diff --git a/core/engine.go b/core/engine.go
index 55e23a0..6410c20 100644
--- a/core/engine.go
+++ b/core/engine.go
@@ -6476,28 +6476,33 @@ func truncateIf(s string, maxLen int) string {
 }
 
 func splitMessage(text string, maxLen int) []string {
-	if len(text) <= maxLen {
+	runes := []rune(text)
+	if len(runes) <= maxLen {
 		return []string{text}
 	}
 	var chunks []string
 
-	for len(text) > 0 {
-		if len(text) <= maxLen {
-			chunks = append(chunks, text)
+	for len(runes) > 0 {
+		if len(runes) <= maxLen {
+			chunks = append(chunks, string(runes))
 			break
 		}
 
 		end := maxLen
 
-		// Try to split at newline boundary
-		if idx := strings.LastIndex(text[:end], "\n"); idx > 0 && idx >= end/2 {
-			end = idx + 1
+		// Try to split at newline boundary within the rune window.
+		// Convert the candidate chunk back to a string for newline search.
+		candidate := string(runes[:end])
+		if idx := strings.LastIndex(candidate, "\n"); idx > 0 {
+			// idx is a byte offset within candidate; convert to rune offset.
+			runeIdx := utf8.RuneCountInString(candidate[:idx])
+			if runeIdx >= end/2 {
+				end = runeIdx + 1
+			}
 		}
 
-		chunk := text[:end]
-		text = text[end:]
-
-		chunks = append(chunks, chunk)
+		chunks = append(chunks, string(runes[:end]))
+		runes = runes[end:]
 	}
 	return chunks
 }
diff --git a/core/engine_test.go b/core/engine_test.go
index 7d9e97a..ec62e1f 100644
--- a/core/engine_test.go
+++ b/core/engine_test.go
@@ -2441,3 +2441,77 @@ func TestStaleGoroutineCleanup_RaceSimulation(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("replacement agent session was killed by stale cleanup")
 	}
 }
+
+func TestSplitMessageUTF8Safety(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("ASCII short", func(t *testing.T) {
+		result := splitMessage("hello", 10)
+		if len(result) != 1 || result[0] != "hello" {
+			t.Fatalf("expected single chunk 'hello', got %v", result)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("CJK characters split at rune boundary", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// 10 CJK characters (each 3 bytes in UTF-8), total 30 bytes
+		input := "你好世界测试一二三四"
+		if len([]rune(input)) != 10 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected 10 runes, got %d", len([]rune(input)))
+		}
+		// maxLen=5 runes should split into 2 chunks of 5 runes each
+		chunks := splitMessage(input, 5)
+		if len(chunks) != 2 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected 2 chunks, got %d: %v", len(chunks), chunks)
+		}
+		if chunks[0] != "你好世界测" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[0] = %q, want %q", chunks[0], "你好世界测")
+		}
+		if chunks[1] != "试一二三四" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[1] = %q, want %q", chunks[1], "试一二三四")
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("emoji split at rune boundary", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// Emoji: 4 bytes each in UTF-8
+		input := "😀😁😂🤣😄😅"
+		runes := []rune(input)
+		if len(runes) != 6 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected 6 runes, got %d", len(runes))
+		}
+		chunks := splitMessage(input, 3)
+		if len(chunks) != 2 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected 2 chunks, got %d: %v", len(chunks), chunks)
+		}
+		if chunks[0] != "😀😁😂" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[0] = %q, want %q", chunks[0], "😀😁😂")
+		}
+		if chunks[1] != "🤣😄😅" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[1] = %q, want %q", chunks[1], "🤣😄😅")
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("prefers newline split", func(t *testing.T) {
+		input := "abcde\nfghij"
+		chunks := splitMessage(input, 8)
+		if len(chunks) != 2 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected 2 chunks, got %d: %v", len(chunks), chunks)
+		}
+		// Should split at newline (rune index 5), which is >= 8/2=4
+		if chunks[0] != "abcde\n" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[0] = %q, want %q", chunks[0], "abcde\n")
+		}
+		if chunks[1] != "fghij" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[1] = %q, want %q", chunks[1], "fghij")
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("CJK with newline split", func(t *testing.T) {
+		input := "你好\n世界测试一二三四"
+		chunks := splitMessage(input, 5)
+		if len(chunks) < 2 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected at least 2 chunks, got %d: %v", len(chunks), chunks)
+		}
+		// First chunk should split at the newline
+		if chunks[0] != "你好\n" {
+			t.Errorf("chunk[0] = %q, want %q", chunks[0], "你好\n")
+		}
+	})
+}