diff --git a/src/config/args.ts b/src/config/args.ts
index 55c83fc..bd16387 100644
--- a/src/config/args.ts
+++ b/src/config/args.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Options, showCompletionScript, usage } from 'yargs';
+import { Options, usage } from 'yargs';
 
 import { RuleSelector, RuleSources } from '../rule';
 import { VERSION_INFO } from '../version';
@@ -158,14 +158,6 @@ export function parseArgs(argv: Array<string>): ParseResults {
   // @TODO: this should not need a cast but argv's type only has the last option (include-tag)
   // @tslint:disable-next-line:no-any
   const args = parser.argv as any;
-
-  // this should not need a cast either, but something here allows TS to narrow MODE into
-  // MODE.check, which is much _too_ specific
-  if (mode as MODE === MODE.complete) {
-    showCompletionScript();
-    process.exit(0);
-  }
-
   return {
     args,
     mode,
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index b3616b1..b9f43a6 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { createLogger } from 'bunyan';
+import { showCompletionScript } from 'yargs';
 
 import { loadConfig } from './config';
 import { CONFIG_ARGS_NAME, CONFIG_ARGS_PATH, MODE, parseArgs, VALID_MODES } from './config/args';
@@ -14,6 +15,11 @@ const STATUS_MAX = 255;
 
 export async function main(argv: Array<string>): Promise<number> {
   const { args, mode } = parseArgs(argv);
+  if (mode === MODE.complete) {
+    showCompletionScript();
+    return STATUS_SUCCESS;
+  }
+
   const config = await loadConfig(args[CONFIG_ARGS_NAME], ...args[CONFIG_ARGS_PATH]);
 
   const logger = createLogger(config.data.logger);