lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm   | 9 ++++++++-
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm | 2 +-
 t/lei.t                       | 3 +++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
index 7713902b0e94e72b89d88851f4ff8cc93bb4ca7a..953d1fc22076f4ac77069d1c0769bf7a2107e34d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
@@ -26,7 +26,14 @@ 	if ($opt->{external} //= 1) {
 		my $cb = $lxs->can('prepare_external');
 		my $ne = $self->_externals_each($cb, $lxs);
 		$opt->{remote} //= $ne == $lxs->remotes;
-		delete($lxs->{remotes}) if !$opt->{remote};
+		if ($opt->{'local'}) {
+			delete($lxs->{remotes}) if !$opt->{remote};
+		} else {
+			delete($lxs->{locals});
+		}
+	}
+	unless ($lxs->locals || $lxs->remotes) {
+		return $self->fail('no local or remote inboxes to search');
 	}
 	my $xj = $lxs->concurrency($opt);
 	my $ovv = PublicInbox::LeiOverview->new($self) or return;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
index c396c59734589b0b21bd4932da7a4688d9d3c750..0417db245d9ddb0a5e2995d53aba695e7a108d58 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ 	if ($lei->{opt}->{thread}) {
 		for my $ibxish (locals($self)) {
 			$self->wq_do('query_thread_mset', $io, $lei, $ibxish);
 		}
-	} else {
+	} elsif (locals($self)) {
 		$self->wq_do('query_mset', $io, $lei);
 	}
 	my $i = 0;
diff --git a/t/lei.t b/t/lei.t
index 60ca75c5da8084be83078b5679ac6176d3e0ed3f..3fd1d1fe5c1d3acc2ad1b1e104c3100888bbf5e6 100644
--- a/t/lei.t
+++ b/t/lei.t
@@ -277,6 +277,9 @@ 		is_deeply(\@res, [], "clobber w/o --augment $sfx");
 	}
 	ok(!$lei->('q', '-o', "$home/mbox", 's:nope'),
 			'fails if mbox format unspecified');
+	ok(!$lei->(qw(q --no-local s:see)), '--no-local');
+	is($? >> 8, 1, 'proper exit code');
+	like($err, qr/no local or remote.+? to search/, 'no inbox');
 	my %e = (
 		TEST_LEI_EXTERNAL_HTTPS => 'https://public-inbox.org/meta/',
 		TEST_LEI_EXTERNAL_ONION => $onions[int(rand(scalar(@onions)))],