diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.pgm/src/org/eclipse/jgit/pgm/Describe.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.pgm/src/org/eclipse/jgit/pgm/Describe.java
index f91474859..705bcd768 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.pgm/src/org/eclipse/jgit/pgm/Describe.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.pgm/src/org/eclipse/jgit/pgm/Describe.java
@@ -42,12 +42,15 @@
  */
 package org.eclipse.jgit.pgm;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import org.eclipse.jgit.api.DescribeCommand;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.api.Git;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.api.errors.GitAPIException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.api.errors.RefNotFoundException;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.errors.InvalidPatternException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.ObjectId;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.pgm.internal.CLIText;
 import org.kohsuke.args4j.Argument;
@@ -67,7 +70,7 @@ class Describe extends TextBuiltin {
 
 	/** {@inheritDoc} */
 	@Override
-	protected void run() throws Exception {
+	protected void run() {
 		try (Git git = new Git(db)) {
 			DescribeCommand cmd = git.describe();
 			if (tree != null)
@@ -84,6 +87,8 @@ class Describe extends TextBuiltin {
 				throw die(CLIText.get().noNamesFound);
 
 			outw.println(result);
+		} catch (IOException | InvalidPatternException | GitAPIException e) {
+			throw die(e.getMessage(), e);
 		}
 	}
 }