diff --git a/internal/edit/edit.go b/internal/edit/edit.go
index 60402e4..84b5364 100644
--- a/internal/edit/edit.go
+++ b/internal/edit/edit.go
@@ -864,7 +864,7 @@ func truncateString(s string, maxLen int) string {
 	if len(s) <= maxLen {
 		return s
 	}
-	return s[:maxLen-3] + "..."
+	return s[:util.RuneBoundary(s, maxLen-3)] + "..."
 }
 
 // ValidateLanguage checks if AST editing is supported for a file.
diff --git a/internal/query/format_test.go b/internal/query/format_test.go
index a334aa9..c9cd26a 100644
--- a/internal/query/format_test.go
+++ b/internal/query/format_test.go
@@ -186,6 +186,9 @@ func TestFirstLineOf(t *testing.T) {
 		{"line1\nline2", 20, "line1"},
 		{"\n\nfoo", 20, "foo"},
 		{"abcdefghij", 5, "abcd…"},
+		// Multibyte: "ααα" is 6 bytes (each α = 2). maxLen-1 = 3 lands inside the
+		// 2nd α; must back off to a rune boundary, never split into invalid UTF-8.
+		{"ααα", 4, "α…"},
 	}
 	for _, c := range cases {
 		got := firstLineOf(c.input, c.maxLen)
diff --git a/internal/query/query.go b/internal/query/query.go
index f72883a..20b4188 100644
--- a/internal/query/query.go
+++ b/internal/query/query.go
@@ -583,7 +583,7 @@ func firstLineOf(s string, maxLen int) string {
 			continue
 		}
 		if len(line) > maxLen {
-			return line[:maxLen-1] + "…"
+			return line[:util.RuneBoundary(line, maxLen-1)] + "…"
 		}
 		return line
 	}
diff --git a/internal/search/search.go b/internal/search/search.go
index 970c186..74d20c4 100644
--- a/internal/search/search.go
+++ b/internal/search/search.go
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ import (
 	"os/exec"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
-	"unicode/utf8"
 
 	json "github.com/goccy/go-json"
 	"github.com/lukaszraczylo/mcp-filepuff/internal/config"
+	"github.com/lukaszraczylo/mcp-filepuff/internal/util"
 	"github.com/lukaszraczylo/mcp-filepuff/pkg/errors"
 	"github.com/lukaszraczylo/mcp-filepuff/pkg/protocol"
 )
@@ -495,9 +495,5 @@ func truncateLine(s string, maxLen int) string {
 	if len(s) <= maxLen {
 		return s
 	}
-	end := max(maxLen-3, 0)
-	for end > 0 && !utf8.RuneStart(s[end]) {
-		end--
-	}
-	return s[:end] + "..."
+	return s[:util.RuneBoundary(s, maxLen-3)] + "..."
 }
diff --git a/internal/util/truncate.go b/internal/util/truncate.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4efebeb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/util/truncate.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+package util
+
+import "unicode/utf8"
+
+// RuneBoundary returns the largest index j <= i such that s[:j] is valid UTF-8
+// (j falls on a rune start, never inside a multibyte sequence). i is clamped to
+// [0, len(s)]. Callers slicing s[:i] for truncation should slice s[:RuneBoundary(s, i)]
+// instead so a multibyte character is never split into an invalid encoding.
+func RuneBoundary(s string, i int) int {
+	if i <= 0 {
+		return 0
+	}
+	if i >= len(s) {
+		return len(s)
+	}
+	for i > 0 && !utf8.RuneStart(s[i]) {
+		i--
+	}
+	return i
+}
diff --git a/internal/util/truncate_test.go b/internal/util/truncate_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1086fa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/util/truncate_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package util
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+	"unicode/utf8"
+)
+
+func TestRuneBoundary(t *testing.T) {
+	// "café" — 'é' is 2 bytes (0xC3 0xA9), occupying indices 3,4. len == 5.
+	const cafe = "café"
+	cases := []struct {
+		name string
+		s    string
+		i    int
+		want int
+	}{
+		{"negative clamps to zero", "abc", -1, 0},
+		{"zero", "abc", 0, 0},
+		{"beyond length clamps to len", "abc", 99, 3},
+		{"ascii exact boundary", "abcdef", 4, 4},
+		{"inside multibyte backs off", cafe, 4, 3}, // index 4 is the 2nd byte of 'é'
+		{"on multibyte start stays", cafe, 3, 3},   // index 3 is the 1st byte of 'é'
+		{"end of multibyte string", cafe, 5, 5},    // len == 5, clamped path
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		t.Run(c.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			got := RuneBoundary(c.s, c.i)
+			if got != c.want {
+				t.Fatalf("RuneBoundary(%q, %d) = %d, want %d", c.s, c.i, got, c.want)
+			}
+			// Invariant: the prefix is always valid UTF-8.
+			if !utf8.ValidString(c.s[:got]) {
+				t.Fatalf("RuneBoundary(%q, %d) sliced invalid UTF-8: %q", c.s, c.i, c.s[:got])
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}