diff --git a/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md
index e4b752eb..2bfb9ac1 100644
--- a/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/tui/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+
+- Fixed `truncateToWidth()` to stream truncation for very large strings, keep contiguous prefixes, and always terminate truncated SGR styling safely ([#2447](https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono/issues/2447))
+
 ## [0.61.1] - 2026-03-20
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/packages/tui/src/utils.ts b/packages/tui/src/utils.ts
index 228b2420..ad67efdd 100644
--- a/packages/tui/src/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/tui/src/utils.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,117 @@ const rgiEmojiRegex = /^\p{RGI_Emoji}$/v;
 const WIDTH_CACHE_SIZE = 512;
 const widthCache = new Map<string, number>();
 
+function isPrintableAscii(str: string): boolean {
+	for (let i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
+		const code = str.charCodeAt(i);
+		if (code < 0x20 || code > 0x7e) {
+			return false;
+		}
+	}
+	return true;
+}
+
+function truncateFragmentToWidth(text: string, maxWidth: number): { text: string; width: number } {
+	if (maxWidth <= 0 || text.length === 0) {
+		return { text: "", width: 0 };
+	}
+
+	if (isPrintableAscii(text)) {
+		const clipped = text.slice(0, maxWidth);
+		return { text: clipped, width: clipped.length };
+	}
+
+	const hasAnsi = text.includes("\x1b");
+	const hasTabs = text.includes("\t");
+	if (!hasAnsi && !hasTabs) {
+		let result = "";
+		let width = 0;
+		for (const { segment } of segmenter.segment(text)) {
+			const w = graphemeWidth(segment);
+			if (width + w > maxWidth) {
+				break;
+			}
+			result += segment;
+			width += w;
+		}
+		return { text: result, width };
+	}
+
+	let result = "";
+	let width = 0;
+	let i = 0;
+	let pendingAnsi = "";
+
+	while (i < text.length) {
+		const ansi = extractAnsiCode(text, i);
+		if (ansi) {
+			pendingAnsi += ansi.code;
+			i += ansi.length;
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		if (text[i] === "\t") {
+			if (width + 3 > maxWidth) {
+				break;
+			}
+			if (pendingAnsi) {
+				result += pendingAnsi;
+				pendingAnsi = "";
+			}
+			result += "\t";
+			width += 3;
+			i++;
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		let end = i;
+		while (end < text.length && text[end] !== "\t") {
+			const nextAnsi = extractAnsiCode(text, end);
+			if (nextAnsi) {
+				break;
+			}
+			end++;
+		}
+
+		for (const { segment } of segmenter.segment(text.slice(i, end))) {
+			const w = graphemeWidth(segment);
+			if (width + w > maxWidth) {
+				return { text: result, width };
+			}
+			if (pendingAnsi) {
+				result += pendingAnsi;
+				pendingAnsi = "";
+			}
+			result += segment;
+			width += w;
+		}
+		i = end;
+	}
+
+	return { text: result, width };
+}
+
+function finalizeTruncatedResult(
+	prefix: string,
+	prefixWidth: number,
+	ellipsis: string,
+	ellipsisWidth: number,
+	maxWidth: number,
+	pad: boolean,
+): string {
+	const reset = "\x1b[0m";
+	const visibleWidth = prefixWidth + ellipsisWidth;
+	let result: string;
+
+	if (ellipsis.length > 0) {
+		result = `${prefix}${reset}${ellipsis}${reset}`;
+	} else {
+		result = `${prefix}${reset}`;
+	}
+
+	return pad ? result + " ".repeat(Math.max(0, maxWidth - visibleWidth)) : result;
+}
+
 /**
  * Calculate the terminal width of a single grapheme cluster.
  * Based on code from the string-width library, but includes a possible-emoji
@@ -91,15 +202,7 @@ export function visibleWidth(str: string): number {
 	}
 
 	// Fast path: pure ASCII printable
-	let isPureAscii = true;
-	for (let i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
-		const code = str.charCodeAt(i);
-		if (code < 0x20 || code > 0x7e) {
-			isPureAscii = false;
-			break;
-		}
-	}
-	if (isPureAscii) {
+	if (isPrintableAscii(str)) {
 		return str.length;
 	}
 
@@ -695,76 +798,136 @@ export function truncateToWidth(
 	ellipsis: string = "...",
 	pad: boolean = false,
 ): string {
-	const textVisibleWidth = visibleWidth(text);
+	if (maxWidth <= 0) {
+		return "";
+	}
 
