diff --git a/errors.go b/errors.go
index bf876a7..737daf7 100644
--- a/errors.go
+++ b/errors.go
@@ -162,20 +162,37 @@ func (p *Error) StackTrace() []uintptr {
 // encounter more than one terror in the chain with a stack frame, we'll print
 // each one, separated by three hyphens on their own line.
 func (p *Error) StackString() string {
+	// 32,000 seems like a reasonable limit for a stack trace. Otherwise, we risk
+	// overwhelming downstream systems.
+	return StackStringWithMaxSize(p, 32000)
+}
+
+func StackStringWithMaxSize(p *Error, sizeLimit int) string {
+	// if we run into this many causes, we've likely run into something absurd. Like
+	// a self causing error.
+	const maxCausalDepth = 1024
 	var buffer strings.Builder
 	terr := p
+	var causalDepth int
+outer:
 	for terr != nil {
 		if buffer.Len() != 0 && len(terr.StackFrames) > 0 {
 			fmt.Fprintf(&buffer, "\n---")
 		}
 		for _, frame := range terr.StackFrames {
+			// 10 seems like a reasonable estimate of how large the rest of the line would be.
+			estimatedLineLen := len(frame.Filename) + len(frame.Method) + 16
+			if estimatedLineLen+buffer.Len() > sizeLimit {
+				break outer
+			}
 			fmt.Fprintf(&buffer, "\n  %s:%d in %s", frame.Filename, frame.Line, frame.Method)
 		}
 
-		if tcause, ok := terr.cause.(*Error); ok {
+		if tcause, ok := terr.cause.(*Error); ok && causalDepth < maxCausalDepth {
 			terr = tcause
+			causalDepth += 1
 		} else {
-			break
+			break outer
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/errors_test.go b/errors_test.go
index 9dd49e1..4aa9cd2 100644
--- a/errors_test.go
+++ b/errors_test.go
@@ -595,3 +595,24 @@ func TestStackStringChasesCausalChain(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Log(ss)
 	assert.Contains(t, ss, "failyFunction")
 }
+
+func TestCircularErrorProducesFiniteOutputWithStackFrames(t *testing.T) {
+	orig := failyFunction()
+	err := Augment(orig, "something may be up", nil)
+	terr := err.(*Error)
+	terr.cause = terr
+	terr.StackFrames = orig.(*Error).StackFrames
+	ss := terr.StackString()
+
+	// The default field size limit used in elastic-slog. It's kind of arbitrary, but it'll do for now.
+	assert.Less(t, len(ss), 32000)
+	assert.GreaterOrEqual(t, len(ss), 32000-1000)
+}
+func TestCircularErrorProducesFiniteOutputWithoutStackFrames(t *testing.T) {
+	err := Augment(failyFunction(), "something may be up", nil)
+	terr := err.(*Error)
+	terr.cause = terr
+	ss := terr.StackString()
+	// There's no actual stack in the causal cycle, so we don't render anything here.
+	assert.Empty(t, ss)
+}