diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fd9b475..4eda415 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ Sources:
 
 That `[mock]` answer plus **Sources** means retrieval works before you spend a token. If titles or scores drift, the note corpus or scorer changed — open an issue before "fixing" ranking by eye.
 
+If no notes match (including an empty notes folder), the command prints a notice
+to stderr and exits with status `1` before generating an answer. Try different
+words or add a Markdown note to the folder selected by `--notes`. Stdout stays
+empty, even with `--json`; no answer or Sources block is printed.
+
 ## Real answers (optional)
 
 ```bash
diff --git a/src/notes_rag/cli.py b/src/notes_rag/cli.py
index 99610fb..989719d 100644
--- a/src/notes_rag/cli.py
+++ b/src/notes_rag/cli.py
@@ -51,6 +51,12 @@ def main(argv: list[str] | None = None) -> int:
         return 1
     notes = load_notes(notes_dir)
     hits = retrieve(notes, args.question, k=args.k)
+    if not hits:
+        print(
+            f"no notes matched — try different words or add a note under {notes_dir}",
+            file=sys.stderr,
+        )
+        return 1
     answerer = Answerer.from_env(mock=args.mock)
     try:
         answer = answerer.answer(args.question, hits)
diff --git a/tests/test_notes_rag.py b/tests/test_notes_rag.py
index 37f9872..a36d054 100644
--- a/tests/test_notes_rag.py
+++ b/tests/test_notes_rag.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import json
 from pathlib import Path
 
+import pytest
+
 from notes_rag.answer import Answerer
 from notes_rag.cli import main
 from notes_rag.retrieve import load_notes, retrieve
@@ -61,9 +63,27 @@ def test_empty_notes_dir(tmp_path, capsys):
     empty = tmp_path / "empty"
     empty.mkdir()
     code = main(["--mock", "--notes", str(empty), "anything"])
-    out = capsys.readouterr().out
-    assert code == 0
-    assert "could not find" in out.lower()
+    captured = capsys.readouterr()
+    assert code == 1
+    assert captured.out == ""
+    assert "no notes matched" in captured.err
+    assert str(empty) in captured.err
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("flags", [[], ["--mock"], ["--json"], ["--mock", "--json"]])
+def test_no_matching_notes_reports_failure(flags, capsys, monkeypatch):
+    def unexpected_answerer(**kwargs):
+        pytest.fail("empty retrieval must not construct an answerer")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(Answerer, "from_env", unexpected_answerer)
+    code = main([*flags, "--notes", str(NOTES), "qzxvplm"])
+    captured = capsys.readouterr()
+    assert code == 1
+    assert captured.out == ""
+    assert "no notes matched" in captured.err
+    assert "try different words or add a note" in captured.err
+    assert str(NOTES) in captured.err
+    assert "Sources:" not in captured.out + captured.err
 
 
 def test_missing_key_without_mock():