diff --git a/src/client/lib/markdown.test.ts b/src/client/lib/markdown.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e19320
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/client/lib/markdown.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+// @vitest-environment jsdom
+import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest";
+import { highlightSearchText } from "./markdown";
+
+describe("highlightSearchText", () => {
+  it("highlights plain text matches", () => {
+    const result = highlightSearchText("<p>hello world</p>", "world");
+    expect(result).toBe(
+      '<p>hello <mark class="search-highlight">world</mark></p>'
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("returns html unchanged when query is empty", () => {
+    const html = "<p>hello</p>";
+    expect(highlightSearchText(html, "")).toBe(html);
+  });
+
+  it("does not match inside HTML tags", () => {
+    const html = '<a href="class-link">text</a>';
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "class");
+    // "class" appears in the href attribute but must not be highlighted there
+    expect(result).toBe('<a href="class-link">text</a>');
+  });
+
+  it("does not corrupt HTML entities when searching for entity content", () => {
+    const html = "<p>A &amp; B</p>";
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "amp");
+    // Must NOT produce &<mark>amp</mark>; — entity must remain intact
+    expect(result).toBe("<p>A &amp; B</p>");
+  });
+
+  it("does not corrupt &lt; entity", () => {
+    const html = "<p>a &lt; b</p>";
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "lt");
+    expect(result).toBe("<p>a &lt; b</p>");
+  });
+
+  it("does not corrupt &gt; entity", () => {
+    const html = "<p>a &gt; b</p>";
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "gt");
+    expect(result).toBe("<p>a &gt; b</p>");
+  });
+
+  it("does not corrupt numeric entities", () => {
+    const html = "<p>&#039;quoted&#039;</p>";
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "039");
+    expect(result).toBe("<p>&#039;quoted&#039;</p>");
+  });
+
+  it("highlights text adjacent to entities", () => {
+    const html = "<p>foo &amp; bar</p>";
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "foo");
+    expect(result).toBe(
+      '<p><mark class="search-highlight">foo</mark> &amp; bar</p>'
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("is case-insensitive", () => {
+    const result = highlightSearchText("<p>Hello World</p>", "hello");
+    expect(result).toContain('<mark class="search-highlight">Hello</mark>');
+  });
+
+  it("escapes regex special characters in query", () => {
+    const html = "<p>price is $100.00</p>";
+    const result = highlightSearchText(html, "$100.00");
+    expect(result).toContain('<mark class="search-highlight">$100.00</mark>');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/client/lib/markdown.ts b/src/client/lib/markdown.ts
index 7d80e86..c730150 100644
--- a/src/client/lib/markdown.ts
+++ b/src/client/lib/markdown.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import { marked } from "marked";
 import hljs from "highlight.js";
 import { markedHighlight } from "marked-highlight";
+import "highlight.js/styles/github-dark.css";
+import { escapeHtml } from "../../shared/escape-html";
 
 marked.use(
   markedHighlight({
@@ -8,7 +10,10 @@ marked.use(
       if (lang && hljs.getLanguage(lang)) {
         return hljs.highlight(code, { language: lang }).value;
       }
-      return hljs.highlightAuto(code).value;
+      // Plain-text fallback: highlightAuto tries every grammar (~6.7ms/block)
+      // vs explicit highlight (~0.04ms). With thousands of unlabeled blocks
+      // this dominates render time. Escaping is sufficient.
+      return escapeHtml(code);
     },
   })
 );
@@ -22,13 +27,6 @@ export function renderMarkdown(text: string): string {
   }
 }
 
-function escapeHtml(text: string): string {
-  return text
-    .replace(/&/g, "&amp;")
-    .replace(/</g, "&lt;")
-    .replace(/>/g, "&gt;");
-}
-
 export function highlightSearchText(html: string, query: string): string {
   if (!query) return html;
   const escaped = query.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, "\\$&");
@@ -40,10 +38,19 @@ export function highlightSearchText(html: string, query: string): string {
   for (let i = 0; i < parts.length; i++) {
     // Even indices are text content, odd indices are tags
     if (i % 2 === 0 && parts[i]) {
-      parts[i] = parts[i].replace(
-        regex,
-        '<mark class="search-highlight">$1</mark>'
-      );
+      // Further split on HTML entities (&amp; &lt; etc.) to avoid
+      // matching inside them — e.g. searching "amp" must not corrupt &amp;
+      const subParts = parts[i].split(/(&[a-zA-Z0-9#]+;)/);
+      for (let j = 0; j < subParts.length; j++) {
+        // Odd indices are entities — skip them
+        if (j % 2 === 0 && subParts[j]) {
+          subParts[j] = subParts[j].replace(
+            regex,
+            '<mark class="search-highlight">$1</mark>'
+          );
+        }
+      }
+      parts[i] = subParts.join("");
     }
   }
   return parts.join("");