diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4e756ac2..e6f788a0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+main
+------
+
+* Raise `EmberCli::BuildError` when `ember build` or a dependency
+  installation fails, instead of exiting the process from inside the gem —
+  `rake ember:compile` and `rake ember:install` still exit nonzero
+
 0.13.1
 ------
 
diff --git a/lib/ember_cli/runner.rb b/lib/ember_cli/runner.rb
index 3f7242d3..64d52156 100644
--- a/lib/ember_cli/runner.rb
+++ b/lib/ember_cli/runner.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 require "open3"
 
+require "ember_cli/errors"
+
 module EmberCli
   class Runner
     def initialize(out:, err:, env: {}, options: {})
@@ -25,7 +27,7 @@ def run(command)
     def run!(command)
       run(command).tap do |status|
         unless status.success?
-          exit status.exitstatus
+          fail BuildError, "`#{command}` failed with status #{status.exitstatus}"
         end
       end
     end
diff --git a/spec/lib/ember_cli/runner_spec.rb b/spec/lib/ember_cli/runner_spec.rb
index e0c15bc3..ec93e854 100644
--- a/spec/lib/ember_cli/runner_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/ember_cli/runner_spec.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
         )
 
         expect { runner.run!(command_with_error(out: "out")) }.
-          to raise_error(SystemExit)
+          to raise_error(EmberCli::BuildError, /failed with status 1/)
 
         expect(split_output_from_stream(stdout)).to eq(%w[out out])
         expect(split_output_from_stream(logfile)).to eq(%w[out out])
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
         )
 
         expect { runner.run!(command_with_error(err: "err")) }.
-          to raise_error(SystemExit)
+          to raise_error(EmberCli::BuildError, /failed with status 1/)
 
         expect(split_output_from_stream(stderr)).to eq(%w[err err])
         expect(split_output_from_stream(logfile)).to eq(%w[err err])