diff --git a/src/library/module_mgr.cpp b/src/library/module_mgr.cpp
index b21e372b31..b92c6b5d3d 100644
--- a/src/library/module_mgr.cpp
+++ b/src/library/module_mgr.cpp
@@ -121,16 +121,16 @@ void module_mgr::build_lean(std::shared_ptr<module_info> const & mod, name_set c
     auto contents = read_file(mod->m_filename);
     auto imports = get_direct_imports(mod->m_filename, contents);
     for (auto & d : imports) {
-        std::shared_ptr<module_info> d_mod;
-        try {
-            build_module(d, true, module_stack);
-            d_mod = m_modules[d];
-            mod->m_trans_mtime = std::max(mod->m_trans_mtime, d_mod->m_trans_mtime);
-        } catch (throwable & ex) {
-            message_builder(m_initial_env, m_ios, mod->m_filename, {1, 0}, ERROR).set_exception(ex).report();
-        }
-        mod->m_deps.push_back(module_info::dependency { d, d_mod });
         build_module(d, true, module_stack);
+        std::shared_ptr<module_info> d_mod = m_modules[d];
+        if (d_mod->m_log.has_errors()) {
+            message_builder msg(m_initial_env, m_ios, mod->m_filename, {1, 0}, ERROR);
+            msg << "import " << d_mod->m_name << " has errors, aborting";
+            msg.report();
+            return;
+        }
+        mod->m_trans_mtime = std::max(mod->m_trans_mtime, d_mod->m_trans_mtime);
+        mod->m_deps.push_back(module_info::dependency { d, d_mod });
     }
 
     std::istringstream in(contents);
diff --git a/src/shell/lean.cpp b/src/shell/lean.cpp
index 7c8b3f84f3..0c34efb97c 100644
--- a/src/shell/lean.cpp
+++ b/src/shell/lean.cpp
@@ -491,13 +491,21 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             scope_message_log scope_log(l);
             auto imports = mod_mgr.get_direct_imports("<stdin>", buf.str());
             for (auto & d : imports) {
-                mod_mgr.get_module(d);
+                auto d_mod = mod_mgr.get_module(d);
+                if (d_mod->m_log.has_errors()) {
+                    message_builder msg(env, ios, "<stdin>", {1, 0}, ERROR);
+                    msg << "import " << d_mod->m_name << " has errors, aborting";
+                    msg.report();
+                    ok = false;
+                }
             }
 
-            auto mod_env = import_modules(env, imports, mod_mgr.mk_loader());
-            parser p(mod_env, ios, buf, "<stdin>");
-            // The server will obviously do something more complicated from here
-            p.parse_commands();
+            if (ok) {
+                auto mod_env = import_modules(env, imports, mod_mgr.mk_loader());
+                parser p(mod_env, ios, buf, "<stdin>");
+                // The server will obviously do something more complicated from here
+                p.parse_commands();
+            }
 
             for (auto const & msg : l.to_buffer()) {
                 if (json_output) {