diff --git a/bin/guides b/bin/guides
index ae0906f82..75502991c 100644
--- a/bin/guides
+++ b/bin/guides
@@ -1,7 +1,30 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env php
 <?php
 
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+use Symfony\Component\Config\Definition\Exception\InvalidConfigurationException;
+use Symfony\Component\Config\Definition\Exception\InvalidTypeException;
+
 $root = dirname(__DIR__);
 
-require_once  $root . '/vendor/autoload.php';
-require_once  $root . '/vendor/phpdocumentor/guides-cli/bin/guides';
+require_once $root . '/vendor/autoload.php';
+
+try {
+    require_once $root . '/vendor/phpdocumentor/guides-cli/bin/guides';
+} catch (InvalidTypeException|InvalidConfigurationException $e) {
+    fwrite(STDERR, "\033[37;41m Invalid guides.xml configuration \033[0m\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "Your guides.xml file contains a configuration error:\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "  \033[33m" . $e->getMessage() . "\033[0m\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "\033[32mCommon causes:\033[0m\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "  - Invalid or unknown XML element\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "  - Missing required attributes\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "  - Invalid attribute values or types\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "Run \033[33mvendor/bin/typo3-guides lint-guides-xml\033[0m for detailed validation.\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "See: https://docs.typo3.org/m/typo3/docs-how-to-document/main/en-us/GeneralConventions/GuideXml.html\n");
+    fwrite(STDERR, "\n");
+    exit(1);
+}
diff --git a/tests/Integration/InvalidGuidesXmlTest.php b/tests/Integration/InvalidGuidesXmlTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..67df08128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Integration/InvalidGuidesXmlTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace T3Docs\Typo3DocsTheme\Integration;
+
+use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;
+
+/**
+ * Tests error handling for invalid guides.xml configurations.
+ *
+ * The fixture is stored as guides.xml.fixture to avoid being picked up by lint-guides-xml.
+ * Tests copy it to a temp directory with the correct name before execution.
+ */
+final class InvalidGuidesXmlTest extends TestCase
+{
+    private const FIXTURE_SOURCE = __DIR__ . '/../fixtures/invalid-guides-xml';
+
+    private string $tempDir = '';
+
+    protected function setUp(): void
+    {
+        $this->tempDir = sys_get_temp_dir() . '/render-guides-invalid-test-' . uniqid();
+        mkdir($this->tempDir, 0o755, true);
+
+        // Copy fixture files to temp directory
+        copy(self::FIXTURE_SOURCE . '/guides.xml.fixture', $this->tempDir . '/guides.xml');
+        copy(self::FIXTURE_SOURCE . '/Index.rst', $this->tempDir . '/Index.rst');
+    }
+
+    protected function tearDown(): void
+    {
+        if (is_dir($this->tempDir)) {
+            system('rm -rf ' . escapeshellarg($this->tempDir));
+        }
+    }
+
+    public function testInvalidGuidesXmlShowsHelpfulErrorMessage(): void
+    {
+        $binPath = dirname(__DIR__, 2) . '/bin/guides';
+
+        $process = new Process([
+            'php',
+            $binPath,
+            'run',
+            '--config=' . $this->tempDir,
+            $this->tempDir,
+        ]);
+
+        $process->run();
+
+        // Should fail with exit code 1, not crash with fatal error
+        self::assertSame(1, $process->getExitCode(), 'Expected exit code 1 for invalid guides.xml');
+
+        $stderr = $process->getErrorOutput();
+
+        // Should contain helpful error message, not PHP fatal error
+        self::assertStringContainsString('Invalid guides.xml configuration', $stderr);
+        self::assertStringNotContainsString('PHP Fatal error', $stderr);
+        self::assertStringNotContainsString('Stack trace', $stderr);
+
+        // Should reference documentation
+        self::assertStringContainsString('https://docs.typo3.org', $stderr);
+    }
+
+    public function testInvalidGuidesXmlShowsCommonCauses(): void
+    {
+        $binPath = dirname(__DIR__, 2) . '/bin/guides';
+
+        $process = new Process([
+            'php',
+            $binPath,
+            'run',
+            '--config=' . $this->tempDir,
+            $this->tempDir,
+        ]);
+
+        $process->run();
+
+        $stderr = $process->getErrorOutput();
+
+        // Should show common causes section
+        self::assertStringContainsString('Common causes', $stderr);
+    }
+
+    public function testValidGuidesXmlRendersSuccessfully(): void
+    {
+        $binPath = dirname(__DIR__, 2) . '/bin/guides';
+        $validFixturePath = __DIR__ . '/tests/getting-started/input';
+
+        // Skip if fixture doesn't exist
+        if (!is_dir($validFixturePath)) {
+            self::markTestSkipped('Valid fixture not available');
+        }
+
+        $outputPath = sys_get_temp_dir() . '/render-guides-test-' . uniqid();
+
+        $process = new Process([
+            'php',
+            $binPath,
+            'run',
+            '--config=' . $validFixturePath,
+            '--output=' . $outputPath,
+            $validFixturePath,
+        ]);
+
+        $process->run();
+
+        // Clean up
+        if (is_dir($outputPath)) {
+            system('rm -rf ' . escapeshellarg($outputPath));
+        }
+
+        // Should succeed
+        self::assertSame(0, $process->getExitCode(), 'Expected exit code 0 for valid guides.xml. Error: ' . $process->getErrorOutput());
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/invalid-guides-xml/Index.rst b/tests/fixtures/invalid-guides-xml/Index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..50a726c9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/invalid-guides-xml/Index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+=====
+Test
+=====
+
+This should not render due to invalid guides.xml.
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/invalid-guides-xml/guides.xml.fixture b/tests/fixtures/invalid-guides-xml/guides.xml.fixture
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..88cc4c732
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/invalid-guides-xml/guides.xml.fixture
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<guides xmlns="https://www.phpdoc.org/guides">
+    <theme name="typo3docs" />
+    <project title="Test" />
+</guides>