diff --git a/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/cagra_build.cuh b/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/cagra_build.cuh
index 96ff8344d3..44b011dd28 100644
--- a/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/cagra_build.cuh
+++ b/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/cagra_build.cuh
@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@ void check_graph_degree(size_t& intermediate_degree, size_t& graph_degree, size_
       intermediate_degree);
     graph_degree = intermediate_degree;
   }
+
+  const size_t recommended_intermediate = graph_degree + ((graph_degree + 1) / 2);
+  if (intermediate_degree < recommended_intermediate) {
+    RAFT_LOG_WARN(
+      "CAGRA: intermediate_graph_degree (%lu) is below the recommended minimum (%lu, i.e. "
+      "1.5 * graph_degree). Pruning to graph_degree (%lu) may result in a disconnected graph"
+      " if the intermediate graph does not retain enough neighborhood information.",
+      intermediate_degree,
+      recommended_intermediate,
+      graph_degree);
+  }
 }
 
 // ACE: Get partition labels for partitioned approach
diff --git a/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh b/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh
index 76992cc7d5..f7d8780c69 100644
--- a/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh
+++ b/cpp/src/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh
@@ -1679,11 +1679,18 @@ void prune_graph_gpu(
   raft::copy(res, host_stats.view(), raft::make_const_mdspan(dev_stats.view()));
   raft::resource::sync_stream(res);
 
+  const size_t recommended_intermediate = output_graph_degree + ((output_graph_degree + 1) / 2);
   RAFT_EXPECTS(
     invalid_neighbor_list == 0,
-    "Could not generate an intermediate CAGRA graph because the initial kNN graph contains too "
-    "many invalid or duplicated neighbor nodes. This error can occur, for example, if too many "
-    "overflows occur during the norm computation between the dataset vectors.");
+    "CAGRA graph pruning failed: could not select graph_degree (%lu) distinct neighbors for "
+    "every node from the intermediate kNN graph (intermediate_graph_degree=%lu). This usually "
+    "means the intermediate graph does not encode enough neighborhood information for pruning — "
+    "for example when intermediate_graph_degree is too close to graph_degree. Set "
+    "intermediate_graph_degree >= %lu (1.5 * graph_degree). "
+    "Other causes include invalid or duplicate neighbor indices in the intermediate kNN graph.",
+    output_graph_degree,
+    knn_graph_degree,
+    recommended_intermediate);
 
   num_keep = host_stats.data_handle()[0];
   num_full = host_stats.data_handle()[1];