diff --git a/quickwit/quickwit-cli/src/lib.rs b/quickwit/quickwit-cli/src/lib.rs
index 21ec50cfdaf..7340ddcd010 100644
--- a/quickwit/quickwit-cli/src/lib.rs
+++ b/quickwit/quickwit-cli/src/lib.rs
@@ -223,7 +223,11 @@ async fn load_node_config(config_uri: &Uri) -> anyhow::Result<NodeConfig> {
     let config_format = ConfigFormat::sniff_from_uri(config_uri)?;
     let config = NodeConfig::load(config_format, config_content.as_slice())
         .await
-        .with_context(|| format!("failed to parse node config `{config_uri}`"))?;
+        .with_context(|| {
+            let config_str =
+                std::str::from_utf8(&config_content).expect("config should be valid utf-8");
+            format!("failed to parse node config `{config_uri}`: {config_str}")
+        })?;
     info!(config_uri=%config_uri, config=?config, "loaded node config");
     Ok(config)
 }