diff --git a/packages/cli/tests/json-redaction.test.mjs b/packages/cli/tests/json-redaction.test.mjs
index b028356ad..bbcffd626 100644
--- a/packages/cli/tests/json-redaction.test.mjs
+++ b/packages/cli/tests/json-redaction.test.mjs
@@ -21,10 +21,15 @@ function fixture(t) {
   };
   return { root, file, env, run, boot };
 }
-function redacted(result, file, status) {
+// label: the CLI refusal names the file by this label and never by host path (PR #1916).
+// Without it, the refusal comes from scripts/mosaic-config.mjs, which still names the file.
+function redacted(result, file, status, label) {
   assert.equal(result.status, status, result.stderr);
   assert.equal(result.stdout, '');
-  assert.ok(result.stderr.includes(file), result.stderr);
+  if (label) {
+    assert.ok(!result.stderr.includes(file), result.stderr);
+    assert.ok(result.stderr.includes(label), result.stderr);
+  } else assert.ok(result.stderr.includes(file), result.stderr);
   assert.match(result.stderr, /not valid JSON/);
   assert.doesNotMatch(result.stderr, /sk-test|Unexpected token/);
 }
@@ -40,7 +45,7 @@ test('system config parse refusal and CLI relay omit parser bytes', t => {
     assert.doesNotMatch(error.message, /sk-test|Unexpected token/);
     return true;
   });
-  redacted(f.run(cli, 'org', 'config', 'validate', 'alpha'), f.file, 3);
+  redacted(f.run(cli, 'org', 'config', 'validate', 'alpha'), f.file, 3, 'configuration is not valid JSON; expected readable JSON: the system config MOSAIC_CONFIG names');
 });
 
 test('named instance marker parse refusal omits parser bytes', t => {
@@ -55,5 +60,5 @@ for (const operation of ['validate', 'create', 'update']) test(`org ${operation}
   const file = join(f.root, 'alpha.json'); writeFileSync(file, secret);
   const args = operation === 'validate' ? ['validate', file]
     : [operation, 'alpha', '--from', file, ...(operation === 'update' ? ['--if-revision', '1'] : [])];
-  redacted(f.run(cli, 'org', ...args), file, 2);
+  redacted(f.run(cli, 'org', ...args), file, 2, 'mosaic: cannot read organization document: not valid JSON\n');
 });