diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/README.md b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/README.md
index f787284fbb..828d331f7e 100644
--- a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/README.md
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/README.md
@@ -101,6 +101,9 @@ When run, the processor will parse the message into the following output:
 * `overwrite_if_destination_exists` - Specify whether to overwrite existing fields if there are key conflicts when writing parsed fields to the event. 
   * Default: `true` 
 
+* `tags_on_failure` - When a kv operation causes a runtime exception to be thrown within the processor, the operation is safely aborted without crashing the processor, and the event is tagged with the provided tags.
+  * Example: if `tags_on_failure` is set to `["keyvalueprocessor_failure"]`, in the case of a runtime exception, `{"tags": ["keyvalueprocessor_failure"]}` will be added to the event's metadata.
+
 ## Developer Guide
 This plugin is compatible with Java 14. See
 - [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/opensearch-project/data-prepper/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessor.java b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessor.java
index 9a347ad9fd..a062e90e48 100644
--- a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessor.java
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessor.java
@@ -56,12 +56,15 @@ public class KeyValueProcessor extends AbstractProcessor<Record<Event>, Record<E
     private final Set<String> validWhitespaceSet = Set.of(whitespaceLenient, whitespaceStrict);
     final String delimiterBracketCheck = "[\\[\\]()<>]";
     private final Set<Character> bracketSet = Set.of('[', ']', '(', ')', '<', '>');
+    private final List<String> tagsOnFailure;
 
     @DataPrepperPluginConstructor
     public KeyValueProcessor(final PluginMetrics pluginMetrics, final KeyValueProcessorConfig keyValueProcessorConfig) {
         super(pluginMetrics);
         this.keyValueProcessorConfig = keyValueProcessorConfig;
 
+        tagsOnFailure = keyValueProcessorConfig.getTagsOnFailure();
+
         if (keyValueProcessorConfig.getFieldDelimiterRegex() != null
                 && !keyValueProcessorConfig.getFieldDelimiterRegex().isEmpty()) {
             if (keyValueProcessorConfig.getFieldSplitCharacters() != null
@@ -94,7 +97,7 @@ public KeyValueProcessor(final PluginMetrics pluginMetrics, final KeyValueProces
 
             if (keyValueProcessorConfig.getRecursive()
                 && fieldDelimiterPattern.matcher(delimiterBracketCheck).matches()) {
-                throw new IllegalArgumentException("While recursive is true, the set field split characters cannot contain brackets while you are trying to recurse.");
+                throw new IllegalArgumentException("While recursive is true, the set field delimiter cannot contain brackets while you are trying to recurse.");
             }
         }
 
@@ -211,8 +214,8 @@ private boolean validateRegex(final String pattern)
     }
 
     private void validateKeySets(final Set<String> includeSet, final Set<String> excludeSet, final Set<String> defaultSet) {
-        final Set<String> includeIntersectionSet = new HashSet<String>(includeSet);
-        final Set<String> defaultIntersectionSet = new HashSet<String>(defaultSet);
+        final Set<String> includeIntersectionSet = new HashSet<>(includeSet);
+        final Set<String> defaultIntersectionSet = new HashSet<>(defaultSet);
 
         includeIntersectionSet.retainAll(excludeSet);
         if (!includeIntersectionSet.isEmpty()) {
@@ -229,7 +232,7 @@ private void validateKeySets(final Set<String> includeSet, final Set<String> exc
     public Collection<Record<Event>> doExecute(final Collection<Record<Event>> records) {
         final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
 
-        for(final Record<Event> record : records) {
+        for (final Record<Event> record : records) {
             final Map<String, Object> outputMap = new HashMap<>();
             final Event recordEvent = record.getData();
             final String groupsRaw = recordEvent.get(keyValueProcessorConfig.getSource(), String.class);
@@ -240,10 +243,16 @@ public Collection<Record<Event>> doExecute(final Collection<Record<Event>> recor
                     JsonNode recursedTree = recurse(groupsRaw, mapper);
                     outputMap.putAll(createRecursedMap(recursedTree, mapper));
                 } catch (Exception e) {
-                    LOG.error("Recursive parsing ran into an unexpected error, treating message as non-recursive");
+                    LOG.error("Recursive parsing ran into an unexpected error, treating message as non-recursive", e);
+                    recordEvent.getMetadata().addTags(tagsOnFailure);
                 }
             } else {
-                outputMap.putAll(createNonRecursedMap(groups));
+                try {
+                    outputMap.putAll(createNonRecursedMap(groups));
+                } catch (Exception e) {
+                    LOG.error("Non-recursive parsing ran into an unexpected error", e);
+                    recordEvent.getMetadata().addTags(tagsOnFailure);
+                }
             }
 
             final Map<String, Object> processedMap = executeConfigs(outputMap);
@@ -275,11 +284,11 @@ public void shutdown() {
     }
 
     private ObjectNode recurse(final String input, final ObjectMapper mapper) {
-        Stack<Character> bracketStack = new Stack<Character>();
+        Stack<Character> bracketStack = new Stack<>();
         Map<Character, Character> bracketMap = initBracketMap();
         int pairStart = 0;
 
-        ArrayList<String> pairs = new ArrayList<String>();
+        ArrayList<String> pairs = new ArrayList<>();
         ObjectNode root = mapper.createObjectNode();
 
         for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++) {
diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorConfig.java b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorConfig.java
index fb7e9abdad..4e3344483b 100644
--- a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorConfig.java
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorConfig.java
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ public class KeyValueProcessorConfig {
     @NotNull
     private boolean recursive = DEFAULT_RECURSIVE;
 
+    @JsonProperty("tags_on_failure")
+    private List<String> tagsOnFailure;
+
     @JsonProperty("overwrite_if_destination_exists")
     private boolean overwriteIfDestinationExists = true;
 
@@ -170,6 +173,10 @@ public boolean getRecursive() {
         return recursive;
     }
 
+    public List<String> getTagsOnFailure() {
+        return tagsOnFailure;
+    }
+
     public boolean getOverwriteIfDestinationExists() {
         return overwriteIfDestinationExists;
     }
diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorTests.java b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorTests.java
index 66d9c6f7ed..1ebb910895 100644
--- a/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorTests.java
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/key-value-processor/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/processor/keyvalue/KeyValueProcessorTests.java
@@ -814,6 +814,20 @@ void testDefaultInnerKeyRecursiveKvProcessor() {
         assertThatKeyEquals(parsed_message, "item1-subitem1", "default");
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void testTagsAddedWhenParsingFails() {
+        when(mockConfig.getRecursive()).thenReturn(true);
+        when(mockConfig.getTagsOnFailure()).thenReturn(List.of("tag1", "tag2"));
+        keyValueProcessor = new KeyValueProcessor(pluginMetrics, mockConfig);
+
+        final Record<Event> record = getMessage("item1=[]");
+        final List<Record<Event>> editedRecords = (List<Record<Event>>) keyValueProcessor.doExecute(Collections.singletonList(record));
+        final LinkedHashMap<String, Object> parsed_message = getLinkedHashMap(editedRecords);
+
+        assertThat(parsed_message.size(), equalTo(0));
+        assertThat(record.getData().getMetadata().hasTags(List.of("tag1", "tag2")), is(true));
+    }
+
     @Test
     void testShutdownIsReady() {
         assertThat(keyValueProcessor.isReadyForShutdown(), is(true));