diff --git a/backend/README.md b/backend/README.md
index f8af4cef..870f855c 100644
--- a/backend/README.md
+++ b/backend/README.md
@@ -451,3 +451,12 @@ Custom compute is available to admins and users supplying their own provider key
 
 The worker image must include the pinned EigenBench revision for multi-GPU
 execution; `EIGENBENCH_TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE` is set by the scheduler.
+
+### Private experiment viewer
+
+The private results bucket must allow `application/gzip`, `application/json`,
+`application/jsonl`, `application/x-ndjson`, `text/csv`, `image/png`, and
+`application/octet-stream`. Keep the bucket private. Successful runs are
+converted lazily to the same whitelisted file format used by public experiments;
+owner-authorized requests receive five-minute signed links. Preparing viewer
+files does not publish the run or execute another evaluation.
diff --git a/next-src/src/app/(record)/transcript/page.tsx b/next-src/src/app/(record)/transcript/page.tsx
index 3bdd3c52..3c1c2e03 100644
--- a/next-src/src/app/(record)/transcript/page.tsx
+++ b/next-src/src/app/(record)/transcript/page.tsx
@@ -124,10 +124,15 @@ export default function TranscriptPage() {
 
       // meta gives the criteria count and rating scale up front; the records
       // can stand in for it if the fetch fails, so this never blocks.
+      let accessFailed = false;
       const loaded = await fetchMeta(runId).catch(error => {
-        if (runId.startsWith('account/')) throw error;
+        if (runId.startsWith('account/')) {
+          accessFailed = true;
+          if (!cancelled) setError(error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error));
+        }
         return null;
       });
+      if (accessFailed) return;
       if (cancelled) return;
       if (loaded) {
         setMeta(loaded);