diff --git a/gha_build.sh b/gha_build.sh
index 247e09105..122d3da7c 100755
--- a/gha_build.sh
+++ b/gha_build.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@ function archetype {
     ARCHETYPE_NAME=aws-serverless-$1-archetype
     PROJ_NAME=$1-archetype-test
     cd ${WORKING_DIR}/${ARCHETYPE_NAME} && mvn -q clean install
+    if [[ "$?" -ne 0 ]]; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
     ARCHETYPE_TEST_DIR=${WORKING_DIR}/$1_archetype_test
     mkdir -p ${ARCHETYPE_TEST_DIR}
     cd ${ARCHETYPE_TEST_DIR} && mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=my.service -DartifactId=${PROJ_NAME} -Dversion=2.0-SNAPSHOT \
@@ -86,4 +89,4 @@ if [[ "$RUN_ARCHETYPE" = true ]] ; then
 fi
 if [[ "$RUN_SAMPLES" = true ]] ; then
     sample ${FRAMEWORK}
-fi
\ No newline at end of file
+fi
diff --git a/tests/gha_build_archetype_failure_test.sh b/tests/gha_build_archetype_failure_test.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9838503e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/gha_build_archetype_failure_test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+REPO_ROOT=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)
+TEST_ROOT=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rm -rf "$TEST_ROOT"' EXIT
+
+FIXTURE="$TEST_ROOT/project"
+BIN="$TEST_ROOT/bin"
+mkdir -p "$FIXTURE" "$BIN"
+cp "$REPO_ROOT/gha_build.sh" "$FIXTURE/gha_build.sh"
+mkdir -p \
+    "$FIXTURE/aws-serverless-java-container-core" \
+    "$FIXTURE/aws-serverless-java-container-spring" \
+    "$FIXTURE/aws-serverless-spring-archetype"
+
+cat > "$BIN/mvn" <<'MAVN'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+printf '%s\t%s\n' "$PWD" "$*" >> "$MAVEN_LOG"
+
+if [[ "$PWD" == "$FIXTURE/aws-serverless-spring-archetype" && "$*" == "-q clean install" ]]; then
+    exit 23
+fi
+
+if [[ "$*" == *archetype:generate* ]]; then
+    mkdir -p "$PWD/spring-archetype-test"
+    cat > "$PWD/spring-archetype-test/gradlew" <<'GRADLEW'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+exit 0
+GRADLEW
+    chmod +x "$PWD/spring-archetype-test/gradlew"
+fi
+MAVN
+cat > "$BIN/gradle" <<'GRADLE'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+exit 0
+GRADLE
+chmod +x "$BIN/mvn" "$BIN/gradle"
+
+export FIXTURE MAVEN_LOG="$TEST_ROOT/maven.log"
+set +e
+(cd "$FIXTURE" && PATH="$BIN:$PATH" bash ./gha_build.sh spring true false)
+status=$?
+set -e
+
+if [[ $status -eq 0 ]]; then
+    echo "gha_build.sh returned success after archetype mvn clean install failed" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+if grep -q 'archetype:generate' "$MAVEN_LOG"; then
+    echo "archetype generation ran after the archetype install failed" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "archetype install failure propagated before generation (exit $status)"