diff --git a/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors.go b/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors.go
index 23b2f0e4c..bab9c506e 100644
--- a/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors.go
+++ b/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors.go
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@ func (p Pipeline) Processors() (procs []Processor, err error) {
 	default:
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unsupported pipeline format: %s", p.Format)
 	}
-	return procs, fmt.Errorf("failure processing %s pipeline '%s': %w", p.Format, p.Filename(), err)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failure processing %s pipeline '%s': %w", p.Format, p.Filename(), err)
+	}
+	return procs, nil
 }
 
 // extract a list of processors from a pipeline definition in YAML format.
diff --git a/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors_test.go b/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors_test.go
index 30523b90c..0d3d161d3 100644
--- a/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors_test.go
+++ b/internal/elasticsearch/ingest/processors_test.go
@@ -172,17 +172,11 @@ processors:
 			}
 			procs, err := p.Processors()
 			if !tt.wantErr {
-				if !assert.NoError(t, err) {
-					t.Fatal(err)
-				}
+				assert.NoError(t, err)
 			} else {
-				if !assert.Error(t, err) {
-					t.Fatal("error expected")
-				}
-			}
-			if !assert.Equal(t, tt.expected, procs) {
-				t.Errorf("Processors() gotProcs = %v, want %v", procs, tt.expected)
+				assert.Error(t, err)
 			}
+			assert.Equal(t, tt.expected, procs)
 		})
 	}
 }