Your APEX pipeline might be lying to you: SQLcl exits 0 when apex import fails

I tested an APEX CI/CD pipeline the hard way, and found a trap worth sharing.

SQLcl returns exit code 0 even when apex validate or apex import reports errors. I reproduced it with a broken .apx file, a missing path, and a wrong password. Every time: exit 0. Your GitHub Actions job shows green while nothing was deployed.

Two more things I didn't expect

• apex validate is an offline compile check. It runs without a database connection, so it won't catch a bad password or a missing table.
• A missing table isn't caught by apex import either. The import succeeds; the page fails when someone opens it.

What works

1. Save each step's output to a log and fail the step unless it contains "Validation successful." or "Import successful."
2. Pass the password on standard input (a heredoc), never on the command line.
3. Create schema objects before the import, and smoke-test the app after deploying.