diff --git a/sqlmesh/integrations/github/cicd/controller.py b/sqlmesh/integrations/github/cicd/controller.py
index c693d09560..58b0664c2d 100644
--- a/sqlmesh/integrations/github/cicd/controller.py
+++ b/sqlmesh/integrations/github/cicd/controller.py
@@ -1182,13 +1182,26 @@ def get_command_from_comment(self) -> BotCommand:
 
     def _chunk_up_api_message(self, message: str) -> t.List[str]:
         """
-        Chunks up the message into `MAX_BYTE_LENGTH` byte chunks
+        Chunks up the message into chunks of at most `MAX_BYTE_LENGTH` bytes when
+        UTF-8 encoded.
+
+        Chunk boundaries are placed between characters rather than raw bytes so a
+        multibyte character that lands on a boundary is never split and dropped.
         """
-        message_encoded = message.encode("utf-8")
-        return [
-            message_encoded[i : i + self.MAX_BYTE_LENGTH].decode("utf-8", "ignore")
-            for i in range(0, len(message_encoded), self.MAX_BYTE_LENGTH)
-        ]
+        chunks: t.List[str] = []
+        current = ""
+        current_length = 0
+        for char in message:
+            char_length = len(char.encode("utf-8"))
+            if current and current_length + char_length > self.MAX_BYTE_LENGTH:
+                chunks.append(current)
+                current = ""
+                current_length = 0
+            current += char
+            current_length += char_length
+        if current:
+            chunks.append(current)
+        return chunks
 
     @property
     def running_in_github_actions(self) -> bool:
diff --git a/tests/integrations/github/cicd/test_github_controller.py b/tests/integrations/github/cicd/test_github_controller.py
index 96895a5960..a309d56126 100644
--- a/tests/integrations/github/cicd/test_github_controller.py
+++ b/tests/integrations/github/cicd/test_github_controller.py
@@ -915,3 +915,22 @@ def test_forward_only_config_falls_back_to_plan_config(
 
     controller._context.config.plan.forward_only = False
     assert controller.forward_only_plan is False
+
+
+def test_chunk_up_api_message_preserves_multibyte_chars(
+    github_client, make_event_issue_comment, make_controller
+):
+    controller = make_controller(make_event_issue_comment("created", "test"), github_client)
+
+    max_bytes = controller.MAX_BYTE_LENGTH
+    # Place a multibyte character exactly on the byte boundary between two chunks so
+    # that byte-oriented slicing would bisect its UTF-8 encoding and drop it.
+    message = ("a" * (max_bytes - 1)) + "é" + ("b" * max_bytes)
+    assert len(message.encode("utf-8")) > max_bytes
+
+    chunks = controller._chunk_up_api_message(message)
+
+    # No character is lost, so the chunks reassemble into the original message.
+    assert "".join(chunks) == message
+    # Each chunk still respects the GitHub API byte limit.
+    assert all(len(chunk.encode("utf-8")) <= max_bytes for chunk in chunks)