diff --git a/runtime/html/html.go b/runtime/html/html.go
index f3e0938..e5089fd 100644
--- a/runtime/html/html.go
+++ b/runtime/html/html.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package html
 
 import (
 	stdhtml "html"
+	htmltemplate "html/template"
 	"strings"
 )
 
@@ -12,10 +13,34 @@ func Escape(value string) string {
 
 // Attr renders an escaped HTML attribute when value is non-empty.
 func Attr(name, value string) string {
-	if value == "" {
+	if value == "" || !validAttrName(name) {
 		return ""
 	}
-	return " " + name + `="` + stdhtml.EscapeString(value) + `"`
+
+	var out strings.Builder
+	out.WriteByte(' ')
+	out.WriteString(name)
+	out.WriteString(`="`)
+	htmltemplate.HTMLEscape(&out, []byte(value))
+	out.WriteByte('"')
+	return out.String()
+}
+
+func validAttrName(name string) bool {
+	if name == "" {
+		return false
+	}
+	for _, char := range name {
+		switch {
+		case char >= 'a' && char <= 'z':
+		case char >= 'A' && char <= 'Z':
+		case char >= '0' && char <= '9':
+		case char == '-' || char == '_' || char == ':' || char == '.':
+		default:
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
 }
 
 // Classes joins generated class tokens.
diff --git a/runtime/html/html_test.go b/runtime/html/html_test.go
index c3d732a..9b4d681 100644
--- a/runtime/html/html_test.go
+++ b/runtime/html/html_test.go
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 package html
 
-import "testing"
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
 
 func TestEscapeEscapesHTMLText(t *testing.T) {
 	if got := Escape(`<script>alert("x")</script>`); got != `&lt;script&gt;alert(&#34;x&#34;)&lt;/script&gt;` {
@@ -17,6 +20,39 @@ func TestAttrOmitsEmptyValuesAndEscapesNonEmptyValues(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestAttrEscapesJSONAttributeValues(t *testing.T) {
+	got := Attr("data-gowdk-state", `{"name":"hero","quote":"\"","html":"</gowdk-island>","amp":"&"}`)
+	const prefix = ` data-gowdk-state="`
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(got, prefix) || !strings.HasSuffix(got, `"`) {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected attr shape: %q", got)
+	}
+	inner := strings.TrimSuffix(strings.TrimPrefix(got, prefix), `"`)
+	if strings.Contains(inner, `"`) {
+		t.Fatalf("attribute value contains an unescaped double quote: %q", got)
+	}
+	for _, escaped := range []string{`&#34;name&#34;`, `&lt;/gowdk-island&gt;`, `&amp;`} {
+		if !strings.Contains(inner, escaped) {
+			t.Fatalf("attribute value is missing escaped fragment %q: %q", escaped, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAttrRejectsUnsafeAttributeNames(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, name := range []string{
+		``,
+		`href" onclick="alert(1)`,
+		`data-gowdk-state onmouseover`,
+		`data-gowdk-state=bad`,
+	} {
+		if got := Attr(name, "value"); got != "" {
+			t.Fatalf("expected unsafe attr name %q to be omitted, got %q", name, got)
+		}
+	}
+	if got := Attr("data-gowdk-parent-on-submit", "Save()"); got == "" {
+		t.Fatal("expected generated data attribute name to be accepted")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestClassesJoinsTrimmedNonEmptyTokens(t *testing.T) {
 	if got := Classes(" btn ", "", "primary", "  "); got != "btn primary" {
 		t.Fatalf("unexpected classes: %q", got)