diff --git a/web/DetailPanel.tsx b/web/DetailPanel.tsx
index 51661c6..526691f 100644
--- a/web/DetailPanel.tsx
+++ b/web/DetailPanel.tsx
@@ -153,12 +153,13 @@ export const DetailPanel = () => {
   const [params] = useSearchParams();
   const raw = params.get('section');
   /*
-    A page selected inside Pages opens the BUILDER, not the list with a row lit up.
+    A page selected inside Pages opens the BUILDER, not the list with a row lit up. By SLUG, so the URL
+    says which page rather than which row — see pageParam in usePages.
 
     The nav says the same thing — Pages is a section and the pages are rows under it — so the detail
     panel follows it. `?page=` is what distinguishes the two, which keeps both addressable.
   */
-  const selectedPage = Number(params.get('page')) || null;
+  const selectedPage = params.get('page');
   const selected: SectionKey = isSectionKey(raw) ? raw : DEFAULT_SECTION;
 
   const { ready, rootSet, loading } = useReady();
diff --git a/web/NavPanel.tsx b/web/NavPanel.tsx
index 84d0a04..a42942e 100644
--- a/web/NavPanel.tsx
+++ b/web/NavPanel.tsx
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { Link, useSearchParams } from 'react-router';
 import { Lock } from 'lucide-react';
 import { DEFAULT_SECTION, SECTIONS, isSectionKey, sectionOpen, type SectionKey } from './sections';
 import { useReady } from './useReady';
-import { usePages } from './usePages';
+import { pageParam, usePages } from './usePages';
 
 /**
  * The left column: which part of the fofos site the detail panel is showing.
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ export const NavPanel = () => {
   // Announced by PagesPanel rather than fetched here — see usePages. Null until it has spoken, which
   // is why nothing is drawn instead of an empty list.
   const { pages } = usePages();
-  const selectedPage = Number(params.get('page')) || null;
+  const selectedPage = params.get('page');
   const raw = params.get('section');
   const active: SectionKey = isSectionKey(raw) ? raw : DEFAULT_SECTION;
   const { ready, rootSet } = useReady();
@@ -89,6 +89,15 @@ export const NavPanel = () => {
     */
     search.delete('page');
 
+    /*
+      `record` is dead and rides along in every URL until something removes it.
+
+      It belonged to the per-page record panels — Gallery, Drops, Collabs — which are unreachable now.
+      Nothing reads it, so it is not a bug, but every link anybody copies carries a parameter naming a
+      row in a section that no longer exists.
+    */
+    search.delete('record');
+
     const body = (
       <>
         <Icon className="mt-0.5 size-4 shrink-0 text-muted-foreground" />
@@ -144,10 +153,10 @@ export const NavPanel = () => {
         {pages.map((page) => {
           const childSearch = new URLSearchParams(params);
           childSearch.set('section', 'pages');
-          childSearch.set('page', String(page.id));
+          childSearch.set('page', pageParam(page));
           childSearch.delete('media');
 
-          const current = active === 'pages' && selectedPage === page.id;
+          const current = active === 'pages' && selectedPage === pageParam(page);
 
           return (
             <Link
diff --git a/web/sections/PageBuilderPanel.tsx b/web/sections/PageBuilderPanel.tsx
index 7837b88..a55a0d5 100644
--- a/web/sections/PageBuilderPanel.tsx
+++ b/web/sections/PageBuilderPanel.tsx
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import { usePreviewable, useViewMode } from '../ViewMode';
 import { paintCanvas, type CanvasComponent, type CanvasSection } from '../canvas';
 import { AddSectionDialog, type SectionLayout } from './AddSectionDialog';
 import { FreeTextDialog } from './FreeTextDialog';
-import { usePages, type Page } from '../usePages';
+import { pageFromParam, usePages, type Page } from '../usePages';
 
 /**
  * One page, being built.
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ export const PageBuilderPanel = () => {
   clientRef.current = client;
 
   const [params] = useSearchParams();
-  const id = Number(params.get('page')) || null;
+  const slug = params.get('page');
 
   const devPort = useDevPort();
   const { pages, announce } = usePages();
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ export const PageBuilderPanel = () => {
       .catch((failure: unknown) => setError(readableError(failure)));
   }, [pages, announce]);
 
-  const page = pages?.find((row) => row.id === id) ?? null;
+  const page = pageFromParam(pages, slug);
 
   /*
     The page's sections, which the canvas needs to name and outline what it finds in the document.
diff --git a/web/usePages.ts b/web/usePages.ts
index 2e4f693..4580b37 100644
--- a/web/usePages.ts
+++ b/web/usePages.ts
@@ -41,3 +41,22 @@ export const usePages = () => {
 
   return { pages, announce };
 };
+
+/**
+ * The value `?page=` carries, and how to read it back.
+ *
+ * The SLUG rather than the id, so a URL says which page it is: `?page=about` can be read, sent to
+ * somebody, and still means the right thing after a database is restored from a dump with different
+ * ids — which happened once already in this project.
+ *
+ * Home is the exception and needs a word, because its slug is empty by design. `home` is reserved by
+ * the site's API, so no page can take that address and the mapping is total in both directions.
+ */
+export const HOME_PARAM = 'home';
+
+export const pageParam = (page: Page): string => page.slug || HOME_PARAM;
+
+export const pageFromParam = (pages: Page[] | null, value: string | null): Page | null => {
+  if (!pages || !value) return null;
+  return pages.find((page) => pageParam(page) === value) ?? null;
+};