diff --git a/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md
index 84568225f..b118dd077 100644
--- a/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+
+- Fixed narrow terminals crashing when the editor's bottom scroll indicator exceeded the terminal width ([#6962](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/6962)).
+
 ## [0.81.1] - 2026-07-21
 
 ## [0.81.0] - 2026-07-21
diff --git a/packages/tui/src/components/editor.ts b/packages/tui/src/components/editor.ts
index 706324c77..8b831f4cb 100644
--- a/packages/tui/src/components/editor.ts
+++ b/packages/tui/src/components/editor.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import {
 	getGraphemeSegmenter,
 	getWordSegmenter,
 	isWhitespaceChar,
-	truncateToWidth,
+	sliceByColumn,
 	visibleWidth,
 } from "../utils.ts";
 import { findWordBackward, findWordForward } from "../word-navigation.ts";
@@ -256,6 +256,17 @@ function buildDebouncePattern(triggerCharacters: string[]): RegExp {
 	return new RegExp(`(?:^|[ \\t])(?:@(?:"[^"]*|[^\\s]*)|[${escapedWithoutAt.join("")}][^\\s]*)$`);
 }
 
+function createScrollBorder(direction: "↑" | "↓", hiddenLineCount: number, width: number): string {
+	const availableWidth = Math.max(0, width);
+	const indicator = `─── ${direction} ${hiddenLineCount} more `;
+	const remaining = availableWidth - visibleWidth(indicator);
+	if (remaining >= 0) return indicator + "─".repeat(remaining);
+
+	const ellipsis = "...".slice(0, availableWidth);
+	const indicatorWidth = availableWidth - visibleWidth(ellipsis);
+	return sliceByColumn(indicator, 0, indicatorWidth, true) + ellipsis;
+}
+
 export class Editor implements Component, Focusable {
 	private state: EditorState = {
 		lines: [""],
@@ -513,13 +524,8 @@ export class Editor implements Component, Focusable {
 
 		// Render top border (with scroll indicator if scrolled down)
 		if (this.scrollOffset > 0) {
-			const indicator = `─── ↑ ${this.scrollOffset} more `;
-			const remaining = width - visibleWidth(indicator);
-			if (remaining >= 0) {
-				result.push(this.borderColor(indicator + "─".repeat(remaining)));
-			} else {
-				result.push(this.borderColor(truncateToWidth(indicator, width)));
-			}
+			const border = createScrollBorder("↑", this.scrollOffset, width);
+			result.push(this.borderColor(border));
 		} else {
 			result.push(horizontal.repeat(width));
 		}
@@ -575,9 +581,8 @@ export class Editor implements Component, Focusable {
 		// Render bottom border (with scroll indicator if more content below)
 		const linesBelow = layoutLines.length - (this.scrollOffset + visibleLines.length);
 		if (linesBelow > 0) {
-			const indicator = `─── ↓ ${linesBelow} more `;
-			const remaining = width - visibleWidth(indicator);
-			result.push(this.borderColor(indicator + "─".repeat(Math.max(0, remaining))));
+			const border = createScrollBorder("↓", linesBelow, width);
+			result.push(this.borderColor(border));
 		} else {
 			result.push(horizontal.repeat(width));
 		}
diff --git a/packages/tui/test/editor.test.ts b/packages/tui/test/editor.test.ts
index d2c278d76..950f488f5 100644
--- a/packages/tui/test/editor.test.ts
+++ b/packages/tui/test/editor.test.ts
@@ -699,6 +699,31 @@ describe("Editor component", () => {
 		});
 	});
 
+	describe("Scroll indicators", () => {
+		it("keeps truncated scroll indicators within width and preserves their color (issue #6962)", () => {
+			const width = 10;
+			const borderColor = (text: string) => `\x1b[35m${text}\x1b[39m`;
+			const editor = new Editor(createTestTUI(width), { ...defaultEditorTheme, borderColor });
+			editor.setText(Array.from({ length: 20 }, (_, index) => `line ${index}`).join("\n"));
+
+			// Render once to initialize wrapping, then move the cursor so content remains above and below the viewport.
+			editor.render(width);
+			for (let index = 0; index < 10; index++) editor.handleInput("\x1b[A");
+
+			const lines = editor.render(width);
+			const topBorder = lines[0]!;
+			const bottomBorder = lines.at(-1)!;
+
+			assert.match(stripVTControlCharacters(topBorder), /^─── ↑/);
+			assert.match(stripVTControlCharacters(bottomBorder), /^─── ↓/);
+			assert.strictEqual(topBorder, borderColor(stripVTControlCharacters(topBorder)));
+			assert.strictEqual(bottomBorder, borderColor(stripVTControlCharacters(bottomBorder)));
+			for (const line of lines) {
+				assert.strictEqual(visibleWidth(line), width, `line exceeds width ${width}: ${JSON.stringify(line)}`);
+			}
+		});
+	});
+
 	describe("Grapheme-aware text wrapping", () => {
 		it("wraps lines correctly when text contains wide emojis", () => {
 			const editor = new Editor(createTestTUI(), defaultEditorTheme);