diff --git a/cli/lrcli.js b/cli/lrcli.js
index b1e882e..0f46c48 100755
--- a/cli/lrcli.js
+++ b/cli/lrcli.js
@@ -151,10 +151,10 @@ let parsePluginActionArgs = (args, argdef) => {
 // we *always* pass arguments to plugins as arrays of strings,
 // even if we only got one value
 
-let main = async () => {
+let main = async (args) => {
     
     var parsed_args = parse(
-        Deno.args,
+        args,
         {
             default: {
                 h: false,
@@ -177,7 +177,11 @@ let main = async () => {
     // no unknown parsed args? that means we have no plugin specified
     if (parsed_args._.length == 0) {
         console.log(getUsage())
-        return 1
+        if (parsed_args.help) {
+            return 0;
+        } else {
+            return 1;
+        }
     }
 
     // try loading the plugin
@@ -195,9 +199,15 @@ let main = async () => {
     // but no info from the user what to do with it
     // → print plugin usage and exit
     if (parsed_args._.length == 1) {
-        console.log('\n*** No action specified for plugin ***')
+        if (!parsed_args.help) {
+            console.log('\n*** No action specified for plugin ***')
+        }
         console.log(getPluginUsage(plugin))
-        return 3
+        if (parsed_args.help) {
+            return 0;
+        } else {
+            return 3;
+        }
     }
     
     let action = parsed_args._[1]
@@ -231,9 +241,11 @@ let main = async () => {
                     await plugin.actions[action].run(...parsed_plugin_args)
                 )
             )
+        return 0
     } catch (e) {
         console.log(`\n*** ${e} ***`)
         console.log(getPluginUsage(plugin))
+        return 5
     }
 }
 
@@ -244,5 +256,5 @@ export {
 
 // run only if we're the main module
 if (import.meta.main) {
-    Deno.exit(await main())
+    Deno.exit(await main(Deno.args))
 }