diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f8ad483..bf59ea0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -59,7 +59,9 @@ prompt stays live), disable their components after resolve/timeout, accept custo
 anywhere an emoji goes, and take `cleanup=True` to delete the prompt afterward. `choose`
 auto-switches to a select dropdown for more than 5 options or long labels, truncates select
 option labels and the placeholder to Discord's caps, and raises `ValueError` for more than 25
-options (Discord's per-select cap).
+options (Discord's per-select cap). An emoji-only key is label-less on the button path (a
+button may be emoji-only), but on the select path it gets a non-empty fallback label (the
+key's own text form) alongside its emoji, since Discord rejects a select option with no label.
 
 ## What's inside
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8bf649a..b25e574 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
 [project]
 name = "dpy_commons"
-version = "0.1.1"
+version = "0.1.2"
 description = "Shared discord.py utilities — message/embed parsing, limit-fitting, link extraction, chunking, timestamps, await-prompts, limit-safe send. Config-free, installable."
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 dependencies = [
diff --git a/src/dpy_commons/prompts.py b/src/dpy_commons/prompts.py
index 15c09e8..88c9825 100644
--- a/src/dpy_commons/prompts.py
+++ b/src/dpy_commons/prompts.py
@@ -172,7 +172,9 @@ async def choose(
     """render a button per option (or a select dropdown for >5 options or long labels), await
     the click, and return the chosen option's VALUE or None(timeout); options maps an emoji
     (unicode / '<:name:id>' / Emoji) or a label to a return value; raises ValueError on empty
-    options or more than 25 (discord's per-select option cap)"""
+    options or more than 25 (discord's per-select option cap); on the select path an
+    emoji-only key gets a non-empty fallback label (the key's text form) alongside its emoji,
+    since discord's select options require a label but a button may be emoji-only"""
     if not options:
         raise ValueError("choose requires at least one option")
     if len(options) > SELECT_MAX_OPTIONS:
@@ -190,8 +192,7 @@ async def choose(
             token = str(i)
             mapping[token] = options[key]
             label, emoji = _split_key(key)
-            if label is not None:
-                label = truncate(label, SELECT_OPTION_LABEL_MAX)
+            label = truncate(label or str(key) or " ", SELECT_OPTION_LABEL_MAX)
             select.add_option(label=label, value=token, emoji=emoji)
         view.add_item(select)
     else: