diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index d4130b9d..4bdf2f52 100755
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import path from 'path'
 import prompts from 'prompts-ncu'
 import spawn from 'spawn-please'
+import pkg from '../package.json'
 import { cliOptionsMap } from './cli-options'
 import { cacheClear } from './lib/cache'
 import chalk, { chalkInit } from './lib/chalk'
@@ -28,12 +29,17 @@ if (process.env.INJECT_PROMPTS) {
   prompts.inject(JSON.parse(process.env.INJECT_PROMPTS))
 }
 
-// Exit with non-zero error code when there is an unhandled promise rejection.
+/** Tracks the (first) unhandled rejection so the process can exit with an error code at the end. This allows other errors to be logged before the process exits. */
+let unhandledRejectionError = false
+
 // Use `node --trace-uncaught ...` to show where the exception was thrown.
 // See: https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#event-unhandledrejection
 process.on('unhandledRejection', (reason: string | Error) => {
   // do not rethrow, as there may be other errors to print out
   console.error(reason)
+
+  // ensure the process exits with a non-zero code at the end
+  unhandledRejectionError = true
 })
 
 /**
@@ -280,6 +286,14 @@ export async function run(
 ): Promise<PackageFile | Index<VersionSpec> | void> {
   const options = await initOptions(runOptions, { cli })
 
+  // ensure that the process exits with an error code if there was an unhandled rejection
+  const bugsUrl = pkg.bugs.url
+  process.on('exit', () => {
+    if (unhandledRejectionError) {
+      programError(options, `Unhandled Rejection! This is a bug and should be reported: ${bugsUrl}`)
+    }
+  })
+
   // chalk may already have been initialized in cli.ts, but when imported as a module
   // chalkInit is idempotent
   await chalkInit(options.color)
diff --git a/src/lib/filterAndReject.ts b/src/lib/filterAndReject.ts
index 65fb3542..b785287b 100644
--- a/src/lib/filterAndReject.ts
+++ b/src/lib/filterAndReject.ts
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@ import { Maybe } from '../types/Maybe'
 import { VersionSpec } from '../types/VersionSpec'
 
 /**
- * Creates a filter function from a given filter string. Supports
- * strings, wildcards, comma-or-space-delimited lists, and regexes.
+ * Creates a filter function from a given filter string.
+ * Supports strings, wildcards, comma-or-space-delimited lists, and regexes.
+ * The filter function *may* throw an exception if the filter pattern is invalid.
  *
  * @param [filterPattern]
  * @returns
@@ -65,8 +66,9 @@ function composeFilter(filterPattern: FilterPattern): (name: string, versionSpec
   // limit the arity to 1 to avoid passing the value
   return predicate
 }
+
 /**
- * Composes a filter function from filter, reject, filterVersion, and rejectVersion patterns.
+ * Composes a filter function from filter, reject, filterVersion, and rejectVersion patterns. The filter function *may* throw an exception if the filter pattern is invalid.
  *
  * @param [filter]
  * @param [reject]
diff --git a/src/lib/filterObject.ts b/src/lib/filterObject.ts
index 9a04e754..fb93f249 100644
--- a/src/lib/filterObject.ts
+++ b/src/lib/filterObject.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { Index } from '../types/IndexType'
 import keyValueBy from './keyValueBy'
 
-/** Filters an object by a predicate. */
+/** Filters an object by a predicate. Does not catch exceptions thrown by the predicate. */
 const filterObject = <T>(obj: Index<T>, predicate: (key: string, value: T) => boolean) =>
   keyValueBy(obj, (key, value) => (predicate(key, value) ? { [key]: value } : null))
 
diff --git a/src/lib/getCurrentDependencies.ts b/src/lib/getCurrentDependencies.ts
index 5b57892f..3c3dd44d 100644
--- a/src/lib/getCurrentDependencies.ts
+++ b/src/lib/getCurrentDependencies.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { VersionSpec } from '../types/VersionSpec'
 import filterAndReject from './filterAndReject'
 import filterObject from './filterObject'
 import { keyValueBy } from './keyValueBy'
+import programError from './programError'
 import resolveDepSections from './resolveDepSections'
 
