altool IsSymbolOnly / IsRuntimePackage return exit code 1 when the answer is "False", making a negative result indistinguishable from an error

1. Describe the bug

The IsSymbolOnly and IsRuntimePackage commands in ALTool (altool.exe / the al alias from the Microsoft.Dynamics.BusinessCentral.Development.Tools NuGet package) encode their boolean answer in the process exit code: True ΓåÆ exit code 0, False ΓåÆ exit code 1.

This is wrong for two reasons:

1. By long-standing convention (Win32 ERROR_SUCCESS = 0, and the .NET Environment.ExitCode / Windows system error codes documentation), a non-zero exit code indicates that the process failed. A check that ran successfully and determined the answer is "False" did not fail.
2. Critically, genuine errors (e.g., the input file does not exist) also return exit code 1. A calling program therefore cannot distinguish "the package is not symbol-only" from "the tool failed to check at all" without parsing stdout/stderr text, which defeats the purpose of these commands for CI/CD scenarios. Per the documentation, these checks exist specifically to "help tools like AL-Go determine if an extension can be published to SaaS or containers" ΓÇö i.e., they are designed to be called from other programs, where this matters most.

The same problem exists for both IsSymbolOnly and IsRuntimePackage.

2. To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior (PowerShell, using any regular AL extension package):

# 1. Install the tools package
dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.Dynamics.BusinessCentral.Development.Tools --prerelease

# 2. Take any normal (non-symbol-only) extension, e.g. the output of a regular 'al compile',
#    and create a symbol-only variant of it for comparison:
al CreateSymbolPackage "MyApp.app" "MyApp.symbols.app"

# 3. Check the normal package ΓÇö the check succeeds, answer is False, but exit code is 1:
al IsSymbolOnly "MyApp.app"
$LASTEXITCODE   # -> 1, output: "Extension is symbol-only: False"

# 4. Check the symbol-only package ΓÇö answer is True, exit code is 0:
al IsSymbolOnly "MyApp.symbols.app"
$LASTEXITCODE   # -> 0, output: "Extension is symbol-only: True"

# 5. Now trigger a genuine error ΓÇö the exit code is ALSO 1, identical to the "False" case:
al IsSymbolOnly "DoesNotExist.app"
$LASTEXITCODE   # -> 1, output: "The specified input package file does not exist."

# IsRuntimePackage behaves the same way:
al IsRuntimePackage "MyApp.app"
$LASTEXITCODE   # -> 1, output: "Extension is runtime package: False"

Note: This issue is about the command-line tool, so the repro is a shell session rather than an AL snippet; any .app file reproduces it.

3. Expected behavior

The exit code should reflect whether the command succeeded, not what the boolean answer was:

• Exit code 0 whenever the check completed successfully, with the answer reported on stdout (Extension is symbol-only: True/False) ΓÇö machine-readable output such as --format json would be a welcome bonus.
• A non-zero exit code only when the tool actually failed (file not found, corrupt package, bad arguments, ...).

Alternatively, if encoding the answer in the exit code is intentional, error cases must use a distinct, documented exit code (e.g., 0 = True, 1 = False, 2+ = error) so callers can tell the three outcomes apart. Currently False and "error" are both 1, which makes the exit code unusable.

4. Actual behavior

A successful check that answers "False" is reported as a process failure, and it is indistinguishable from a real error.

5. Versions:

• AL Language: ALTool 18.0.37.11445+488e56099dcfd36fbaad2b886e2d17a85ca69552 (Microsoft.Dynamics.BusinessCentral.Development.Tools 18.0.37.11445-beta, installed as a global .NET tool)
• Visual Studio Code: N/A ΓÇö reproduced directly from the command line with the Development Tools NuGet package
• Business Central: N/A (offline package inspection)
• List of Visual Studio Code extensions that you have installed: N/A
• Operating System:
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • MacOS

Final Checklist

Please remember to do the following:

• Search the issue repository to ensure you are reporting a new issue

• Reproduce the issue after disabling all extensions except the AL Language extension

• Simplify your code around the issue to better isolate the problem

This bug report was created with the help of AI, but I was able to reproduce the problem.
Internal work item: AB#648585

Start at the ALTool command entry points for IsSymbolOnly and IsRuntimePackage, using the PowerShell reproduction in this issue to trace how successful False results and genuine errors set the process exit code. Verify both commands and error cases, then confirm that successful checks return 0 while failures remain non-zero and the existing stdout answers are preserved.