diff --git a/cmd/skopeo/main.go b/cmd/skopeo/main.go
index 3617eeb2df..68b5b36b48 100644
--- a/cmd/skopeo/main.go
+++ b/cmd/skopeo/main.go
@@ -129,6 +129,10 @@ func main() {
 	}
 	rootCmd, _ := createApp()
 	if err := rootCmd.Execute(); err != nil {
+		if isNotFoundImageError(err) {
+			logrus.Error(err)
+			logrus.Exit(2)
+		}
 		logrus.Fatal(err)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go b/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go
index aab85365b1..9396f42273 100644
--- a/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go
+++ b/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go
@@ -73,13 +73,10 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/image"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/manifest"
-	ocilayout "github.com/containers/image/v5/oci/layout"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/pkg/blobinfocache"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/transports"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/transports/alltransports"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/types"
-	dockerdistributionerrcode "github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/errcode"
-	dockerdistributionapi "github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/v2"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/go-digest"
 	imgspecv1 "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
@@ -219,25 +216,6 @@ func (h *proxyHandler) OpenImage(args []any) (replyBuf, error) {
 	return h.openImageImpl(args, false)
 }
 
-// isDockerManifestUnknownError is a copy of code from containers/image,
-// please update there first.
-func isDockerManifestUnknownError(err error) bool {
-	var ec dockerdistributionerrcode.ErrorCoder
-	if !errors.As(err, &ec) {
-		return false
-	}
-	return ec.ErrorCode() == dockerdistributionapi.ErrorCodeManifestUnknown
-}
-
-// isNotFoundImageError heuristically attempts to determine whether an error
-// is saying the remote source couldn't find the image (as opposed to an
-// authentication error, an I/O error etc.)
-// TODO drive this into containers/image properly
-func isNotFoundImageError(err error) bool {
-	return isDockerManifestUnknownError(err) ||
-		errors.Is(err, ocilayout.ImageNotFoundError{})
-}
-
 func (h *proxyHandler) openImageImpl(args []any, allowNotFound bool) (retReplyBuf replyBuf, retErr error) {
 	h.lock.Lock()
 	defer h.lock.Unlock()
diff --git a/cmd/skopeo/utils.go b/cmd/skopeo/utils.go
index 3fb0fab9e9..b630ca656e 100644
--- a/cmd/skopeo/utils.go
+++ b/cmd/skopeo/utils.go
@@ -12,9 +12,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containers/common/pkg/retry"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/directory"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/manifest"
+	ocilayout "github.com/containers/image/v5/oci/layout"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/pkg/compression"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/transports/alltransports"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/types"
+	"github.com/containers/storage"
+	dockerdistributionerrcode "github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/errcode"
+	dockerdistributionapi "github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/v2"
 	imgspecv1 "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -406,3 +410,23 @@ func promptForPassphrase(privateKeyFile string, stdin, stdout *os.File) (string,
 	fmt.Fprintf(stdout, "\n")
 	return string(passphrase), nil
 }
+
+// isNotFoundImageError heuristically attempts to determine whether an error
+// is saying the remote source couldn't find the image (as opposed to an
+// authentication error, an I/O error etc.)
+// TODO drive this into containers/image properly
+func isNotFoundImageError(err error) bool {
+	return isDockerManifestUnknownError(err) ||
+		errors.Is(err, storage.ErrNotAnImage) ||
+		errors.Is(err, ocilayout.ImageNotFoundError{})
+}
+
+// isDockerManifestUnknownError is a copy of code from containers/image,
+// please update there first.
+func isDockerManifestUnknownError(err error) bool {
+	var ec dockerdistributionerrcode.ErrorCoder
+	if !errors.As(err, &ec) {
+		return false
+	}
+	return ec.ErrorCode() == dockerdistributionapi.ErrorCodeManifestUnknown
+}
diff --git a/docs/skopeo.1.md b/docs/skopeo.1.md
index 26583f1160..98209d497b 100644
--- a/docs/skopeo.1.md
+++ b/docs/skopeo.1.md
@@ -123,6 +123,13 @@ Print the version number
   Default directory containing registry configuration, if **--registries.d** is not specified.
   The contents of this directory are documented in [containers-registries.d(5)](https://github.com/containers/image/blob/main/docs/containers-registries.d.5.md).
 
+## EXIT STATUS
+`skopeo` exists with status 0 if the operation was successfully. Error result
+in a non-zero exit code. If the input image cannot be found an exit status of
+2 is returned. Note that this is best effort and for remote registries the
+status often cannot be reliably reported.
+
+
 ## SEE ALSO
 skopeo-login(1), docker-login(1), containers-auth.json(5), containers-storage.conf(5), containers-policy.json(5), containers-transports(5)
 
diff --git a/systemtest/010-inspect.bats b/systemtest/010-inspect.bats
index 548174da48..6a8ad80989 100644
--- a/systemtest/010-inspect.bats
+++ b/systemtest/010-inspect.bats
@@ -129,4 +129,11 @@ END_EXPECT
     expect_output --from="$repo_tags" "" "inspect --no-tags was expected to return empty RepoTags[]"
 }
 
+@test "inspect: image unknown" {
+    # non existing image
+    run_skopeo 2 inspect containers-storage:non-existing-tag
+    expect_output --substring "identifier is not an image" \
+		  "skopeo inspect containers-storage:010101010101"
+}
+
 # vim: filetype=sh
diff --git a/systemtest/040-local-registry-auth.bats b/systemtest/040-local-registry-auth.bats
index 34e5c68560..e2880bf74b 100644
--- a/systemtest/040-local-registry-auth.bats
+++ b/systemtest/040-local-registry-auth.bats
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ function setup() {
     expect_output --substring "authentication required"
 
     # Correct creds, but no such image
-    run_skopeo 1 inspect --tls-verify=false --creds=$testuser:$testpassword \
+    run_skopeo 2 inspect --tls-verify=false --creds=$testuser:$testpassword \
                docker://localhost:5000/nonesuch
     expect_output --substring "manifest unknown"
 
diff --git a/systemtest/060-delete.bats b/systemtest/060-delete.bats
index 09e6688a66..70b3a191b1 100644
--- a/systemtest/060-delete.bats
+++ b/systemtest/060-delete.bats
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ function setup() {
     run_skopeo delete --tls-verify=false $localimg
 
     # make sure image is removed from registry
-    expected_rc=1
+    expected_rc=2
     run_skopeo $expected_rc inspect --tls-verify=false $localimg
 }