diff --git a/swh/scheduler/cli.py b/swh/scheduler/cli.py
--- a/swh/scheduler/cli.py
+++ b/swh/scheduler/cli.py
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@
         logger.debug('Instanciating scheduler with %s' % (
             sched_conf))
         scheduler = get_scheduler(**sched_conf)
-    except Exception:
+    except ValueError:
         # it's the subcommand to decide whether not having a proper
         # scheduler instance is a problem.
         pass