lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm | 1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/Qspawn.pm         | 3 ++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm
index 5b879871bbb1d7c9b732b087d88b639526fb64c9..744324294917df02bd07166a8d4e9423714b871d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/GitHTTPBackend.pm
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ 	# PublicInbox::HTTPD::Async::event_step to close shortly after
 	if ($code == 404 && $ctx->{www} && !$ctx->{_coderepo_tried}++) {
 		my $wcb = delete $ctx->{env}->{'qspawn.wcb'};
 		$ctx->{env}->{'plack.skip-deflater'} = 1; # prevent 2x gzip
+		$ctx->{env}->{'qspawn.fallback'} = $code;
 		my $res = $ctx->{www}->coderepo->srv($ctx);
 		# for ->psgi_return_init_cb
 		$ctx->{env}->{'qspawn.wcb'} = $wcb;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Qspawn.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Qspawn.pm
index ab0ef25c5611f3e645a4f4e593ae143ee94291a6..f8cbffcb359b74629a888119bcbba4237335d0ad 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Qspawn.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Qspawn.pm
@@ -109,8 +109,9 @@ 	}
 	return if $self->{passed}; # another command chained it
 	if (my $wcb = delete $env->{'qspawn.wcb'}) {
 		# have we started writing, yet?
+		my $code = delete $env->{'qspawn.fallback'} // 500;
 		require PublicInbox::WwwStatic;
-		$wcb->(PublicInbox::WwwStatic::r(500));
+		$wcb->(PublicInbox::WwwStatic::r($code));
 	}
 }