diff --git a/.changeset/reject-failed-index-tasks.md b/.changeset/reject-failed-index-tasks.md
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/.changeset/reject-failed-index-tasks.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/search-backend-node': patch
+---
+
+propagate indexing errors so they don't appear successful to the task scheduler