diff --git a/git/hooks/pre-commit b/git/hooks/pre-commit
index a216261..6b8bf5b 100755
--- a/git/hooks/pre-commit
+++ b/git/hooks/pre-commit
@@ -56,8 +56,12 @@ while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
     if [ -f "$file" ]; then
         size=$(wc -c < "$file")
         if [ "$size" -gt 5242880 ]; then
-            echo -e "${RED}Error: $file is larger than 5MB${NC}"
-            echo "Consider using Git LFS for large files"
+            echo -e "${RED}Error: $file is larger than 5 MiB (5,242,880 bytes)${NC}"
+            echo "This ceiling measures the working-tree file. Git LFS does not exempt it,"
+            echo "and LFS was tried in this system and retired (chamber-library 0677e8a, 2026-06-05)."
+            echo "If this repo legitimately holds large files it needs its own hook:"
+            echo "copy .githooks from chamber-library (400c054), add the path exemption there,"
+            echo "then: git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks"
             exit 1
         fi
     fi