diff --git a/appview/repo/repo.go b/appview/repo/repo.go
index c1f1d338..b4a9aa50 100644
--- a/appview/repo/repo.go
+++ b/appview/repo/repo.go
@@ -375,12 +375,25 @@ func (rp *Repo) RepoTree(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	if !rp.config.Core.Dev {
 		protocol = "https"
 	}
+
+	// if the tree path has a trailing slash, let's strip it
+	// so we don't 404
+	treePath = strings.TrimSuffix(treePath, "/")
+
 	resp, err := http.Get(fmt.Sprintf("%s://%s/%s/%s/tree/%s/%s", protocol, f.Knot, f.OwnerDid(), f.Repo.Name, ref, treePath))
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Println("failed to reach knotserver", err)
 		return
 	}
 
+	// uhhh so knotserver returns a 500 if the entry isn't found in
+	// the requested tree path, so let's stick to not-OK here.
+	// we can fix this once we build out the xrpc apis for these operations.
+	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		rp.pages.Error404(w)
+		return
+	}
+
 	body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("Error reading response body: %v", err)
@@ -528,6 +541,11 @@ func (rp *Repo) RepoBlob(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		return
 	}
 
+	if resp.StatusCode == http.StatusNotFound {
+		rp.pages.Error404(w)
+		return
+	}
+
 	body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("Error reading response body: %v", err)