diff --git a/plugins/commands/advisor/src/main/kotlin/AdvisorCommand.kt b/plugins/commands/advisor/src/main/kotlin/AdvisorCommand.kt
index 912983d50cbe1..b654dc0e79c29 100644
--- a/plugins/commands/advisor/src/main/kotlin/AdvisorCommand.kt
+++ b/plugins/commands/advisor/src/main/kotlin/AdvisorCommand.kt
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ import org.ossreviewtoolkit.plugins.commands.api.utils.readOrtResult
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.plugins.commands.api.utils.writeOrtResult
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.common.expandTilde
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.common.safeMkdirs
+import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_RESOLUTIONS_FILENAME
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ortConfigDirectory
 
@@ -156,6 +157,6 @@ class AdvisorCommand : OrtCommand(
         val resolutionProvider = DefaultResolutionProvider.create(ortResultOutput, resolutionsFile)
         val issues = advisorRun.results.getIssues().flatMap { it.value }
         SeverityStatsPrinter(terminal, resolutionProvider).stats(issues)
-            .print().conclude(ortConfig.severeIssueThreshold, 2)
+            .print().conclude(ortConfig.severeIssueThreshold, ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE)
     }
 }
diff --git a/plugins/commands/analyzer/src/main/kotlin/AnalyzerCommand.kt b/plugins/commands/analyzer/src/main/kotlin/AnalyzerCommand.kt
index 10d46fee1fccd..a2b310f57515c 100644
--- a/plugins/commands/analyzer/src/main/kotlin/AnalyzerCommand.kt
+++ b/plugins/commands/analyzer/src/main/kotlin/AnalyzerCommand.kt
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ import org.ossreviewtoolkit.plugins.packagecurationproviders.api.PackageCuration
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.plugins.packagecurationproviders.api.SimplePackageCurationProvider
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.common.expandTilde
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.common.safeMkdirs
+import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_REPO_CONFIG_FILENAME
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_RESOLUTIONS_FILENAME
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ortConfigDirectory
@@ -227,6 +228,6 @@ class AnalyzerCommand : OrtCommand(
         val resolutionProvider = DefaultResolutionProvider.create(ortResult, resolutionsFile)
         val issues = analyzerRun.result.getAllIssues().flatMap { it.value }
         SeverityStatsPrinter(terminal, resolutionProvider).stats(issues)
-            .print().conclude(ortConfig.severeIssueThreshold, 2)
+            .print().conclude(ortConfig.severeIssueThreshold, ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE)
     }
 }
diff --git a/plugins/commands/scanner/src/main/kotlin/ScannerCommand.kt b/plugins/commands/scanner/src/main/kotlin/ScannerCommand.kt
index 8ff470fe6a10d..c595b43ff1afc 100644
--- a/plugins/commands/scanner/src/main/kotlin/ScannerCommand.kt
+++ b/plugins/commands/scanner/src/main/kotlin/ScannerCommand.kt
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ import org.ossreviewtoolkit.scanner.provenance.DefaultProvenanceDownloader
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.scanner.utils.DefaultWorkingTreeCache
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.common.expandTilde
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.common.safeMkdirs
+import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ORT_RESOLUTIONS_FILENAME
 import org.ossreviewtoolkit.utils.ort.ortConfigDirectory
 
@@ -154,7 +155,7 @@ class ScannerCommand : OrtCommand(
         val resolutionProvider = DefaultResolutionProvider.create(ortResult, resolutionsFile)
         val issues = scannerRun.getIssues().flatMap { it.value }
         SeverityStatsPrinter(terminal, resolutionProvider).stats(issues)
-            .print().conclude(ortConfig.severeIssueThreshold, 2)
+            .print().conclude(ortConfig.severeIssueThreshold, ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE)
     }
 
     private fun runScanners(
diff --git a/utils/ort/src/main/kotlin/Constants.kt b/utils/ort/src/main/kotlin/Constants.kt
index 12637b8b11a71..756cf89902c2c 100644
--- a/utils/ort/src/main/kotlin/Constants.kt
+++ b/utils/ort/src/main/kotlin/Constants.kt
@@ -108,3 +108,9 @@ const val ORT_EVALUATOR_RULES_FILENAME = "evaluator.rules.kts"
  * The name of the ORT notifier script.
  */
 const val ORT_NOTIFIER_SCRIPT_FILENAME = "notifier.notifications.kts"
+
+/**
+ * The minimum status code ORT CLI commands return on exit for failures (like rule violations), not errors (like
+ * existing output files).
+ */
+const val ORT_FAILURE_STATUS_CODE = 2