urfave-cli/docs/v1/examples/exit-codes.md

Calling App.Run will not automatically call os.Exit, which means that by default the exit code will "fall through" to being 0. An explicit exit code may be set by returning a non-nil error that fulfills cli.ExitCoder, or a cli.MultiError that includes an error that fulfills cli.ExitCoder, e.g.:

package main

import (
  "log"
  "os"

  "github.com/urfave/cli"
)

func main() {
  app := cli.NewApp()
  app.Flags = []cli.Flag{
    cli.BoolFlag{
      Name:  "ginger-crouton",
      Usage: "Add ginger croutons to the soup",
    },
  }
  app.Action = func(ctx *cli.Context) error {
    if !ctx.Bool("ginger-crouton") {
      return cli.NewExitError("Ginger croutons are not in the soup", 86)
    }
    return nil
  }

  err := app.Run(os.Args)
  if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
  }
}