diff --git a/.pylintrc b/.pylintrc
index 0b9ff1f8..172b43a1 100644
--- a/.pylintrc
+++ b/.pylintrc
@@ -8,4 +8,5 @@ disable=
     invalid-name,
     too-few-public-methods,
     consider-using-f-string,
-    cyclic-import
+    cyclic-import,
+    use-dict-literal
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 09c0b838..027af3ca 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 lint:
-	pylint --rcfile=./.pylintrc ./tests
 	pylint --rcfile=./.pylintrc ./platformio
+	pylint --rcfile=./.pylintrc ./tests
 
 isort:
 	isort ./platformio
diff --git a/platformio/check/defect.py b/platformio/check/defect.py
index 15f9df70..9efcad90 100644
--- a/platformio/check/defect.py
+++ b/platformio/check/defect.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import os
 
 import click
 
+from platformio.exception import PlatformioException
 from platformio.project.helpers import get_project_dir
 
 # pylint: disable=too-many-instance-attributes, redefined-builtin
@@ -79,7 +80,7 @@ class DefectItem:
         for key, value in DefectItem.SEVERITY_LABELS.items():
             if label == value:
                 return key
-        raise Exception("Unknown severity label -> %s" % label)
+        raise PlatformioException("Unknown severity label -> %s" % label)
 
     def as_dict(self):
         return {
diff --git a/platformio/device/monitor/terminal.py b/platformio/device/monitor/terminal.py
index bec825e9..7b2a9b91 100644
--- a/platformio/device/monitor/terminal.py
+++ b/platformio/device/monitor/terminal.py
@@ -144,9 +144,8 @@ def new_serial_instance(options):  # pylint: disable=too-many-branches
             except KeyboardInterrupt as exc:
                 click.echo("", err=True)
                 raise UserSideException("User aborted and port is not given") from exc
-            else:
-                if not port:
-                    raise UserSideException("Port is not given")
+            if not port:
+                raise UserSideException("Port is not given")
         try:
             serial_instance = serial.serial_for_url(
                 port,
diff --git a/platformio/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py b/platformio/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py
index 95b7b478..99a5325e 100644
--- a/platformio/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py
+++ b/platformio/home/rpc/handlers/piocore.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ from starlette.concurrency import run_in_threadpool
 from platformio import __main__, __version__, fs, proc
 from platformio.compat import get_locale_encoding, is_bytes
 from platformio.home import helpers
+from platformio.exception import PlatformioException
 
 
 class MultiThreadingStdStream:
@@ -132,7 +133,7 @@ class PIOCoreRPC:
             err = err.decode(get_locale_encoding())
         text = ("%s\n\n%s" % (out, err)).strip()
         if code != 0:
-            raise Exception(text)
+            raise PlatformioException(text)
         if not to_json:
             return text
         try: