diff --git a/Taskfile.yml b/Taskfile.yml
index 823a231d..3a9cafcc 100644
--- a/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/Taskfile.yml
@@ -599,7 +599,16 @@ tasks:
         vars:
           POETRY_GROUPS: dev
     cmds:
-      - poetry run codespell
+      - |
+        if
+          ! poetry run \
+            codespell
+        then
+          echo
+          echo "If this was a false positive, add the word to the ignore list. See:"
+          echo "https://github.com/arduino/tooling-project-assets/blob/main/workflow-templates/spell-check-task.md#false-positives"
+          exit 1
+        fi
 
   # Source: https://github.com/arduino/tooling-project-assets/blob/main/workflow-templates/assets/check-files-task/Taskfile.yml
   general:check-symlinks:
diff --git a/workflow-templates/assets/spell-check-task/Taskfile.yml b/workflow-templates/assets/spell-check-task/Taskfile.yml
index 566d8218..1acdfa9a 100644
--- a/workflow-templates/assets/spell-check-task/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/workflow-templates/assets/spell-check-task/Taskfile.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,16 @@ tasks:
         vars:
           POETRY_GROUPS: dev
     cmds:
-      - poetry run codespell
+      - |
+        if
+          ! poetry run \
+            codespell
+        then
+          echo
+          echo "If this was a false positive, add the word to the ignore list:"
+          echo "https://github.com/arduino/tooling-project-assets/blob/main/workflow-templates/spell-check-task.md#false-positives"
+          exit 1
+        fi
 
   # Source: https://github.com/arduino/tooling-project-assets/blob/main/workflow-templates/assets/spell-check-task/Taskfile.yml
   general:correct-spelling:
diff --git a/workflow-templates/spell-check-task.md b/workflow-templates/spell-check-task.md
index 706003fd..b366df72 100644
--- a/workflow-templates/spell-check-task.md
+++ b/workflow-templates/spell-check-task.md
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ Commit the resulting changes to the `pyproject.toml` and `poetry.lock` files.
 
 If the repository contains generated or vendored files, they can be excluded from the check by adding them to the `skip` field in the `.codespellrc` configuration file.
 
+#### False positives
+
 In the event of a false positive, the problematic word should be added, in all lowercase, to the `ignore-words-list` field of `./.codespellrc`. Regardless of the case of the word in the false positive, it must be in all lowercase in the ignore list. The ignore list is comma-separated with no spaces.
 
 Reference: