diff --git a/internal/cli/command_test.go b/internal/cli/command_test.go
index 9754dce..17e1058 100644
--- a/internal/cli/command_test.go
+++ b/internal/cli/command_test.go
@@ -443,6 +443,7 @@ func TestCommandIncidentLifecycleHelpDocumentsSafetyAndLookupHints(t *testing.T)
 			want: []string{
 				"up to 100 incidents",
 				"1024 characters",
+				"wc -m",
 			},
 		},
 	}
@@ -596,8 +597,12 @@ func TestCommandIncidentCommentRejectsOver1024Runes(t *testing.T) {
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("[incident-comment-too-long] expected an error, got nil")
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "1024 characters") {
-		t.Fatalf("[incident-comment-too-long] unexpected error: %v", err)
+	// The error must name the actual character count and the limit, so whoever
+	// (or whatever) wrote the over-long comment knows how much to trim.
+	for _, want := range []string{"1025 characters", "limit is 1024"} {
+		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), want) {
+			t.Fatalf("[incident-comment-too-long] error missing %q: %v", want, err)
+		}
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/cli/incident.go b/internal/cli/incident.go
index 2cb7fbc..32f98fd 100644
--- a/internal/cli/incident.go
+++ b/internal/cli/incident.go
@@ -894,7 +894,9 @@ shell, so backticks, $(...), and quotes inside it reach the API exactly as
 written. Leading/trailing whitespace is trimmed before sending — matching how
 the server stores it, so a bash heredoc's trailing newline (the pattern this
 CLI's own skill card recommends) does not fail verification below. The
-trimmed text must be non-empty and at most 1024 characters. Use --mute-reply
+trimmed text must be non-empty and at most 1024 characters. The limit counts
+characters (Unicode runes), not bytes, so multibyte text (e.g. Chinese) is not
+penalized — measure with 'wc -m', not 'wc -c'. Use --mute-reply
 when the comment should not trigger webhook reply behavior.
 
 After writing, the command reads back every incident's timeline and verifies
@@ -926,8 +928,8 @@ success.`,
 			if comment == "" {
 				return fmt.Errorf("--comment-file must not be empty")
 			}
-			if len([]rune(comment)) > 1024 {
-				return fmt.Errorf("--comment-file content must be at most 1024 characters")
+			if n := len([]rune(comment)); n > 1024 {
+				return fmt.Errorf("--comment-file content is %d characters, limit is 1024", n)
 			}
 
 			return runCommand(cmd, args, func(ctx *RunContext) error {