-	if (textVisibleWidth <= maxWidth) {
-		return pad ? text + " ".repeat(maxWidth - textVisibleWidth) : text;
+	if (text.length === 0) {
+		return pad ? " ".repeat(maxWidth) : "";
 	}
 
 	const ellipsisWidth = visibleWidth(ellipsis);
-	const targetWidth = maxWidth - ellipsisWidth;
+	if (ellipsisWidth >= maxWidth) {
+		const textWidth = visibleWidth(text);
+		if (textWidth <= maxWidth) {
+			return pad ? text + " ".repeat(maxWidth - textWidth) : text;
+		}
 
-	if (targetWidth <= 0) {
-		return ellipsis.substring(0, maxWidth);
+		const clippedEllipsis = truncateFragmentToWidth(ellipsis, maxWidth);
+		if (clippedEllipsis.width === 0) {
+			return pad ? " ".repeat(maxWidth) : "";
+		}
+		return finalizeTruncatedResult("", 0, clippedEllipsis.text, clippedEllipsis.width, maxWidth, pad);
 	}
 
-	// Separate ANSI codes from visible content using grapheme segmentation
-	let i = 0;
-	const segments: Array<{ type: "ansi" | "grapheme"; value: string }> = [];
+	if (isPrintableAscii(text)) {
+		if (text.length <= maxWidth) {
+			return pad ? text + " ".repeat(maxWidth - text.length) : text;
+		}
+		const targetWidth = maxWidth - ellipsisWidth;
+		return finalizeTruncatedResult(text.slice(0, targetWidth), targetWidth, ellipsis, ellipsisWidth, maxWidth, pad);
+	}
+
+	const targetWidth = maxWidth - ellipsisWidth;
+	let result = "";
+	let pendingAnsi = "";
+	let visibleSoFar = 0;
+	let keptWidth = 0;
+	let keepContiguousPrefix = true;
+	let overflowed = false;
+	let exhaustedInput = false;
+	const hasAnsi = text.includes("\x1b");
+	const hasTabs = text.includes("\t");
+
+	if (!hasAnsi && !hasTabs) {
+		for (const { segment } of segmenter.segment(text)) {
+			const width = graphemeWidth(segment);
+			if (keepContiguousPrefix && keptWidth + width <= targetWidth) {
+				result += segment;
+				keptWidth += width;
+			} else {
+				keepContiguousPrefix = false;
+			}
+			visibleSoFar += width;
+			if (visibleSoFar > maxWidth) {
+				overflowed = true;
+				break;
+			}
+		}
+		exhaustedInput = !overflowed;
+	} else {
+		let i = 0;
+		while (i < text.length) {
+			const ansi = extractAnsiCode(text, i);
+			if (ansi) {
+				pendingAnsi += ansi.code;
+				i += ansi.length;
+				continue;
+			}
+
+			if (text[i] === "\t") {
+				if (keepContiguousPrefix && keptWidth + 3 <= targetWidth) {
+					if (pendingAnsi) {
+						result += pendingAnsi;
+						pendingAnsi = "";
+					}
+					result += "\t";
+					keptWidth += 3;
+				} else {
+					keepContiguousPrefix = false;
+					pendingAnsi = "";
+				}
+				visibleSoFar += 3;
+				if (visibleSoFar > maxWidth) {
+					overflowed = true;
+					break;
+				}
+				i++;
+				continue;
+			}
 
-	while (i < text.length) {
-		const ansiResult = extractAnsiCode(text, i);
-		if (ansiResult) {
-			segments.push({ type: "ansi", value: ansiResult.code });
-			i += ansiResult.length;
-		} else {
-			// Find the next ANSI code or end of string
 			let end = i;
-			while (end < text.length) {
+			while (end < text.length && text[end] !== "\t") {
 				const nextAnsi = extractAnsiCode(text, end);
-				if (nextAnsi) break;
+				if (nextAnsi) {
+					break;
+				}
 				end++;
 			}
-			// Segment this non-ANSI portion into graphemes
-			const textPortion = text.slice(i, end);
-			for (const seg of segmenter.segment(textPortion)) {
-				segments.push({ type: "grapheme", value: seg.segment });
+
+			for (const { segment } of segmenter.segment(text.slice(i, end))) {
+				const width = graphemeWidth(segment);
+				if (keepContiguousPrefix && keptWidth + width <= targetWidth) {
+					if (pendingAnsi) {
+						result += pendingAnsi;
+						pendingAnsi = "";
+					}
+					result += segment;
+					keptWidth += width;
+				} else {
+					keepContiguousPrefix = false;
+					pendingAnsi = "";
+				}
+
+				visibleSoFar += width;
+				if (visibleSoFar > maxWidth) {
+					overflowed = true;
+					break;
+				}
+			}
+			if (overflowed) {
+				break;
 			}
 			i = end;
 		}
+		exhaustedInput = i >= text.length;
 	}
 
