diff --git a/foodx_devops_tools/utilities/command.py b/foodx_devops_tools/utilities/command.py
index 26b4fc5..f86074b 100644
--- a/foodx_devops_tools/utilities/command.py
+++ b/foodx_devops_tools/utilities/command.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 import asyncio
 import dataclasses
+import locale
 import logging
 import pathlib
 import shutil
@@ -88,6 +89,10 @@ async def run_async_command(
     """
     Run an external command asynchronously.
 
+    Command logging is disabled by default to help prevent accidental
+    credential leakage to logs when commands may necessarily contain
+    sensitive data.
+
     Args:
         command: Command to be executed.
         enable_logging: Enable command and argument logging (default disabled)
@@ -99,15 +104,33 @@ async def run_async_command(
         # WARNING: logging is _disabled_ by default to prevent "default"
         # leakage of secrets into logs via command arguments
         log.debug("command to run, {0}".format(str(command)))
+
+    this_encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+    log.debug("sys.getdefaultencoding(), {0}".format(sys.getdefaultencoding()))
+    log.debug(
+        "locale.getpreferredencoding(), {0}".format(
+            locale.getpreferredencoding()
+        )
+    )
+    log.debug(
+        "sys.getfilesystemencoding(), {0}".format(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+    )
     this_process = await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec(
         *command, stdout=asyncio.subprocess.PIPE, stderr=asyncio.subprocess.PIPE
     )
 
     stdout, stderr = await this_process.communicate()
+    log.debug(
+        "run_async_command stdout, {0}".format(stdout.decode(this_encoding))
+    )
+    log.debug(
+        "run_async_command stderr, {0}".format(stderr.decode(this_encoding))
+    )
     result = CapturedStreams(
-        out=stdout.decode("utf-8"), error=stderr.decode("utf-8")
+        out=stdout.decode(this_encoding), error=stderr.decode(this_encoding)
     )
     if this_process.returncode != 0:
+        log.debug(f"command std out, {result.out}")
         raise CommandError(
             "External command run did not exit cleanly, {0}".format(
                 result.error
diff --git a/tests/ci/unit_tests/utilities/test_command.py b/tests/ci/unit_tests/utilities/test_command.py
index 888b698..e18852d 100644
--- a/tests/ci/unit_tests/utilities/test_command.py
+++ b/tests/ci/unit_tests/utilities/test_command.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     run_async_command,
     run_command,
 )
+from foodx_devops_tools.utilities.exceptions import CommandError
 
 
 class TestRunCommand:
@@ -56,3 +57,25 @@ async def test_simple(self, mocker):
             stderr=asyncio.subprocess.PIPE
         )
         assert result == expected_output
+
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_error(self, mocker):
+        expected_output = CapturedStreams(out="", error="some error")
+        async_mock = AsyncMock()
+        async_mock.return_value.returncode = 1
+        async_mock.return_value.communicate.return_value = (
+            expected_output.out.encode(),
+            expected_output.error.encode(),
+        )
+        mocker.patch(
+            "foodx_devops_tools.utilities.command.asyncio"
+            ".create_subprocess_exec",
+            side_effect=async_mock,
+        )
+        command = ["something", "--option"]
+
+        with pytest.raises(
+            CommandError,
+            match=r"^External command run did " r"not exit cleanly",
+        ):
+            await run_async_command(command)