diff --git a/src/main/gitea/client.test.ts b/src/main/gitea/client.test.ts
index 06efc4079e2..b87339067c2 100644
--- a/src/main/gitea/client.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/gitea/client.test.ts
@@ -261,6 +261,44 @@ describe('Gitea client', () => {
     )
   })
 
+  it('treats a 404 on the linked PR as "no PR" rather than a lookup failure', async () => {
+    const requested: string[] = []
+    const fetchMock = vi.fn(async (url: string | URL) => {
+      requested.push(new URL(String(url)).pathname)
+      // The branch scan succeeds and is simply empty; only PR #42 is gone.
+      return String(url).includes('/pulls/42')
+        ? Response.json({ message: 'not found' }, { status: 404 })
+        : Response.json([])
+    })
+    vi.stubGlobal('fetch', fetchMock)
+
+    await expect(
+      getGiteaPullRequestForBranchOrThrow('/repo', 'feature/gitea', 42)
+    ).resolves.toBeNull()
+    expect(requested).toEqual(['/api/v1/repos/team/repo/pulls', '/api/v1/repos/team/repo/pulls/42'])
+  })
+
+  it('resolves null without throwing when the scan returns an empty list', async () => {
+    // Gitea has no head-branch filter, so "branch has no PR" arrives as a 200
+    // with [] from the repo listing — never a 404. The throwing variant must
+    // still report that as a plain "no PR".
+    const fetchMock = vi.fn(async () => Response.json([]))
+    vi.stubGlobal('fetch', fetchMock)
+
+    await expect(getGiteaPullRequestForBranchOrThrow('/repo', 'feature/gitea')).resolves.toBeNull()
+  })
+
+  it('still throws on a 404 from the /pulls scan so a misconfigured host is not read as "no PR"', async () => {
+    const fetchMock = vi.fn(async () => Response.json({ message: 'not found' }, { status: 404 }))
+    vi.stubGlobal('fetch', fetchMock)
+
+    // A repo-level 404 means wrong base URL / repo absent / token lacks scope —
+    // collapsing it to "no PR" would hide the misconfiguration indefinitely.
+    await expect(getGiteaPullRequestForBranchOrThrow('/repo', 'feature/gitea')).rejects.toThrow(
+      /Gitea request failed: HTTP 404/
+    )
+  })
+
   it('expires successful scans and bounds retained repository listings', async () => {
     vi.useFakeTimers()
     try {
diff --git a/src/main/gitea/client.ts b/src/main/gitea/client.ts
index 90415dc0279..5e5b2da69b1 100644
--- a/src/main/gitea/client.ts
+++ b/src/main/gitea/client.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ export type GiteaAuthStatus = {
 type RequestOptions = {
   searchParams?: Record<string, string | number>
   timeoutMs?: number
+  // Why: only a single-resource fetch may read 404 as "absent". See requestJsonAtBase.
+  allowNotFound?: boolean
 }
 
 function envValue(name: string): string | null {
@@ -93,7 +95,8 @@ async function requestJsonAtBase<T>(
     })
     if (!response.ok) {
       await cancelUnreadResponseBody(response)
-      if (throwOnFailure) {
+      // Why: listing 404s still signal repository or access failures.
+      if (throwOnFailure && !(options.allowNotFound && response.status === 404)) {
         throw new Error(`Gitea request failed: HTTP ${response.status}`)
       }
       return null
@@ -299,7 +302,7 @@ export async function getGiteaPullRequestForBranch(
   const raw = await requestJson<RawGiteaPullRequest>(
     repo,
     `/repos/${encodedRepoPath(repo)}/pulls/${encodeURIComponent(String(linkedPRNumber))}`,
-    {},
+    { allowNotFound: true },
     throwOnFailure
   )
   return raw ? normalizePullRequest(repo, raw) : null