diff --git a/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs b/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs
index 046530def8..44f686ad58 100644
--- a/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs
+++ b/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs
@@ -2546,10 +2546,18 @@ async fn run_datatable_migration_job(
     let (result, success) =
         run_wait_result_internal(db, uuid, w_id, None, false, &authed.username).await?;
     if !success {
-        return Err(Error::internal_err(format!(
-            "migration job failed: {}",
-            result.get()
-        )));
+        // On failure the job result is `{"error": {"name", "message", ...}}`;
+        // surface the executor's message (the Postgres error, e.g. `relation
+        // "foo" does not exist`) instead of the raw JSON envelope.
+        let detail = serde_json::from_str::<serde_json::Value>(result.get())
+            .ok()
+            .as_ref()
+            .and_then(|v| v.get("error"))
+            .and_then(|e| e.get("message"))
+            .and_then(|m| m.as_str())
+            .map(str::to_string)
+            .unwrap_or_else(|| result.get().to_string());
+        return Err(Error::internal_err(detail));
     }
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/cli/src/commands/sync/sync.ts b/cli/src/commands/sync/sync.ts
index b7e70ae8df..19516d84d5 100644
--- a/cli/src/commands/sync/sync.ts
+++ b/cli/src/commands/sync/sync.ts
@@ -4999,8 +4999,10 @@ export async function push(
         yes: opts.yes,
         jsonOutput: opts.jsonOutput,
       });
-    } catch (e) {
-      log.warn(`Failed to run new datatable migrations: ${e}`);
+    } catch (e: any) {
+      log.warn(
+        `Failed to run new datatable migrations: ${e?.body ?? e?.message ?? e}`,
+      );
     }
     if (opts.jsonOutput) {
       const result = {