diff --git a/mercurial/commands.py b/mercurial/commands.py
--- a/mercurial/commands.py
+++ b/mercurial/commands.py
@@ -5360,7 +5360,7 @@ def serve(ui, repo, **opts):
            _('output patches for changes (provide the names of the shelved '
              'changes as positional arguments)')),
           ('i', 'interactive', None,
-           _('interactive mode, only works while creating a shelve')),
+           _('interactive mode')),
           ('', 'stat', None,
            _('output diffstat-style summary of changes (provide the names of '
              'the shelved changes as positional arguments)')
diff --git a/tests/test-shelve.t b/tests/test-shelve.t
--- a/tests/test-shelve.t
+++ b/tests/test-shelve.t
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ shelve has a help message
    -n --name NAME           use the given name for the shelved commit
    -p --patch               output patches for changes (provide the names of the
                             shelved changes as positional arguments)
-   -i --interactive         interactive mode, only works while creating a shelve
+   -i --interactive         interactive mode
       --stat                output diffstat-style summary of changes (provide
                             the names of the shelved changes as positional
                             arguments)