diff --git a/hive-forge/src/verbs/issue_create.rs b/hive-forge/src/verbs/issue_create.rs
index f162714d..5b279455 100644
--- a/hive-forge/src/verbs/issue_create.rs
+++ b/hive-forge/src/verbs/issue_create.rs
@@ -34,12 +34,20 @@ pub struct Args {
 /// # Errors
 ///
 /// Propagates any I/O error from the body input (`--body-file`,
-/// stdin), any transport error from the Forgejo REST call (network
-/// unreachable, 4xx/5xx response, token missing/invalid, the
-/// `--label` lookup's own list-labels call), an unresolved `--label`
-/// name, and any I/O error from writing the issue URL to stdout.
+/// stdin), an absent or whitespace-only body (an issue's body *is*
+/// the issue per this repo's contribution guidance — an empty one is
+/// never intentional, only ever the signature of a mistake upstream,
+/// e.g. a heredoc that bound to the wrong command in a pipeline), any
+/// transport error from the Forgejo REST call (network unreachable,
+/// 4xx/5xx response, token missing/invalid, the `--label` lookup's
+/// own list-labels call), an unresolved `--label` name, and any I/O
+/// error from writing the issue URL to stdout.
 pub fn run(client: &Client, args: Args) -> Result<()> {
-    let body = body::resolve(args.body.as_deref(), args.body_file.as_deref())?.unwrap_or_default();
+    let body = body::resolve_required(
+        args.body.as_deref(),
+        args.body_file.as_deref(),
+        "issue-create",
+    )?;
     let (owner, name) = client.owner_repo()?;
     let label_ids = if args.labels.is_empty() {
         None