diff --git a/doc/source/api/streaming_decoding.rst b/doc/source/api/streaming_decoding.rst
index d7cea387..7a95b47c 100644
--- a/doc/source/api/streaming_decoding.rst
+++ b/doc/source/api/streaming_decoding.rst
@@ -18,6 +18,42 @@ When building custom sets of callbacks, feel free to start from
 .. doxygenvariable:: cbor_empty_callbacks
 
 
+Handling failures in callbacks
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Callbacks receive no return value, so there is no built-in channel to signal
+failure back to :func:`cbor_stream_decode`. Any error that occurs inside a
+callback — including allocation failures, validation errors, or application-level
+rejections — must be tracked by the callback itself, typically via a flag in the
+``context`` struct passed to :func:`cbor_stream_decode`:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+    struct my_context {
+        bool failed;
+        /* ... */
+    };
+
+    void my_string_callback(void *context, cbor_data data, uint64_t length) {
+        struct my_context *ctx = context;
+        if (length > MAX_ALLOWED) {
+            ctx->failed = true;
+            return;
+        }
+        char *copy = malloc(length);
+        if (copy == NULL) {
+            ctx->failed = true;
+            return;
+        }
+        /* ... */
+    }
+
+After each call to :func:`cbor_stream_decode`, check the flag before
+continuing. Note that :func:`cbor_load` handles allocation failures internally —
+the ``CBOR_ERR_MEMERROR`` result code is set when a builder callback fails to
+allocate memory.
+
+
 Callback types definition
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/examples/streaming_parser.c b/examples/streaming_parser.c
index 0c7a0b59..0edd3e1d 100644
--- a/examples/streaming_parser.c
+++ b/examples/streaming_parser.c
@@ -54,11 +54,17 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
   while (bytes_read < length) {
     decode_result = cbor_stream_decode(buffer + bytes_read, length - bytes_read,
                                        &callbacks, NULL);
-    if (decode_result.status == CBOR_DECODER_ERROR) {
-      fprintf(stderr, "Error at byte %zu\n", bytes_read);
+    if (decode_result.status == CBOR_DECODER_FINISHED) {
+      bytes_read += decode_result.read;
+    } else {
+      // The input was fully loaded into memory, so NEDATA means truncated data.
+      fprintf(stderr,
+              decode_result.status == CBOR_DECODER_NEDATA
+                  ? "Truncated data at byte %zu\n"
+                  : "Error at byte %zu\n",
+              bytes_read);
       break;
     }
-    bytes_read += decode_result.read;
   }
 
   free(buffer);
diff --git a/src/cbor.c b/src/cbor.c
index af99de1b..49926e33 100644
--- a/src/cbor.c
+++ b/src/cbor.c
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ cbor_item_t* cbor_load(cbor_data source, size_t source_size,
           break;
         }
       case CBOR_DECODER_NEDATA:
-        /* Data length doesn't match MTB expectation */
+        /* Not enough data to complete the current item */
         {
           result->error.code = CBOR_ERR_NOTENOUGHDATA;
           goto error;
diff --git a/src/cbor/data.h b/src/cbor/data.h
index a12e92f2..2522fec3 100644
--- a/src/cbor/data.h
+++ b/src/cbor/data.h
@@ -240,19 +240,19 @@ struct cbor_decoder_result {
   /** The decoding status */
   enum cbor_decoder_status status;
 
-  /** Number of bytes in the input buffer needed to resume parsing
+  /** Number of bytes needed in the input buffer to make progress
    *
-   * Set to 0 unless the result status is #CBOR_DECODER_NEDATA. If it is, then:
-   *  - If at least one byte was passed, #required will be set to the minimum
-   *    number of bytes needed to invoke a decoded callback on the current
-   *    prefix.
+   * Set to 0 unless the result status is #CBOR_DECODER_NEDATA. When it is:
+   *  - #required is the total number of bytes that must be present at the
+   *    start of the buffer before calling #cbor_stream_decode again will
+   *    invoke a callback. The caller should accumulate bytes until at least
+   *    #required bytes are available, then retry from the same position.
    *
-   *    For example: Attempting to decode a 1B buffer containing `0x19` will
-   *    set #required to 3 as `0x19` signals a 2B integer item, so we need at
-   *    least 3B to continue (the `0x19` MTB byte and two bytes of data needed
-   *    to invoke #cbor_callbacks.uint16).
+   *    For example: A 1B buffer containing `0x19` (a 2B uint16 item) will
+   *    set #required to 3 — the MTB byte plus two bytes of data.
    *
-   *  - If there was no data at all, #read will always be set to 1
+   *  - If the buffer was empty (source_size == 0), #required is set to 1
+   *    since at least the initial MTB byte is needed.
    */
   size_t required;
 };