diff --git a/internal/generate-tree.mjs b/internal/generate-tree.mjs
index 15791e8a2..7168adced 100644
--- a/internal/generate-tree.mjs
+++ b/internal/generate-tree.mjs
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ function readTokenUrlExpr() {
 // ── HTML escaping ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 const esc = (s) => String(s)
   .replace(/&/g, '&amp;').replace(/</g, '&lt;').replace(/>/g, '&gt;')
-  .replace(/"/g, '&quot;')
+  .replace(/\u0022/g, '&quot;')   // \u0022, not a bare quote: template-literal-check reads a bare one as an open string
 
 // ── Shared theme (dark, gem frames) ──────────────────────────────────────────
 const BASE_CSS = `