# Reflection: Exit Codes Are Everywhere After This

## Reflection questions

1. Before this module, did you know commands returned a machine-readable success/failure
   signal at all? What did you assume happened instead?
2. Where do you think exit codes might matter later in ROOT_ — in a script, a CI pipeline, or
   a container?

## Real Ops takeaway

**Every automated system you'll ever build or operate checks exit codes, not error messages.**
A script deciding whether to continue, a CI pipeline deciding whether to deploy, and (much
later) a container orchestrator deciding whether a process is healthy, all reduce to the exact
same question this module taught you to answer by hand: did this exit `0` or not? Getting
comfortable checking `$?` now means none of those later systems will feel like magic.

This module is complete. Continue to the next module.

## Instructor Notes

**Discussion questions for a live classroom:** question 2 previews Docker/Kubernetes health
checks well before students get there — useful to name explicitly without going deep yet.

**Approximate timing:** 5-8 minutes live discussion; 5 minutes self-paced writing.