diff --git a/internal/pkg/commands/error.go b/internal/pkg/commands/error.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ff641d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/pkg/commands/error.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+/*
+ * Portions copyright 2019-present Open Networking Foundation
+ * Original copyright 2019-present Ciena Corporation
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package commands
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/status"
+	"regexp"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+var (
+	descRE = regexp.MustCompile(`desc = "(.*)"`)
+	try2RE = regexp.MustCompile(`all SubConns are in TransientFailure, latest connection error: (.*)`)
+	try3RE = regexp.MustCompile(`all SubConns are in TransientFailure, (.*)`)
+)
+
+func ErrorToString(err error) string {
+	if err == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+
+	if st, ok := status.FromError(err); ok {
+		msg := st.Message()
+		if match := descRE.FindAllStringSubmatch(msg, 1); match != nil {
+			msg = match[0][1]
+		} else if match = try2RE.FindAllStringSubmatch(msg, 1); match != nil {
+			msg = match[0][1]
+		} else if match = try3RE.FindAllStringSubmatch(msg, 1); match != nil {
+			msg = match[0][1]
+		}
+
+		return fmt.Sprintf("%s: %s", strings.ToUpper(st.Code().String()), msg)
+	}
+	return err.Error()
+}