diff --git a/apps/docs/app/not-found.tsx b/apps/docs/app/not-found.tsx
index ce28496..0a4c796 100644
--- a/apps/docs/app/not-found.tsx
+++ b/apps/docs/app/not-found.tsx
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import { i18n } from '@/lib/i18n';
+
 /**
  * 404 shell for routes that are not under the `[lang]` segment.
  *
@@ -11,20 +13,104 @@
  *
  * - a path that matches no route (`/no-such-page`), which Next serves from the
  *   root `_not-found` entry;
- * - `notFound()` thrown by a page below `[lang]` (`/docs/no-such-page`), which
- *   unwinds to the nearest not-found boundary. That boundary is this one, and it
- *   sits above the locale layout, so that layout's shell is replaced rather than
- *   wrapped. There is no nesting risk and exactly one root element either way.
+ * - a first segment that is not an enumerated locale (`/foo.bar/privacy`) or an
+ *   unknown docs slug (`/docs/no-such-page`), both of which `dynamicParams =
+ *   false` rejects at the routing level and routes to that same entry.
  *
- * `en` is hardcoded deliberately: this boundary is above the locale segment and
- * cannot read it, which is the same position the root layout was in before. That
- * is what `main` declared here, and matching it keeps the 404 unchanged by the
- * locale work rather than quietly redesigned by it. The markup below reproduces
- * the Next.js built-in 404 that `main` rendered through the old root layout.
+ * This boundary is above the locale segment and cannot read it. The server
+ * markup below therefore declares `en` — what `main` has always declared here —
+ * and the locale is applied in the browser instead, by the script at the end of
+ * the body.
+ *
+ * ## Why the locale is applied client-side and not server-side
+ *
+ * The obvious fix is to have `middleware.ts` put the negotiated locale in a
+ * request header and read it here through `headers()`. It was built and
+ * measured, and it is not viable: this file is the root not-found boundary, so
+ * it sits in *every* route's tree, and a dynamic API in it opts the whole app
+ * out of static generation. Measured on this tree, with `middleware.ts` left
+ * byte-identical to `main` so the reading is attributable to this file alone:
+ *
+ *   - prerendered HTML documents fall from **577 to 1**;
+ *   - `/`, `/[lang]`, `/[lang]/docs/[[...slug]]`, `/[lang]/privacy` and
+ *     `/[lang]/terms` all go from prerendered to server-rendered on demand;
+ *   - `dynamicParams = false` stops rejecting anything, because there is no
+ *     prerendered param set left to reject against. `/foo.bar/privacy` answers
+ *     **200** again and `/foo.bar/docs` answers **500** again, undoing #209 and
+ *     #180;
+ *   - `/docs/no-such-page` and `/zh-Hans/docs/no-such-page` come back as the
+ *     594-byte empty error shell, undoing #182 and #192.
+ *
+ * The comment in `app/layout.tsx` predicted the first of those. The rest was
+ * only visible by building it.
+ *
+ * `app/[lang]/not-found.tsx` is not an alternative either — #182 measured it as
+ * a no-op with byte-identical output and an identical route table.
+ *
+ * ## What the script does, and what it deliberately does not
+ *
+ * `middleware.ts` already redirects a prefix-less path to the reader's
+ * negotiated locale before anything renders, so a non-English reader who
+ * follows a stale link is at `/zh-Hans/...` by the time this page is served.
+ * The locale is therefore in the URL for every request that has one at all, and
+ * reading it from `location.pathname` needs no header and no dynamic render.
+ *
+ * The page stays `○` prerendered: one document, served byte-identical for every
+ * unmatched URL, which is the property #209 measured and pinned.
+ *
+ * The cost, stated plainly: the document declares `en` at parse time and is
+ * corrected once the script runs. That is invisible to indexing (a 404 body is
+ * not indexed, and a crawler is told 404 either way) and it never produces an
+ * inconsistent document — `lang` and the copy are set together in one
+ * synchronous block, so the page is either English-declaring-English or
+ * Chinese-declaring-Chinese, never one over the other. With scripting off it
+ * stays exactly what `main` serves today.
+ *
+ * The markup reproduces the Next.js built-in 404. It is not a designed error
+ * page and should not grow navigation or search.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * 404 copy per locale. English is the source; a locale missing from this table
+ * keeps English, which is the same fallback Fumadocs applies to an untranslated
+ * page. `content/docs/` translations are derived artifacts refreshed by a
+ * separate pass (AGENTS.md, "Translation workflow"); this table is UI copy in
+ * app code, the shape `app/[lang]/privacy/page.tsx` already uses.
+ */
+const COPY: Record<string, string> = {
+  en: 'This page could not be found.',
+  'zh-Hans': '找不到此页面。',
+  ja: 'このページは見つかりませんでした。',
+  de: 'Diese Seite konnte nicht gefunden werden.',
+  es: 'No se ha podido encontrar esta página.',
+  fr: 'Cette page est introuvable.',
+  ko: '이 페이지를 찾을 수 없습니다.',
+};
+
+/**
+ * Inlined verbatim into a `script` element, so it must stay free of anything
+ * that could close that element early. Every value it embeds is a compile-time
+ * constant in this file and in `lib/i18n.ts`; none carries markup.
+ *
+ * `i18n.languages` is read rather than `Object.keys(COPY)` on purpose: the
+ * locale list is the authority for what may appear as a first segment, and a
+ * locale that is in the list but not yet in `COPY` must fall through to English
+ * rather than be treated as an unknown segment.
  */
+const APPLY_LOCALE = `(function(){try{
+var copy=${JSON.stringify(COPY)};
+var langs=${JSON.stringify(i18n.languages)};
+var seg=location.pathname.split('/')[1];
+if(langs.indexOf(seg)===-1||!copy[seg])return;
+document.documentElement.lang=seg;
+document.title='404: '+copy[seg];
+var el=document.getElementById('nf-message');
+if(el)el.textContent=copy[seg];
+}catch(e){}})();`;
+
 export default function NotFound() {
   return (
-    <html lang="en" suppressHydrationWarning>
+    <html lang={i18n.defaultLanguage} suppressHydrationWarning>
       <body className="flex flex-col min-h-screen">
         <title>404: This page could not be found.</title>
         <div
@@ -61,7 +147,15 @@ export default function NotFound() {
               404
             </h1>
             <div style={{ display: 'inline-block' }}>
+              {/*
+                `suppressHydrationWarning` because the script below rewrites this
+                text before React hydrates. Without it React treats the rewritten
+                text as a mismatch and patches English back in — measured in a
+                real browser, which is the only place that difference is visible.
+              */}
               <h2
+                id="nf-message"
+                suppressHydrationWarning
                 style={{
                   fontSize: 14,
                   fontWeight: 400,
@@ -74,6 +168,7 @@ export default function NotFound() {
             </div>
           </div>
         </div>
+        <script dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: APPLY_LOCALE }} />
       </body>
     </html>
   );