 /** Returns true if spec1 is greater than spec2, ignoring invalid version ranges. */
@@ -51,15 +52,20 @@ function getCurrentDependencies(pkgData: PackageFile = {}, options: Options = {}
 
   // filter & reject dependencies and versions
   const workspacePackageMap = keyValueBy(options.workspacePackages || [])
-  const filteredDependencies = filterObject(
-    filterObject(allDependencies, name => !workspacePackageMap[name]),
-    filterAndReject(
-      options.filter || null,
-      options.reject || null,
-      options.filterVersion || null,
-      options.rejectVersion || null,
-    ),
-  )
+  let filteredDependencies: Index<VersionSpec> = {}
+  try {
+    filteredDependencies = filterObject(
+      filterObject(allDependencies, name => !workspacePackageMap[name]),
+      filterAndReject(
+        options.filter || null,
+        options.reject || null,
+        options.filterVersion || null,
+        options.rejectVersion || null,
+      ),
+    )
+  } catch (err: any) {
+    programError(options, 'Invalid filter: ' + err.message || err)
+  }
 
   return filteredDependencies
 }
diff --git a/src/lib/getInstalledPackages.ts b/src/lib/getInstalledPackages.ts
index e859c961..95e84f0b 100644
--- a/src/lib/getInstalledPackages.ts
+++ b/src/lib/getInstalledPackages.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { Index } from '../types/IndexType'
 import { Options } from '../types/Options'
 import { Version } from '../types/Version'
 import { VersionSpec } from '../types/VersionSpec'
@@ -29,10 +30,17 @@ async function getInstalledPackages(options: Options = {}) {
 
   // filter out undefined packages or those with a wildcard
   const filterFunction = filterAndReject(options.filter, options.reject, options.filterVersion, options.rejectVersion)
-  return filterObject(
-    packages,
-    (dep: VersionSpec, version: Version) => !!version && !isWildPart(version) && filterFunction(dep, version),
-  )
+  let filteredPackages: Index<VersionSpec> = {}
+  try {
+    filteredPackages = filterObject(
+      packages,
+      (dep: VersionSpec, version: Version) => !!version && !isWildPart(version) && filterFunction(dep, version),
+    )
+  } catch (err: any) {
+    programError(options, 'Invalid filter: ' + err.message || err)
+  }
+
+  return filteredPackages
 }
 
 export default getInstalledPackages
diff --git a/test/filter.test.ts b/test/filter.test.ts
index 88995284..5dd674f0 100644
--- a/test/filter.test.ts
+++ b/test/filter.test.ts
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ describe('filter', () => {
       upgraded.should.have.property('fp-and-or')
     })
 
-    it('trim and ignore empty filter', async () => {
+    it('trim and ignore empty array', async () => {
       const upgraded = (await ncu({
         packageData: await fs.readFile(path.join(__dirname, 'test-data/ncu/package2.json'), 'utf-8'),
         filter: [],
@@ -199,6 +199,14 @@ describe('filter', () => {
       upgraded.should.have.property('lodash.map')
       upgraded.should.have.property('lodash.filter')
     })
+
+    it('empty string is invalid', async () => {
+      const promise = ncu({
+        packageData: await fs.readFile(path.join(__dirname, 'test-data/ncu/package2.json'), 'utf-8'),
+        filter: ',test',
+      })
+      promise.should.eventually.be.rejectedWith('Invalid filter: Expected pattern to be a non-empty string')
+    })
   })
 
   describe('cli', () => {
diff --git a/test/interactive.test.ts b/test/interactive.test.ts
index f538796e..0b44e029 100644
--- a/test/interactive.test.ts
+++ b/test/interactive.test.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ describe('--interactive', () => {
         'ncu-test-v2': '2.0.0',
         'ncu-test-tag': '1.1.0',
         'ncu-test-return-version': '2.0.0',
-        'modern-diacritics': '99.9.9',
+        // this must be a real version for --format repo to work
+        'modern-diacritics': '2.0.0',
       },
       { spawn: true },
     )