diff --git a/hermes_cli/send_cmd.py b/hermes_cli/send_cmd.py
index 2d0c3418ea2..4cf3198cb40 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/send_cmd.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/send_cmd.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def _read_message_body(
             return sys.stdin.read()
         try:
             return Path(file_path).read_text(encoding="utf-8")
-        except OSError as exc:
+        except (OSError, UnicodeDecodeError) as exc:
             print(f"hermes send: cannot read {file_path}: {exc}", file=sys.stderr)
             sys.exit(_USAGE_EXIT)
 
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_send_cmd.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_send_cmd.py
index 9202315e3d4..802cff88c90 100644
--- a/tests/hermes_cli/test_send_cmd.py
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_send_cmd.py
@@ -173,6 +173,19 @@ def test_file_not_found_is_usage_error(fake_tool, capsys, monkeypatch):
     assert "cannot read" in err.lower()
 
 
+def test_file_decode_error_is_usage_error(fake_tool, capsys, monkeypatch, tmp_path):
+    monkeypatch.setattr("sys.stdin.isatty", lambda: True)
+    bad = tmp_path / "bad-bytes.bin"
+    bad.write_bytes(b"\xff\xfe\x00")
+
+    args = _parse(["--to", "telegram", "--file", str(bad)])
+    with pytest.raises(SystemExit) as exc:
+        send_cmd.cmd_send(args)
+    assert exc.value.code == 2
+    err = capsys.readouterr().err
+    assert "cannot read" in err.lower()
+
+
 def test_tool_error_returns_failure_exit(monkeypatch, capsys):
     import sys as _sys
     import types as _types
diff --git a/ui-tui/src/__tests__/text.test.ts b/ui-tui/src/__tests__/text.test.ts
index 566d1e41cf6..047ad67912f 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/__tests__/text.test.ts
+++ b/ui-tui/src/__tests__/text.test.ts
@@ -115,6 +115,13 @@ describe('ANSI sanitizers', () => {
     expect(sanitizeAnsiForRender(sample)).toBe(`A${ESC}[31mB${ESC}[39mCD`)
   })
 
+  it('strips multi-byte non-CSI ESC sequences without leaving trailing bytes', () => {
+    const sample = `A${ESC}(0B${ESC}%GC${ESC})0D`
+
+    expect(stripAnsi(sample)).toBe('ABCD')
+    expect(sanitizeAnsiForRender(sample)).toBe('ABCD')
+  })
+
   it('detects non-CSI escape prefixes too', () => {
     expect(hasAnsi(`ok${ESC}Ppayload${ESC}\\`)).toBe(true)
   })
diff --git a/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts b/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts
index 5a5bdce603d..ef3a1816975 100644
--- a/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts
+++ b/ui-tui/src/lib/text.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ const ANSI_CSI_WITH_CMD_RE = new RegExp(`${ESC}\\[[0-?]*[ -/]*([@-~])`, 'g')
 const ANSI_INCOMPLETE_CSI_RE = new RegExp(`${ESC}\\[[0-?]*[ -/]*(?=${ESC}|\\n|$)`, 'g')
 const ANSI_OSC_RE = new RegExp(`${ESC}\\][\\s\\S]*?(?:${BEL}|${ESC}\\\\)`, 'g')
 const ANSI_STRING_RE = new RegExp(`${ESC}[PX^_][\\s\\S]*?(?:${BEL}|${ESC}\\\\)`, 'g')
+const ANSI_NON_CSI_ESC_SEQ_RE = new RegExp(`${ESC}(?!\\[|\\]|P|X|\\^|_)[ -/]*[0-~]`, 'g')
 const ANSI_STRAY_ESC_RE = new RegExp(`${ESC}(?!\\[)[\\s\\S]?`, 'g')
 const CONTROL_RE = /[\x00-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0D\x0E-\x1A\x1C-\x1F\x7F]/g
 const WS_RE = /\s+/g
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ export const stripAnsi = (s: string) =>
     .replace(ANSI_INCOMPLETE_CSI_RE, '')
     .replace(ANSI_CSI_RE, '')
     .replace(ANSI_INCOMPLETE_CSI_RE, '')
+    .replace(ANSI_NON_CSI_ESC_SEQ_RE, '')
     .replace(ANSI_STRAY_ESC_RE, '')
     .replace(CONTROL_RE, '')
 
@@ -36,6 +38,7 @@ export const sanitizeAnsiForRender = (s: string) =>
     .replace(ANSI_INCOMPLETE_CSI_RE, '')
     .replace(ANSI_CSI_WITH_CMD_RE, (seq, cmd: string) => (cmd === 'm' ? seq : ''))
     .replace(ANSI_INCOMPLETE_CSI_RE, '')
+    .replace(ANSI_NON_CSI_ESC_SEQ_RE, '')
     .replace(ANSI_STRAY_ESC_RE, '')
     .replace(CONTROL_RE, '')