diff --git a/brownie/_cli/console.py b/brownie/_cli/console.py
index 5a47c2e75..72c9e2440 100644
--- a/brownie/_cli/console.py
+++ b/brownie/_cli/console.py
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ class Console(code.InteractiveConsole):
     # replaced with `prompt_toolkit.input.defaults.create_pipe_input`
     prompt_input = None
 
-    def __init__(self, project=None, extra_locals=None):
+    def __init__(self, project=None, extra_locals=None, exit_on_continue=False):
         """
         Launch the Brownie console.
 
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ def __init__(self, project=None, extra_locals=None):
             Active Brownie project to include in the console's local namespace.
         extra_locals: dict, optional
             Additional variables to add to the console namespace.
+        exit_on_continue: bool, optional
+            If True, the `continue` command causes the console to
+            raise a SystemExit with error message "continue".
         """
         console_settings = CONFIG.settings["console"]
 
@@ -103,6 +106,11 @@ def __init__(self, project=None, extra_locals=None):
             _dir=dir, dir=self._dir, exit=_Quitter("exit"), quit=_Quitter("quit"), _console=self
         )
 
+        self.exit_on_continue = exit_on_continue
+        if exit_on_continue:
+            # add continue to the locals so we can quickly reach it via completion hints
+            locals_dict["continue"] = True
+
         if project:
             project._update_and_register(locals_dict)
 
@@ -218,6 +226,10 @@ def runsource(self, source, filename="<input>", symbol="single"):
         mode = self.compile_mode
         self.compile_mode = "single"
 
+        if source == "continue" and self.exit_on_continue:
+            # used to differentiate exit and continue for pytest interactive debugging
+            raise SystemExit("continue")
+
         try:
             code = self.compile(source, filename, mode)
         except (OverflowError, SyntaxError, ValueError):
diff --git a/brownie/test/managers/runner.py b/brownie/test/managers/runner.py
index 4e305748d..2be3bfe8f 100644
--- a/brownie/test/managers/runner.py
+++ b/brownie/test/managers/runner.py
@@ -466,13 +466,15 @@ def pytest_exception_interact(self, report, call):
 
             try:
                 CONFIG.argv["cli"] = "console"
-                shell = Console(self.project, extra_locals=namespace)
-                shell.interact(
-                    banner="\nInteractive mode enabled. Use quit() to continue running tests.",
-                    exitmsg="",
+                shell = Console(self.project, extra_locals=namespace, exit_on_continue=True)
+                banner = (
+                    "\nInteractive mode enabled. Type `continue` to"
+                    " resume testing or `quit()` to halt execution."
                 )
-            except SystemExit:
-                pass
+                shell.interact(banner=banner, exitmsg="")
+            except SystemExit as exc:
+                if exc.code != "continue":
+                    pytest.exit("Test execution halted due to SystemExit")
             finally:
                 CONFIG.argv["cli"] = "test"