diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
index 7d7c9532c..51d543be9 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
@@ -155,6 +155,19 @@ export const cliOptionsConfig: VitestCLIOptions = {
   silent: {
     description: 'Silent console output from tests. Use `\'passed-only\'` to see logs from failing tests only.',
     argument: '[value]',
+    transform(value) {
+      if (value === 'true' || value === 'yes' || value === true) {
+        return true
+      }
+      if (value === 'false' || value === 'no' || value === false) {
+        return false
+      }
+      if (value === 'passed-only') {
+        return value
+      }
+
+      throw new TypeError(`Unexpected value "--silent=${value}". Use "--silent=true ${value}" instead.`)
+    },
   },
   hideSkippedTests: {
     description: 'Hide logs for skipped tests',
diff --git a/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts b/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
index 98f79d27c..56c6ada65 100644
--- a/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
+++ b/test/core/test/cli-test.test.ts
@@ -342,6 +342,20 @@ test('configure expect', () => {
   })
 })
 
+test('silent', () => {
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent')).toEqual({ silent: true })
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent=true')).toEqual({ silent: true })
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent=yes')).toEqual({ silent: true })
+
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent=false')).toEqual({ silent: false })
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent=no')).toEqual({ silent: false })
+
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent=passed-only')).toEqual({ silent: 'passed-only' })
+  expect(getCLIOptions('--silent=true example.test.ts')).toEqual({ silent: true })
+
+  expect(() => getCLIOptions('--silent example.test.ts')).toThrowErrorMatchingInlineSnapshot(`[TypeError: Unexpected value "--silent=example.test.ts". Use "--silent=true example.test.ts" instead.]`)
+})
+
 test('public parseCLI works correctly', () => {
   expect(parseCLI('vitest dev')).toEqual({
     filter: [],