-	// Build truncated string from segments
-	let result = "";
-	let currentWidth = 0;
-
-	for (const seg of segments) {
-		if (seg.type === "ansi") {
-			result += seg.value;
-			continue;
-		}
-
-		const grapheme = seg.value;
-		// Skip empty graphemes to avoid issues with string-width calculation
-		if (!grapheme) continue;
-
-		const graphemeWidth = visibleWidth(grapheme);
-
-		if (currentWidth + graphemeWidth > targetWidth) {
-			break;
-		}
-
-		result += grapheme;
-		currentWidth += graphemeWidth;
+	if (!overflowed && exhaustedInput) {
+		return pad ? text + " ".repeat(Math.max(0, maxWidth - visibleSoFar)) : text;
 	}
 
-	// Add reset code before ellipsis to prevent styling leaking into it
-	const truncated = `${result}\x1b[0m${ellipsis}`;
-	if (pad) {
-		const truncatedWidth = visibleWidth(truncated);
-		return truncated + " ".repeat(Math.max(0, maxWidth - truncatedWidth));
-	}
-	return truncated;
+	return finalizeTruncatedResult(result, keptWidth, ellipsis, ellipsisWidth, maxWidth, pad);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/packages/tui/test/truncate-to-width.test.ts b/packages/tui/test/truncate-to-width.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fdfa9d4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/tui/test/truncate-to-width.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+import assert from "node:assert";
+import { describe, it } from "node:test";
+import { truncateToWidth, visibleWidth } from "../src/utils.js";
+
+describe("truncateToWidth", () => {
+	it("keeps output within width for very large unicode input", () => {
+		const text = "🙂界".repeat(100_000);
+		const truncated = truncateToWidth(text, 40, "…");
+
+		assert.ok(visibleWidth(truncated) <= 40);
+		assert.strictEqual(truncated.endsWith("…\x1b[0m"), true);
+	});
+
+	it("preserves ANSI styling for kept text and resets before and after ellipsis", () => {
+		const text = `\x1b[31m${"hello ".repeat(1000)}\x1b[0m`;
+		const truncated = truncateToWidth(text, 20, "…");
+
+		assert.ok(visibleWidth(truncated) <= 20);
+		assert.strictEqual(truncated.includes("\x1b[31m"), true);
+		assert.strictEqual(truncated.endsWith("\x1b[0m…\x1b[0m"), true);
+	});
+
+	it("handles malformed ANSI escape prefixes without hanging", () => {
+		const text = `abc\x1bnot-ansi ${"🙂".repeat(1000)}`;
+		const truncated = truncateToWidth(text, 20, "…");
+
+		assert.ok(visibleWidth(truncated) <= 20);
+	});
+
+	it("clips wide ellipsis safely and brackets it with resets", () => {
+		assert.strictEqual(truncateToWidth("abcdef", 1, "🙂"), "");
+		assert.strictEqual(truncateToWidth("abcdef", 2, "🙂"), "\x1b[0m🙂\x1b[0m");
+		assert.ok(visibleWidth(truncateToWidth("abcdef", 2, "🙂")) <= 2);
+	});
+
+	it("returns the original text when it already fits even if ellipsis is too wide", () => {
+		assert.strictEqual(truncateToWidth("a", 2, "🙂"), "a");
+		assert.strictEqual(truncateToWidth("界", 2, "🙂"), "界");
+	});
+
+	it("pads truncated output to requested width", () => {
+		const truncated = truncateToWidth("🙂界🙂界🙂界", 8, "…", true);
+		assert.strictEqual(visibleWidth(truncated), 8);
+	});
+
+	it("adds a trailing reset when truncating without an ellipsis", () => {
+		const truncated = truncateToWidth(`\x1b[31m${"hello".repeat(100)}`, 10, "");
+		assert.ok(visibleWidth(truncated) <= 10);
+		assert.strictEqual(truncated.endsWith("\x1b[0m"), true);
+	});
+
+	it("keeps a contiguous prefix instead of skipping a wide grapheme and resuming later", () => {
+		const truncated = truncateToWidth("🙂\t界 \x1b_abc\x07", 7, "…", true);
+		assert.strictEqual(truncated, "🙂\t\x1b[0m…\x1b[0m ");
+	});
+});
+
+describe("visibleWidth", () => {
+	it("counts tabs inline and skips ANSI inline", () => {
+		assert.strictEqual(visibleWidth("\t\x1b[31m界\x1b[0m"), 5);
+	});
+});