diff --git a/packages/shared/src/index.ts b/packages/shared/src/index.ts
index da0df684..f75dbf14 100644
--- a/packages/shared/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/shared/src/index.ts
@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ export {
 
 export { API_PREFIX, API } from "./api.js";
 export { normalizeAgentUrlKey, deriveAgentUrlKey, isUuidLike } from "./agent-url-key.js";
-export { deriveProjectUrlKey, normalizeProjectUrlKey } from "./project-url-key.js";
+export { deriveProjectUrlKey, normalizeProjectUrlKey, hasNonAsciiContent } from "./project-url-key.js";
 export {
   AGENT_MENTION_SCHEME,
   PROJECT_MENTION_SCHEME,
diff --git a/packages/shared/src/project-url-key.ts b/packages/shared/src/project-url-key.ts
index 85cb8297..a367d417 100644
--- a/packages/shared/src/project-url-key.ts
+++ b/packages/shared/src/project-url-key.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 const PROJECT_URL_KEY_DELIM_RE = /[^a-z0-9]+/g;
 const PROJECT_URL_KEY_TRIM_RE = /^-+|-+$/g;
+const NON_ASCII_RE = /[^\x00-\x7F]/;
+const UUID_RE = /^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[1-5][0-9a-f]{3}-[89ab][0-9a-f]{3}-[0-9a-f]{12}$/i;
 
 export function normalizeProjectUrlKey(value: string | null | undefined): string | null {
   if (typeof value !== "string") return null;
@@ -11,6 +13,24 @@ export function normalizeProjectUrlKey(value: string | null | undefined): string
   return normalized.length > 0 ? normalized : null;
 }
 
-export function deriveProjectUrlKey(name: string | null | undefined, fallback?: string | null): string {
-  return normalizeProjectUrlKey(name) ?? normalizeProjectUrlKey(fallback) ?? "project";
+/** Check whether a string contains non-ASCII characters that normalization would strip. */
+export function hasNonAsciiContent(value: string | null | undefined): boolean {
+  if (typeof value !== "string") return false;
+  return NON_ASCII_RE.test(value);
+}
+
+/** Extract the first 8 hex chars from a valid UUID, or null. */
+function shortIdFromUuid(value: string | null | undefined): string | null {
+  if (typeof value !== "string" || !UUID_RE.test(value.trim())) return null;
+  return value.trim().replace(/-/g, "").slice(0, 8).toLowerCase();
+}
+
+export function deriveProjectUrlKey(name: string | null | undefined, fallback?: string | null): string {
+  const base = normalizeProjectUrlKey(name);
+  if (base && !hasNonAsciiContent(name)) return base;
+  // Non-ASCII content was stripped — append short UUID suffix for uniqueness.
+  const shortId = shortIdFromUuid(fallback);
+  if (base && shortId) return `${base}-${shortId}`;
+  if (shortId) return shortId;
+  return base ?? normalizeProjectUrlKey(fallback) ?? "project";
 }
diff --git a/server/src/services/projects.ts b/server/src/services/projects.ts
index 7c7c4bb0..db786478 100644
--- a/server/src/services/projects.ts
+++ b/server/src/services/projects.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { projects, projectGoals, goals, projectWorkspaces, workspaceRuntimeServi
 import {
   PROJECT_COLORS,
   deriveProjectUrlKey,
+  hasNonAsciiContent,
   isUuidLike,
   normalizeProjectUrlKey,
   type ProjectCodebase,
@@ -343,6 +344,8 @@ export function resolveProjectNameForUniqueShortname(
 ): string {
   const requestedShortname = normalizeProjectUrlKey(requestedName);
   if (!requestedShortname) return requestedName;
+  // Non-ASCII names get a UUID suffix in deriveProjectUrlKey, making slugs inherently unique.
+  if (hasNonAsciiContent(requestedName)) return requestedName;
 
   const usedShortnames = new Set(
     existingProjects
diff --git a/ui/src/lib/utils.ts b/ui/src/lib/utils.ts
index 76e18846..bf33606d 100644
--- a/ui/src/lib/utils.ts
+++ b/ui/src/lib/utils.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { type ClassValue, clsx } from "clsx";
 import { twMerge } from "tailwind-merge";
-import { deriveAgentUrlKey, deriveProjectUrlKey } from "@paperclipai/shared";
+import { deriveAgentUrlKey, deriveProjectUrlKey, normalizeProjectUrlKey, hasNonAsciiContent } from "@paperclipai/shared";
 import type { BillingType, FinanceDirection, FinanceEventKind } from "@paperclipai/shared";
 
 export function cn(...inputs: ClassValue[]) {
@@ -156,9 +156,12 @@ export function agentUrl(agent: { id: string; urlKey?: string | null; name?: str
   return `/agents/${agentRouteRef(agent)}`;
 }
 
-/** Build a project route reference using the short URL key when available. */
+/** Build a project route reference, falling back to UUID when the derived key is ambiguous. */
 export function projectRouteRef(project: { id: string; urlKey?: string | null; name?: string | null }): string {
-  return project.urlKey ?? deriveProjectUrlKey(project.name, project.id);
+  const key = project.urlKey ?? deriveProjectUrlKey(project.name, project.id);
+  // Guard for rolling deploys or legacy data where the server returned a bare slug without UUID suffix.
+  if (key === normalizeProjectUrlKey(project.name) && hasNonAsciiContent(project.name)) return project.id;
+  return key;
 }
 
 /** Build a project URL using the short URL key when available. */