diff --git a/.changeset/few-papayas-swim.md b/.changeset/few-papayas-swim.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c8e7dacd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/few-papayas-swim.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'astro': patch
+---
+
+Add the `escapeHTML` utility to `astro/internal`
diff --git a/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/escape.ts b/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/escape.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b07b2290
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/escape.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+const entities = { '"': 'quot', '&': 'amp', '\'': 'apos', '<': 'lt', '>': 'gt' } as const
+
+export const escapeHTML = (string: any) => string.replace(/["'&<>]/g, (char: keyof typeof entities) => '&' + entities[char] + ';')
diff --git a/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/index.ts b/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/index.ts
index fb8753cd6..9cdad6877 100644
--- a/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/index.ts
+++ b/packages/astro/src/runtime/server/index.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import shorthash from 'shorthash';
 import { extractDirectives, generateHydrateScript } from './hydration.js';
 import { serializeListValue } from './util.js';
 export { createMetadata } from './metadata.js';
+export { escapeHTML } from './escape.js';
 export type { Metadata } from './metadata';
 
 const voidElementNames = /^(area|base|br|col|command|embed|hr|img|input|keygen|link|meta|param|source|track|wbr)$/i;
@@ -308,12 +309,26 @@ export function createAstro(filePathname: string, site: string, projectRootStr:
 
 const toAttributeString = (value: any) => String(value).replace(/&/g, '&#38;').replace(/"/g, '&#34;');
 
+const STATIC_DIRECTIVES = new Set([
+	'set:html',
+	'set:text'
+])
+
 // A helper used to turn expressions into attribute key/value
 export function addAttribute(value: any, key: string) {
 	if (value == null || value === false) {
 		return '';
 	}
 
+	// compiler directives cannot be applied dynamically, log a warning and ignore.
+	if (STATIC_DIRECTIVES.has(key)) {
+		// eslint-disable-next-line no-console
+		console.warn(`[astro] The "${key}" directive cannot be applied dynamically at runtime. It will not be rendered as an attribute.
+
+Make sure to use the static attribute syntax (\`${key}={value}\`) instead of the dynamic spread syntax (\`{...{ "${key}": value }}\`).`);
+		return '';
+	}
+
 	// support "class" from an expression passed into an element (#782)
 	if (key === 'class:list') {
 		return ` ${key.slice(0, -5)}="${toAttributeString(serializeListValue(value))}"`;