diff --git a/go/cmd/vtctldclient/command/schema.go b/go/cmd/vtctldclient/command/schema.go
index 4715835d66b..9622febc141 100644
--- a/go/cmd/vtctldclient/command/schema.go
+++ b/go/cmd/vtctldclient/command/schema.go
@@ -388,6 +388,10 @@ func commandValidateSchemaKeyspace(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	if len(resp.Results) > 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%s", resp.Results[0])
+	}
+
 	data, err := cli.MarshalJSON(resp)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
diff --git a/go/vt/vtctl/grpcvtctldserver/server.go b/go/vt/vtctl/grpcvtctldserver/server.go
index 275437343ea..3709e3a3b8b 100644
--- a/go/vt/vtctl/grpcvtctldserver/server.go
+++ b/go/vt/vtctl/grpcvtctldserver/server.go
@@ -4801,6 +4801,7 @@ func (s *VtctldServer) ValidateSchemaKeyspace(ctx context.Context, req *vtctldat
 	defer panicHandler(&err)
 
 	span.Annotate("keyspace", req.Keyspace)
+	span.Annotate("shards", req.Shards)
 	keyspace := req.Keyspace
 
 	resp = &vtctldatapb.ValidateSchemaKeyspaceResponse{