diff --git a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c
index eedf5faab..1b4ab955b 100644
--- a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c
+++ b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c
@@ -797,7 +797,7 @@ get_permission_tables (XdpDbusPermissionStore *store)
 
 /*** column handling ***/
 
-static int
+int
 find_column (Column *columns,
              const char *name,
              GError **error)
@@ -846,7 +846,7 @@ column_filter (Column *columns,
   for (i = 0; i < n_cols; i++)
     {
       int idx = find_column (columns, cols[i], error);
-      if (idx == -1)
+      if (idx < 0)
         return FALSE;
       result[i] = columns[idx];
     }
diff --git a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h
index 70e32cf84..37c65dba0 100644
--- a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h
+++ b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ typedef struct {
   gboolean def;
 } Column;
 
+int find_column (Column *columns,
+                 const char *name,
+                 GError **error);
 char   *column_help        (Column *columns);
 Column *handle_column_args (Column *all_columns,
                             gboolean opt_show_all,