diff --git a/swh/search/api/client.py b/swh/search/api/client.py
--- a/swh/search/api/client.py
+++ b/swh/search/api/client.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2019-2020  The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2019-2022  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 from swh.core.api import RPCClient
 
+from .. import exc
 from ..interface import SearchInterface
 
 
@@ -12,3 +13,4 @@
     """Proxy to a remote search API"""
 
     backend_class = SearchInterface
+    reraise_exceptions = [getattr(exc, exc_name) for exc_name in exc.__all__]
diff --git a/swh/search/exc.py b/swh/search/exc.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/search/exc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2022  The Software Heritage developers
+# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+__all__ = ("SearchException", "SearchQuerySyntaxError")
+
+
+class SearchException(Exception):
+    """Base exception for errors specific to swh-search"""
+
+    pass
+
+
+class SearchQuerySyntaxError(SearchException):
+    """Raised when the 'query' argument of origin_search cannot be parsed"""
+
+    pass
diff --git a/swh/search/tests/test_elasticsearch.py b/swh/search/tests/test_elasticsearch.py
--- a/swh/search/tests/test_elasticsearch.py
+++ b/swh/search/tests/test_elasticsearch.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2019-2021  The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2019-2022  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 from elasticsearch.helpers.errors import BulkIndexError
 import pytest
 
+from swh.search.exc import SearchQuerySyntaxError
 from swh.search.metrics import OPERATIONS_METRIC
 
 from .test_search import CommonSearchTest
@@ -165,3 +166,14 @@
         _check_results("sort_by = [-visits] limit = 1", [2])
         _check_results("sort_by = [last_visit] and limit = 2", [0, 1])
         _check_results("sort_by = [-last_eventful_visit, visits] limit = 3", [1, 0, 2])
+
+    def test_query_syntax_error(self):
+        ORIGINS = [
+            {"url": "http://foobar.1.com",},
+        ]
+
+        self.search.origin_update(ORIGINS)
+        self.search.flush()
+
+        with pytest.raises(SearchQuerySyntaxError):
+            self.search.origin_search(query="foobar")
diff --git a/swh/search/translator.py b/swh/search/translator.py
--- a/swh/search/translator.py
+++ b/swh/search/translator.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 from pkg_resources import resource_filename
 from tree_sitter import Language, Parser
 
+from swh.search.exc import SearchQuerySyntaxError
 from swh.search.utils import get_expansion, unescape
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@
         self.query_node = tree.root_node
 
         if self.query_node.has_error:
-            raise Exception("Invalid query")
+            raise SearchQuerySyntaxError("Invalid query")
 
         return self._traverse(self.query_node)
 
@@ -304,4 +305,4 @@
         if category == "limit":
             return value
 
-        raise Exception(f"Unknown filter {category}.{name}")
+        raise SearchQuerySyntaxError(f"Unknown filter {category}.{name}")