diff --git a/hgext/histedit.py b/hgext/histedit.py
--- a/hgext/histedit.py
+++ b/hgext/histedit.py
@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ class histeditstate(object):
         except IOError as err:
             if err.errno != errno.ENOENT:
                 raise
-            raise error.Abort(_('no histedit in progress'))
+            cmdutil.wrongtooltocontinue(self.repo, _('histedit'))
 
         if state.startswith('v1\n'):
             data = self._load()
diff --git a/tests/test-histedit-arguments.t b/tests/test-histedit-arguments.t
--- a/tests/test-histedit-arguments.t
+++ b/tests/test-histedit-arguments.t
@@ -133,6 +133,11 @@ temporarily.
   (hg histedit --continue to resume)
   [1]
 
+  $ hg graft --continue
+  abort: no graft in progress
+  (continue: hg histedit --continue)
+  [255]
+
   $ mv .hg/histedit-state .hg/histedit-state.back
   $ hg update --quiet --clean 2
   $ echo alpha >> alpha