diff --git a/Sources/PackageLoading/ManifestLoader.swift b/Sources/PackageLoading/ManifestLoader.swift
index afdf56f8270..7a6cee991c5 100644
--- a/Sources/PackageLoading/ManifestLoader.swift
+++ b/Sources/PackageLoading/ManifestLoader.swift
@@ -977,6 +977,7 @@ public final class ManifestLoader: ManifestLoaderProtocol {
 
                         // Return now if there was an error.
                         if compilerResult.exitStatus != .terminated(code: 0) {
+                            evaluationResult.compilerOutput = (evaluationResult.compilerOutput ?? "") + " (compiler exited with \(compilerResult.exitStatus))"
                             return completion(.success(evaluationResult))
                         }
 
@@ -1081,7 +1082,7 @@ public final class ManifestLoader: ManifestLoaderProtocol {
                                 if runResult.exitStatus != .terminated(code: 0) {
                                     // TODO: should this simply be an error?
                                     // return completion(.failure(AsyncProcessResult.Error.nonZeroExit(runResult)))
-                                    evaluationResult.errorOutput = evaluationResult.compilerOutput
+                                    evaluationResult.errorOutput = (evaluationResult.compilerOutput ?? "<no compiler output>") + " running the manifest executable exited with a non-zero exit code: \(runResult.exitStatus)"
                                     return completion(.success(evaluationResult))
                                 }