From d18ca3888231df4de0ca64bf402f3c6383bf0623 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "planetrenox@protonmail.com" <planetrenox@protonmail.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2026 22:18:53 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Feat: Add a 404 page so unknown URLs stop serving the
 homepage

Cloudflare Pages falls back to the homepage with a 200 when there's no
404.html, which Google treats as soft 404s. The generated 404.html is
noindex and shows a detective gif from vibegif.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 scripts/generate-pages.mjs |  5 +++--
 scripts/lib/renderers.mjs  | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 scripts/lib/templates.mjs  |  3 ++-
 3 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/generate-pages.mjs b/scripts/generate-pages.mjs
index 4a1b152..a0dd85f 100644
--- a/scripts/generate-pages.mjs
+++ b/scripts/generate-pages.mjs
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import { marked } from "marked";
 import markedKatex from "marked-katex-extension";
 import { ARTICLES_GLOB, AUTHOR_PAGES, ROOT, SRC, UNLISTED_PATH } from "./lib/constants.mjs";
 import { fixInternalLinks } from "./lib/utils.mjs";
-import { renderArticle, renderHome, renderWritePage, renderNewsletterPage, renderUnsubscribePage, renderAuthorPage } from "./lib/renderers.mjs";
+import { renderArticle, renderHome, renderWritePage, renderNewsletterPage, renderUnsubscribePage, renderAuthorPage, renderNotFound } from "./lib/renderers.mjs";
 import { ensureCleanGenerated, writeDiscoveryFiles, writePage } from "./lib/io.mjs";
 
 marked.use(markedKatex({ throwOnError: false, nonStandard: true }));
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ const run = async () => {
   await writePage([SRC, "write", "index.html"], renderWritePage());
   await writePage([SRC, "newsletter", "index.html"], renderNewsletterPage());
   await writePage([SRC, "newsletter", "unsubscribe.html"], renderUnsubscribePage());
+  await writePage([SRC, "404.html"], renderNotFound());
 
   for (const author of AUTHOR_PAGES) {
     await writePage([SRC, "author", author.slug, "index.html"], renderAuthorPage(author));
@@ -79,7 +80,7 @@ const run = async () => {
 
   await writeDiscoveryFiles(listedArticles, AUTHOR_PAGES);
 
-  console.log(`Generated ${articles.length} article pages (${listedArticles.length} listed) + home + write + newsletter + unsubscribe + author pages + rss/sitemap/robots.`);
+  console.log(`Generated ${articles.length} article pages (${listedArticles.length} listed) + home + write + newsletter + unsubscribe + author pages + 404 + rss/sitemap/robots.`);
 };
 
 run().catch((err) => {
diff --git a/scripts/lib/renderers.mjs b/scripts/lib/renderers.mjs
index 78aeee3..56acb89 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/renderers.mjs
+++ b/scripts/lib/renderers.mjs
@@ -95,6 +95,29 @@ ${nav}
 ${footer}
 `;
 
+// Served by Cloudflare Pages with a 404 status for any path that doesn't exist (instead of falling back to the homepage)
+export const renderNotFound = () => `
+${shellHead({
+  title: "Page not found — apophenia.news",
+  desc: "This page doesn't exist.",
+  type: "website",
+  noindex: true
+})}
+${nav}
+<main class="shell py-10">
+  <section class="card p-6 sm:p-10 text-center bg-gradient-to-b from-white to-indigo-50/50">
+    <img src="https://vibegif.direct-img.link/detective/clue.webp" alt="Detective searching for clues with a magnifying glass" width="256" height="256" class="mx-auto h-48 w-48" />
+    <p class="tag mt-6 mb-3"><i data-lucide="search" class="h-3.5 w-3.5"></i>404</p>
+    <h1 class="text-4xl sm:text-5xl font-bold leading-tight">No pattern here</h1>
+    <p class="mt-4 text-zinc-700 max-w-xl mx-auto">This page doesn't exist or has moved. Even pattern seekers hit a dead end sometimes.</p>
+    <a href="/" class="mt-6 inline-flex items-center gap-2 rounded-xl bg-accent px-5 py-3 text-sm font-medium text-white transition hover:bg-indigo-700">
+      <i data-lucide="arrow-left" class="h-4 w-4"></i> Back to Home
+    </a>
+  </section>
+</main>
+${footer}
+`;
+
 export const renderNewsletterPage = () => `
 ${shellHead({
   title: "Newsletter — apophenia.news",
diff --git a/scripts/lib/templates.mjs b/scripts/lib/templates.mjs
index 81173a5..e343ecd 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/templates.mjs
+++ b/scripts/lib/templates.mjs
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ export const merch = `
 </section>
 `;
 
-export const shellHead = ({ title, desc, image, url, type = "website" }) => `<!doctype html>
+export const shellHead = ({ title, desc, image, url, type = "website", noindex = false }) => `<!doctype html>
 <html lang="en">
 <head>
   <meta charset="UTF-8" />
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ export const shellHead = ({ title, desc, image, url, type = "website" }) => `<!d
   ${url ? `<meta property="og:url" content="${url}" />` : ""}
   ${image ? `<meta property="og:image" content="${image}" />` : ""}
   <meta name="theme-color" content="#fcfcfa" />
+  ${noindex ? `<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />` : ""}
   ${url ? `<link rel="canonical" href="${url}" />` : ""}
   <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon.svg" />
   <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="apophenia.news RSS" href="${SITE_URL}/rss.xml" />