diff --git a/v3/core/chunk.go b/v3/core/chunk.go
index cb60f9c..b0c369a 100644
--- a/v3/core/chunk.go
+++ b/v3/core/chunk.go
@@ -261,13 +261,21 @@ func (g *GrokkerInternal) similarChunks(embedding []float64, tokenLimit int, fil
 // findChunks returns the most relevant chunks for a query, limited by tokenLimit.
 func (g *GrokkerInternal) findChunks(query string, tokenLimit int, files []string) (chunks []*Chunk, err error) {
 	defer Return(&err)
-	// get the embeddings for the query.
-	embeddings, err := g.createEmbeddings([]string{query})
+	// break the query into chunks.
+	queryChunks, err := g.chunksFromString(nil, query, g.embeddingTokenLimit)
 	Ck(err)
-	queryEmbedding := embeddings[0]
-	if queryEmbedding == nil {
+	// get the embeddings for the chunks.
+	var queryStrings []string
+	for _, chunk := range queryChunks {
+		queryStrings = append(queryStrings, chunk.text)
+	}
+	embeddings, err := g.createEmbeddings(queryStrings)
+	Ck(err)
+	if len(embeddings) == 0 {
 		return
 	}
+	// average the embeddings.
+	queryEmbedding := util.MeanVector(embeddings)
 	// find the most similar chunks.
 	chunks, err = g.similarChunks(queryEmbedding, tokenLimit, files)
 	Ck(err)
diff --git a/v3/core/cli.go b/v3/core/cli.go
index 33ba0f4..7b8a22a 100644
--- a/v3/core/cli.go
+++ b/v3/core/cli.go
@@ -239,6 +239,8 @@ func cmdInSlice(cmd string, cmds []string) bool {
 // We use this function instead of kong.Parse() so that we can pass in
 // the arguments to parse.  This allows us to more easily test the
 // cli subcommands, and could later ease e.g. WASM usage.
+//
+// XXX note how gitea/tea does this, also uses urfave instead of kong
 func Cli(args []string, config *CliConfig) (rc int, err error) {
 	defer Return(&err)
 
diff --git a/v3/core/document.go b/v3/core/document.go
index 9202a35..20bc081 100644
--- a/v3/core/document.go
+++ b/v3/core/document.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package core
 import (
 	"path/filepath"
 
+	"github.com/stevegt/envi"
 	. "github.com/stevegt/goadapt"
 )
 
@@ -41,6 +42,15 @@ func (g *GrokkerInternal) updateDocument(doc *Document) (updated bool, err error
 	// hash, offset, and length.  We'll get embeddings later.
 	var newChunks []*Chunk
 	for _, chunk := range chunks {
+		if envi.Bool("DEBUG", false) {
+			// verify chunk text length
+			txt, err := g.chunkText(chunk, true, false)
+			Ck(err)
+			_, tokens, err := Tokenizer.Encode(txt)
+			Ck(err)
+			tc := len(tokens)
+			Assert(tc < g.embeddingTokenLimit, "chunk tokens %d exceeds limit %d: %v", tc, g.embeddingTokenLimit, chunk)
+		}
 		// setChunk unsets the stale bit if the chunk is already in the
 		// database.
 		// XXX move the stale bit unset to this loop instead, for readability.
@@ -53,6 +63,18 @@ func (g *GrokkerInternal) updateDocument(doc *Document) (updated bool, err error
 	Debug("found %d new chunks", len(newChunks))
 	// orphaned chunks will be garbage collected.
 
