diff --git a/apps/vectorcraft-cli/src/main.rs b/apps/vectorcraft-cli/src/main.rs
index 7c23b0c90..431492836 100644
--- a/apps/vectorcraft-cli/src/main.rs
+++ b/apps/vectorcraft-cli/src/main.rs
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ fn parse_commands(source: &str, text: &str, first: usize) -> Result<Vec<Step>, S
             if entries.len() == MAX_COMMANDS_STEPS {
                 return Err(too_many());
             }
-            let v = serde_json::from_str(line).map_err(|e| format!("--commands {source}: line {}: {e}", n + 1))?;
+            let v = serde_json::from_str(line).map_err(|e| format!("--commands {source}: step {} (line {}): {e}", first + entries.len(), n + 1))?;
             entries.push((Some(n + 1), v));
         }
     }
diff --git a/apps/vectorcraft-cli/tests/cli.rs b/apps/vectorcraft-cli/tests/cli.rs
index 7f3abc94f..40ed4d177 100644
--- a/apps/vectorcraft-cli/tests/cli.rs
+++ b/apps/vectorcraft-cli/tests/cli.rs
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ fn run_refuses_malformed_commands_naming_the_step() {
     bad("params-array.json", br#"[{"command":"select.all","params":[1]}]"#, &["`params` of select.all must be a JSON object"]);
     bad("typo.json", br#"[{"command":"select.all","param":{}}]"#, &["unknown key `param`"]);
     bad("broken.json", b"[{\"command\":", &["--commands", "broken.json"]);
-    bad("lines.jsonl", b"{\"command\":\"select.all\"}\n\n{oops}\n", &["line 3"]);
+    bad("lines.jsonl", b"{\"command\":\"select.all\"}\n\n{oops}\n", &["step 2 (line 3)"]);
     bad("line-array.jsonl", b"{\"command\":\"select.all\"}\n[1]\n", &["step 2 (line 2)"]);
     bad("latin1.json", b"[{\"command\":\"select.all\",\"params\":{\"name\":\"\xe9\"}}]", &["not UTF-8"]);
     let many = "{\"command\":\"select.all\"}\n".repeat(100_001);