diff --git a/bin/nyc.js b/bin/nyc.js
index cd225844d..7c188e40a 100755
--- a/bin/nyc.js
+++ b/bin/nyc.js
@@ -85,5 +85,6 @@ if ([
   })
 } else {
   // I don't have a clue what you're doing.
+  process.exitCode = 1
   yargs.showHelp()
 }
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 372e2c28d..8f842fb21 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@
     "any-path": "^1.3.0",
     "chai": "^4.2.0",
     "coveralls": "^3.0.3",
+    "execa": "^1.0.0",
     "is-windows": "^1.0.2",
     "lodash": "^4.17.11",
     "newline-regex": "^0.2.1",
diff --git a/test/nyc-integration.js b/test/nyc-integration.js
index 91bd358ca..1f2436665 100644
--- a/test/nyc-integration.js
+++ b/test/nyc-integration.js
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ const rimraf = require('rimraf')
 const makeDir = require('make-dir')
 const spawn = require('child_process').spawn
 const si = require('strip-indent')
+// BUGBUG: when upgrading execa to 2.x stripEof is renamed to stripFinalNewline.
+const execa = require('execa')
 
 require('chai').should()
 require('tap').mochaGlobals()
@@ -1079,6 +1081,25 @@ describe('the nyc cli', function () {
     })
   })
 
+  it('help shows to stderr when main command doesn\'t know what to do', () => {
+    const opts = {
+      cwd: fixturesCLI,
+      env,
+      stripEof: false
+    }
+    return Promise.all([
+      execa(process.execPath, [bin, '--help'], opts),
+      execa(process.execPath, [bin], opts).catch(error => error)
+    ]).then(([help, unknown]) => {
+      help.code.should.equal(0)
+      unknown.code.should.equal(1)
+      help.stderr.should.equal('')
+      unknown.stdout.should.equal('')
+      help.stdout.should.not.equal('')
+      help.stdout.should.equal(unknown.stderr)
+    })
+  })
+
   describe('args', function () {
     it('does not interpret args intended for instrumented bin', function (done) {
       var args = [bin, '--silent', process.execPath, 'args.js', '--help', '--version']