diff --git a/tools/router-stdin-helper.mjs b/tools/router-stdin-helper.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..29d6f999
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/router-stdin-helper.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * UTF-8 safe stdin reader for hooks.
+ * Fixes Windows Node stdin quirk: default `for await (chunk of stdin)` interprets
+ * chunks as Buffer, and `input += chunk` calls .toString() which uses utf-8 BUT
+ * fails on chunk boundaries that fall inside multi-byte sequences (e.g. cyrillic
+ * 2-byte chars split across chunks).
+ *
+ * Uses StringDecoder to handle multi-byte chars across chunks correctly.
+ */
+
+import { StringDecoder } from 'string_decoder';
+
+export async function readStdinAsUtf8(stdin) {
+  const decoder = new StringDecoder('utf-8');
+  let out = '';
+  for await (const chunk of stdin) {
+    out += decoder.write(chunk);
+  }
+  out += decoder.end();
+  return out;
+}
diff --git a/tools/router-stdin-helper.test.mjs b/tools/router-stdin-helper.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8caa2ba2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/router-stdin-helper.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { readStdinAsUtf8 } from './router-stdin-helper.mjs';
+
+async function* fromBuffers(buffers) {
+  for (const b of buffers) yield b;
+}
+
+describe('readStdinAsUtf8', () => {
+  it('decodes UTF-8 cyrillic correctly across chunk boundaries', async () => {
+    const text = 'посмотри сторожа достаточно ему информации?';
+    const buf = Buffer.from(text, 'utf-8');
+    // Split across multi-byte boundary (UTF-8 cyrillic = 2 bytes per char)
+    const mid = 9; // mid-byte split for 'посмо|три...'
+    const result = await readStdinAsUtf8(fromBuffers([buf.subarray(0, mid), buf.subarray(mid)]));
+    expect(result).toBe(text);
+  });
+
+  it('handles ASCII without modification', async () => {
+    const text = 'hello world';
+    const result = await readStdinAsUtf8(fromBuffers([Buffer.from(text)]));
+    expect(result).toBe(text);
+  });
+
+  it('returns empty string on empty stream', async () => {
+    const result = await readStdinAsUtf8(fromBuffers([]));
+    expect(result).toBe('');
+  });
+
+  it('does NOT mangle byte-level concatenation (regression guard)', async () => {
+    // The bug: `for await (const c of stdin) input += c` interprets Buffer
+    // via Buffer.prototype.toString() = 'utf-8' by default in Node, BUT
+    // concatenation across chunks at multi-byte boundary fails.
+    // Our helper must use a StringDecoder to handle the boundary.
+    const cyrillic = 'тест';
+    const buf = Buffer.from(cyrillic, 'utf-8');
+    // Split exactly in the middle of 'т' (2-byte char)
+    const result = await readStdinAsUtf8(fromBuffers([buf.subarray(0, 1), buf.subarray(1)]));
+    expect(result).toBe(cyrillic);
+  });
+});