diff --git a/builtin/config.c b/builtin/config.c
index 1c75cbc43dfb55..8a2840f0a8cbf7 100644
--- a/builtin/config.c
+++ b/builtin/config.c
@@ -362,8 +362,7 @@ static int get_value(const char *key_, const char *regex_, unsigned flags)
 			goto free_strings;
 		}
 	} else {
-		if (git_config_parse_key(key_, &key, NULL)) {
-			ret = CONFIG_INVALID_KEY;
+		if ((ret = git_config_parse_key(key_, &key, NULL))) {
 			goto free_strings;
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/config.c b/config.c
index 85c5f35132c364..ca77ca17a47663 100644
--- a/config.c
+++ b/config.c
@@ -534,8 +534,9 @@ static inline int iskeychar(int c)
  * Auxiliary function to sanity-check and split the key into the section
  * identifier and variable name.
  *
- * Returns 0 on success, -1 when there is an invalid character in the key and
- * -2 if there is no section name in the key.
+ * Returns 0 on success, CONFIG_INVALID_KEY when there is an invalid character
+ * in the key and CONFIG_NO_SECTION_OR_NAME if there is no section name in the
+ * key.
  *
  * store_key - pointer to char* which will hold a copy of the key with
  *             lowercase section and variable name
@@ -555,12 +556,12 @@ int git_config_parse_key(const char *key, char **store_key, size_t *baselen_)
 
 	if (last_dot == NULL || last_dot == key) {
 		error(_("key does not contain a section: %s"), key);
-		return -CONFIG_NO_SECTION_OR_NAME;
+		return CONFIG_NO_SECTION_OR_NAME;
 	}
 
 	if (!last_dot[1]) {
 		error(_("key does not contain variable name: %s"), key);
-		return -CONFIG_NO_SECTION_OR_NAME;
+		return CONFIG_NO_SECTION_OR_NAME;
 	}
 
 	baselen = last_dot - key;
@@ -596,7 +597,7 @@ int git_config_parse_key(const char *key, char **store_key, size_t *baselen_)
 
 out_free_ret_1:
 	FREE_AND_NULL(*store_key);
-	return -CONFIG_INVALID_KEY;
+	return CONFIG_INVALID_KEY;
 }
 
 static int config_parse_pair(const char *key, const char *value,
@@ -2346,7 +2347,7 @@ static int configset_find_element(struct config_set *set, const char *key,
 	 * `key` may come from the user, so normalize it before using it
 	 * for querying entries from the hashmap.
 	 */
-	ret = git_config_parse_key(key, &normalized_key, NULL);
+	ret = -git_config_parse_key(key, &normalized_key, NULL);
 	if (ret)
 		return ret;
 
@@ -3334,8 +3335,7 @@ int git_config_set_multivar_in_file_gently(const char *config_filename,
 	size_t contents_sz;
 	struct config_store_data store = CONFIG_STORE_INIT;
 
-	/* parse-key returns negative; flip the sign to feed exit(3) */
-	ret = 0 - git_config_parse_key(key, &store.key, &store.baselen);
+	ret = git_config_parse_key(key, &store.key, &store.baselen);
 	if (ret)
 		goto out_free;
 
diff --git a/config.h b/config.h
index 6332d749047764..40966cb6828865 100644
--- a/config.h
+++ b/config.h
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 
 struct object_id;
 
-/* git_config_parse_key() returns these negated: */
+/* git_config_parse_key() returns these: */
 #define CONFIG_INVALID_KEY 1
 #define CONFIG_NO_SECTION_OR_NAME 2
 /* git_config_set_gently(), git_config_set_multivar_gently() return the above or these: */
diff --git a/submodule-config.c b/submodule-config.c
index b6908e295f4292..2aafc7f9cbe39c 100644
--- a/submodule-config.c
+++ b/submodule-config.c
@@ -824,8 +824,8 @@ int print_config_from_gitmodules(struct repository *repo, const char *key)
 	char *store_key;
 
 	ret = git_config_parse_key(key, &store_key, NULL);
-	if (ret < 0)
-		return CONFIG_INVALID_KEY;
+	if (ret)
+		return ret;
 
 	config_from_gitmodules(config_print_callback, repo, store_key);
 
diff --git a/t/t1300-config.sh b/t/t1300-config.sh
index 387d336c91f44e..3202b0f8843294 100755
--- a/t/t1300-config.sh
+++ b/t/t1300-config.sh
@@ -2590,4 +2590,20 @@ test_expect_success 'includeIf.hasconfig:remote.*.url forbids remote url in such
 	grep "fatal: remote URLs cannot be configured in file directly or indirectly included by includeIf.hasconfig:remote.*.url" err
 '
 
+# Exit codes
+test_expect_success '--get with bad key' '
+	# Also exits with 1 if the value is not found
+	test_expect_code 1 git config --get "bad.name\n" 2>err &&
+	grep "error: invalid key" err &&
+	test_expect_code 2 git config --get "bad." 2>err &&
+	grep "error: key does not contain variable name" err
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'set with bad key' '
+	test_expect_code 1 git config "bad.name\n" var 2>err &&
+	grep "error: invalid key" err &&
+	test_expect_code 2 git config "bad." var 2>err &&
+	grep "error: key does not contain variable name" err
+'
+
 test_done