diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3b4a54740f..ad43d50643 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 - [#3090](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/pull/3090): Remove database from TSDB index on DROP DATABASE.
 - [#2944](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/issues/2944): Don't require "WHERE time" when creating continuous queries.
 - [#3075](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/pull/3075): GROUP BY correctly when different tags have same value.
+- [#3078](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/pull/3078): Fix CLI panic on malformed INSERT.
 
 ## v0.9.0 [2015-06-11]
 
diff --git a/cmd/influx/main.go b/cmd/influx/main.go
index 3882db39c3..aaec4fcfa3 100644
--- a/cmd/influx/main.go
+++ b/cmd/influx/main.go
@@ -425,16 +425,17 @@ func (c *CommandLine) parseInto(stmt string) string {
 }
 
 func (c *CommandLine) Insert(stmt string) error {
-	stmt = stmt[7:]
-	if strings.EqualFold(stmt[:4], "into") {
-		stmt = c.parseInto(stmt[5:])
+	i, point := parseNextIdentifier(stmt)
+	if !strings.EqualFold(i, "insert") {
+		fmt.Printf("ERR: found %s, expected INSERT\n", i)
+		return nil
 	}
-	if c.RetentionPolicy == "" {
-		c.RetentionPolicy = "default"
+	if i, r := parseNextIdentifier(point); strings.EqualFold(i, "into") {
+		point = c.parseInto(r)
 	}
 	_, err := c.Client.Write(client.BatchPoints{
 		Points: []client.Point{
-			client.Point{Raw: stmt},
+			client.Point{Raw: point},
 		},
 		Database:         c.Database,
 		RetentionPolicy:  c.RetentionPolicy,
diff --git a/cmd/influx/main_test.go b/cmd/influx/main_test.go
index 01f299648a..3c42b3a5de 100644
--- a/cmd/influx/main_test.go
+++ b/cmd/influx/main_test.go
@@ -106,10 +106,13 @@ func TestParseCommand_Insert(t *testing.T) {
 		cmd string
 	}{
 		{cmd: "INSERT cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
-		{cmd: " INSERT test.test cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
-		{cmd: "INSERT   test.test cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
-		{cmd: "Insert test.test cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
-		{cmd: "insert test.test cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
+		{cmd: " INSERT cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
+		{cmd: "INSERT   cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west value=1.0"},
+		{cmd: "insert cpu,host=serverA,region=us-west    value=1.0    "},
+		{cmd: "insert"},
+		{cmd: "Insert "},
+		{cmd: "insert c"},
+		{cmd: "insert int"},
 	}
 
 	for _, test := range tests {