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+---
+created: 2026-10-20T00:54:00Z
+title: Branded HTML error pages for browsers, JSON or plain errors for API calls
+area: framework
+severity: minor
+files:
+  - modules/surf/overlap.go
+  - modules/surf/params.go
+  - modules/surf/uploads.go
+g15office: jh5qzjba
+---
+
+## Problem
+
+An application without a frontend (for example `bin/demo serve` with no Nuxt site in front) answers a browser at `http://127.0.0.1:8080/` with the stdlib's raw `404 page not found` text. Unmatched routes and other framework-generated errors (404, 405, 500, maintenance) look broken to a person in a browser. WinterCMS and OctoberCMS ship generic error pages, but they are ugly.
+
+## Solution
+
+Negotiate the error response per request:
+
+- **Browser** (`Accept` prefers `text/html`, a navigation request, no `X-Requested-With`/JSON `Accept`, not an API prefix such as `/_<plugin>/api/`): a self-contained HTML page in the SummerCMS look (summercms.io palette, type and sun logo; inline CSS, no external assets), with the status code, a short human message, a link to `/` and, outside production, request details.
+- **API or programmatic call**: keep today's body (plain text or the `wire` JSON error shape) so PHP-compatible contracts and existing clients do not change.
+
+Covers the ServeMux fallback (unmatched route and method mismatch), `http.NotFound` calls inside surf (`overlap.go`, `params.go`, `uploads.go`) and the recover/500 path. Applications and themes should be able to override the templates (WinterCMS-style `error` / `404` pages), and the backend admin keeps its own SPA errors. Decide which module owns it (surf, or a new beach-named module) and document it in the module README and `docs/`.