diff --git a/lib/ls.js b/lib/ls.js
index d55cdfb455cba..2dd6e4d4e8ac3 100644
--- a/lib/ls.js
+++ b/lib/ls.js
@@ -488,7 +488,7 @@ const ls = async (args) => {
   )
 
   // if filtering items, should exit with error code on no results
-  if (!tree[_include] && args.length) {
+  if (result && !result[_include] && args.length) {
     process.exitCode = 1
   }
 
diff --git a/test/lib/ls.js b/test/lib/ls.js
index db4ba81eecc17..6a91e8c3520cd 100644
--- a/test/lib/ls.js
+++ b/test/lib/ls.js
@@ -2476,6 +2476,11 @@ t.test('ls --json', (t) => {
         },
         'should output json contaning only occurences of filtered by package'
       )
+      t.equal(
+        process.exitCode,
+        0,
+        'should exit with error code 0'
+      )
       t.end()
     })
   })