diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 57e303c16..977d0be7c 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ test_format:
   extends: .debian-image
   stage: lint
   script:
-    - if grep 'json({}' src/*pp; then echo "The json brace initializer ctor is not supported by some compilers, use j_empty instead"; echo exit 1; fi
-    - if grep -P '^ +nlohmann::json [a-z0-9_]+\({}' src/*pp; then echo "The json brace initializer ctor is not supported by some compilers, use j_empty instead"; echo exit 1; fi
+    - if grep 'json({}' src/*pp; then echo "The json brace initializer ctor is not supported by some compilers, use j_empty instead"; exit 1; fi
+    - if grep -P '^ +nlohmann::json [a-z0-9_]+\({}' src/*pp; then echo "The json brace initializer ctor is not supported by some compilers, use j_empty instead"; exit 1; fi
     - ./tools/format.sh && git diff --exit-code