+	if envi.Bool("DEBUG", false) {
+		// verify newChunks text length
+		for _, chunk := range newChunks {
+			txt, err := g.chunkText(chunk, true, false)
+			Ck(err)
+			_, tokens, err := Tokenizer.Encode(txt)
+			Ck(err)
+			tc := len(tokens)
+			Assert(tc < g.embeddingTokenLimit, "chunk tokens %d exceeds limit %d: %v", tc, g.embeddingTokenLimit, chunk)
+		}
+	}
+
 	// For each new chunk, generate an embedding using the
 	// openai.Embedding.create() function. Store the embeddings for each
 	// chunk in a data structure such as a list or dictionary.
diff --git a/v3/core/grokker.go b/v3/core/grokker.go
index 47d6582..88c7055 100644
--- a/v3/core/grokker.go
+++ b/v3/core/grokker.go
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ import (
 const (
 	// See the "Semantic Versioning" section of the README for
 	// information on API and db stability and versioning.
-	version = "3.0.9"
+	version = "3.0.10"
 )
 
 type GrokkerInternal struct {
diff --git a/v3/core/openai.go b/v3/core/openai.go
index bb33cb2..069dc11 100644
--- a/v3/core/openai.go
+++ b/v3/core/openai.go
@@ -34,8 +34,6 @@ func (g *GrokkerInternal) createEmbeddings(texts []string) (embeddings [][]float
 	// simply call c.CreateEmbeddings() once for each text chunk.
 	for i := 0; i < len(texts); i++ {
 		text := texts[i]
-		// XXX don't exceed max tokens
-
 		// set empty chunk embedding to nil
 		if len(text) == 0 {
 			embeddings = append(embeddings, nil)
@@ -46,7 +44,7 @@ func (g *GrokkerInternal) createEmbeddings(texts []string) (embeddings [][]float
 			Input: inputs,
 			Model: fabius_models.AdaEmbeddingV2,
 		}
-		// Debug("creating embedding for chunk %d of %d ...", i+1, len(texts))
+		Debug("creating embedding for chunk %d of %d ...", i+1, len(texts))
 		// Debug("text: %q", text)
 		// loop with backoff until we get a response
 		var res *openai.EmbeddingResponse
diff --git a/v3/go.mod b/v3/go.mod
index eb6c88c..73cb3c0 100644
--- a/v3/go.mod
+++ b/v3/go.mod
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@ require (
 	github.com/tiktoken-go/tokenizer v0.1.0
 )
 
-require github.com/sergi/go-diff v1.3.1
+require (
+	github.com/sergi/go-diff v1.3.1
+	github.com/stevegt/envi v0.2.0
+)
 
 require (
 	github.com/dlclark/regexp2 v1.9.0 // indirect
diff --git a/v3/go.sum b/v3/go.sum
index 4bae341..44c8507 100644
--- a/v3/go.sum
+++ b/v3/go.sum
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai v1.19.1 h1:lIAtrpgE6Lhc3avbWG7wV4zeRWVi4nymQ7I
 github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai v1.19.1/go.mod h1:lj5b/K+zjTSFxVLijLSTDZuP7adOgerWeFyZLUhAKRg=
 github.com/sergi/go-diff v1.3.1 h1:xkr+Oxo4BOQKmkn/B9eMK0g5Kg/983T9DqqPHwYqD+8=
 github.com/sergi/go-diff v1.3.1/go.mod h1:aMJSSKb2lpPvRNec0+w3fl7LP9IOFzdc9Pa4NFbPK1I=
+github.com/stevegt/envi v0.2.0 h1:QIaNQz///ueqH/57ldwGQy0yRgaYr/d7JLBQfjg+RXs=
+github.com/stevegt/envi v0.2.0/go.mod h1:Z8w7bE5V9Ce3H02CWNTEYkW3zWE8ulgfROtEt6ydDoY=
+github.com/stevegt/goadapt v0.0.13/go.mod h1:BWNnTsXdIxaseRo0W/MoVgDeLNf+6L4S4fPhyAsBTi0=
 github.com/stevegt/goadapt v0.7.0 h1:brUmaaA4mr3hqQfglDAQh7/MVSWak52mEAOzfbSoMDg=
 github.com/stevegt/goadapt v0.7.0/go.mod h1:vquRbAl0Ek4iJHCvFUEDxziTsETR2HOT7r64NolhDKs=
 github.com/stevegt/semver v0.0.0-20230512043732-92220054a49f h1:erQJkdWx1bhOImDDPiVoNy+qP8sBoOJ8EsJ7gUiy8S8=