index 333de85c0d..25fd5c5226 100644
--- a/packages/loopover-miner/lib/discover-cli.js
+++ b/packages/loopover-miner/lib/discover-cli.js
@@ -200,8 +200,7 @@ export async function runDiscover(args, options = {}) {
       }
       return 0;
     } catch (error) {
-      console.error(error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error));
-      return 2;
+      return reportCliFailure(parsed.json, describeCliError(error));
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/test/unit/miner-discover-cli.test.ts b/test/unit/miner-discover-cli.test.ts
index ae0d48f0d3..7c223b672b 100644
--- a/test/unit/miner-discover-cli.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/miner-discover-cli.test.ts
@@ -427,6 +427,25 @@ describe("runDiscover (#4247)", () => {
     expect(error).toHaveBeenCalledWith("github_unreachable");
   });
 
+  it("#5830: --dry-run --json reports fan-out failures as a parseable {ok:false,error} object", async () => {
+    const initPortfolioQueue = vi.fn();
+    const fetchCandidateIssuesWithSummary = vi.fn(async () => {
+      throw new Error("github_unreachable");
+    });
+    const log = vi.spyOn(console, "log").mockImplementation(() => undefined);
+
+    const exitCode = await runDiscover(["acme/widgets", "--dry-run", "--json"], {
+      nowMs: NOW,
+      initPortfolioQueue,
+      fetchCandidateIssuesWithSummary,
+    });
+
+    expect(exitCode).toBe(2);
+    expect(initPortfolioQueue).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    const payload = JSON.parse(String(log.mock.calls[0]?.[0]));
+    expect(payload).toEqual({ ok: false, error: "github_unreachable" });
+  });
+
   it("#4847: --dry-run stringifies a thrown non-Error value instead of crashing", async () => {
     const fetchCandidateIssuesWithSummary = vi.fn(async () => {
       throw "raw_string_fault";