diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index 974e1277bdcbdb..7a5f9296132bd9 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -176,17 +176,23 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
 
     if (!params.steering_add.empty() || !params.steering_sub.empty())
     {
+	    fprintf(stderr, "%s: steering: ('%s' - '%s') * %f\n",
+            __func__, params.steering_add.c_str(), params.steering_sub.c_str(), params.steering_mul);
+
+        params.steering_add.insert(0, 1, ' ');
+        params.steering_sub.insert(0, 1, ' ');
+
         auto add_tokens = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, params.steering_add, true);
         auto sub_tokens = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, params.steering_sub, true);
 
 
         if (add_tokens.size() != sub_tokens.size()) {
-           while (add_tokens.size() < sub_tokens.size()) {
-               add_tokens.push_back(llama_token_nl());
-           }
-           while (sub_tokens.size() < add_tokens.size()) {
-               sub_tokens.push_back(llama_token_nl());
-           }
+            while (add_tokens.size() < sub_tokens.size()) {
+                add_tokens.push_back(llama_token_nl());
+            }
+            while (sub_tokens.size() < add_tokens.size()) {
+                sub_tokens.push_back(llama_token_nl());
+            }
         }
 
         llama_set_steering_write(ctx, params.steering_source, +1.0f);
@@ -196,7 +202,6 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         llama_eval(ctx, sub_tokens.data(), std::min((int)sub_tokens.size(), n_ctx), 0, params.n_threads);
 
         llama_set_steering_read(ctx, params.steering_layer, params.steering_mul);
-	std::cout << "Steering: `" << params.steering_add << "` - `" << params.steering_sub << "` * " << params.steering_mul << "\n";
     }
 
     // debug message about similarity of saved session, if applicable