diff --git a/.changeset/brown-impalas-greet.md b/.changeset/brown-impalas-greet.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1717c3345118c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/brown-impalas-greet.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend': patch
+---
+
+Fix error handling of the `runCommand` helper to return `Error`
+instance.
diff --git a/plugins/scaffolder-backend/src/scaffolder/actions/builtin/helpers.ts b/plugins/scaffolder-backend/src/scaffolder/actions/builtin/helpers.ts
index 92b578d385f24..9303b5e487df6 100644
--- a/plugins/scaffolder-backend/src/scaffolder/actions/builtin/helpers.ts
+++ b/plugins/scaffolder-backend/src/scaffolder/actions/builtin/helpers.ts
@@ -58,7 +58,9 @@ export const runCommand = async ({
 
     process.on('close', code => {
       if (code !== 0) {
-        return reject(`Command ${command} failed, exit code: ${code}`);
+        return reject(
+          new Error(`Command ${command} failed, exit code: ${code}`),
+        );
       }
       return resolve();
     });