diff --git a/docs/DEVELOP.md b/docs/DEVELOP.md
index f4e614823fc..5617ece18a0 100644
--- a/docs/DEVELOP.md
+++ b/docs/DEVELOP.md
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ This document explains how to configure the environment, run the LLM benchmark t
 
 Use this single command to quickly unblock CI by regenerating hashes and running only GPT-5 for the minimal Rust + C# passes. This is not the full benchmark suite.
 
+**Note: You will need OpenAI API keys to run this locally**. Alternatively, any SpacetimeDB member can comment `/update-llm-benchmark` on a PR to start a CI job to do this.
+
 `cargo llm ci-quickfix`
 What this does:
 1. Runs Rust rustdoc_json pass for GPT-5 only.
diff --git a/tools/xtask-llm-benchmark/src/bin/llm_benchmark.rs b/tools/xtask-llm-benchmark/src/bin/llm_benchmark.rs
index 53e7eae176a..be7d49a8970 100644
--- a/tools/xtask-llm-benchmark/src/bin/llm_benchmark.rs
+++ b/tools/xtask-llm-benchmark/src/bin/llm_benchmark.rs
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ fn cmd_ci_check(args: CiCheckArgs) -> Result<()> {
     };
 
     // Debug hint for how to (re)generate entries
-    let hint_for = |_lang: Lang| -> &'static str { "cargo llm ci-quickfix" };
+    let hint_for = |_lang: Lang| -> &'static str { "Check DEVELOP.md for instructions on how to proceed." };
 
     // Load docs-benchmark summary to compare hashes against
     let summary_path = docs_benchmark_summary();
@@ -298,13 +298,13 @@ fn cmd_ci_check(args: CiCheckArgs) -> Result<()> {
         match xtask_llm_benchmark::context::resolve_mode_paths(mode) {
             Ok(paths) if !paths.is_empty() => {}
             Ok(_) => bail!(
-                "CI check FAILED: {}/{} resolved to 0 paths.\n→ Try: {}",
+                "CI check FAILED: {}/{} resolved to 0 paths.\n→ {}",
                 mode,
                 lang_str,
                 hint_for(lang)
             ),
             Err(e) => bail!(
-                "CI check FAILED: {}/{} not available: {}.\n→ Try: {}",
+                "CI check FAILED: {}/{} not available: {}.\n→ {}",
                 mode,
                 lang_str,
                 e,