diff --git a/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/nextjs-16-standalone/tests/build-output.test.ts b/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/nextjs-16-standalone/tests/build-output.test.ts
index 5384a96579c6..936ff77b6494 100644
--- a/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/nextjs-16-standalone/tests/build-output.test.ts
+++ b/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/nextjs-16-standalone/tests/build-output.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { expect, test } from '@playwright/test';
 import { findAbsolutePathImports } from '@sentry-internal/test-utils';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 
 // `output: 'standalone'` is the mode where a baked-in absolute specifier actually bites: the server
@@ -12,3 +13,20 @@ test('emits no absolute-path imports into the relocated standalone output', () =
 
   expect(leaks).toEqual([]);
 });
+
+// Regression test for the bug this app surfaced (JS-3451): `register.ts` reaches the ESM loader
+// hook through `Module.register(...)`, a runtime call `@vercel/nft` cannot trace. The hook was
+// therefore never copied into the standalone output, and channel-based instrumentation failed to
+// register, silently, behind `debug: true`. Asserting on the traced output rather than on emitted
+// telemetry, because Next.js records its server spans through its own wrapping either way, so the
+// tests in `standalone.test.ts` stay green even when channel injection is dead.
+test('traces the orchestrion ESM loader hook into the standalone output', () => {
+  const standaloneDir = path.join(process.cwd(), '.next', 'standalone');
+  const hookSuffix = path.join('@sentry', 'server-runtime-injection', 'build', 'esm', 'hook.js');
+
+  const found = fs
+    .readdirSync(standaloneDir, { recursive: true, withFileTypes: true })
+    .some(entry => entry.isFile() && path.join(entry.parentPath, entry.name).endsWith(hookSuffix));
+
+  expect(found).toBe(true);
+});
diff --git a/packages/nextjs/src/config/diagnosticsChannelInjection.ts b/packages/nextjs/src/config/diagnosticsChannelInjection.ts
index 36939c446f2b..ffc215061eda 100644
--- a/packages/nextjs/src/config/diagnosticsChannelInjection.ts
+++ b/packages/nextjs/src/config/diagnosticsChannelInjection.ts
@@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ export const BUNDLE_SAFE_INSTRUMENTED_PACKAGES = ['ioredis'];
 /**
  * `@sentry/server-runtime-injection` (where `register.ts` and the bundled orchestrion runtime ship)
  * must stay external: `register.ts` passes its own `__filename`/`import.meta.url` as the `parentURL`
- * for `Module.register('@sentry/server-runtime-injection/hook', …)`, so that self-reference only
- * resolves while the code still lives at its real `node_modules` location. Bundled into an app
- * server chunk instead, the specifier would have to resolve from the chunk's output location,
- * which fails under isolated installs (pnpm) where the package is a transitive dependency.
+ * for `Module.register()` and resolves the ESM loader hook relative to that same location, so both
+ * only work while the code still lives at its real `node_modules` location. Bundled into an app
+ * server chunk instead, they would resolve from the chunk's output location, where neither the hook
+ * nor the vendored transformer it loads exists.
  *
  * `@sentry/server-utils` (the barrel + bundler plugins) is NOT here — it is meant to be bundled; the
  * build-time snippet's `@sentry/server-utils` import is handled separately by the code-transform.
diff --git a/packages/server-runtime-injection/package.json b/packages/server-runtime-injection/package.json
index 48492ad26393..d78b70484685 100644
--- a/packages/server-runtime-injection/package.json
+++ b/packages/server-runtime-injection/package.json
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@
     "@apm-js-collab/code-transformer": "^0.18.1",
     "@apm-js-collab/tracing-hooks": "^0.13.0",
     "@types/node": "^18.19.1",
+    "@vercel/nft": "^1.3.0",
     "meriyah": "^6.1.4"
   },
   "scripts": {
diff --git a/packages/server-runtime-injection/src/register.ts b/packages/server-runtime-injection/src/register.ts
index 288bc571a6f5..fc912731befc 100644
--- a/packages/server-runtime-injection/src/register.ts
+++ b/packages/server-runtime-injection/src/register.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import { consoleSandbox, debug, getClient, GLOBAL_OBJ, parseSemver } from '@sentry/core';
+import { existsSync } from 'node:fs';
 import * as Module from 'node:module';
-import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
+import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath, pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
 import { SENTRY_INSTRUMENTATIONS } from '@sentry/server-utils/orchestrion/config';
 import type { register } from 'node:module';
 import ModulePatch from '@apm-js-collab/tracing-hooks';
@@ -140,9 +142,45 @@ export function registerDiagnosticsChannelInjection(): void {
 
       // Our own bundled copy of the tracing-hooks async hooks (see `src/hook.mjs`) — the dependency
       // itself is bundled into this package's build and no longer resolvable as a bare specifier at
-      // runtime. This self-referential specifier only resolves while this package lives at its real
-      // `node_modules` location, which is why it must stay external (never bundled into an app).
-      mod.register('@sentry/server-runtime-injection/hook', {
+      // runtime.
+      //
+      // Registered by path rather than through the `@sentry/server-runtime-injection/hook`
+      // self-reference, because `Module.register` resolves its specifier at RUNTIME. `@vercel/nft`
+      // does evaluate `Module.register()` calls, but only where it can follow the `node:module`
+      // binding, and in the CJS build rollup routes that through an interop namespace helper
+      // (`const mod = require$$1__namespace`) it cannot see through. The hook then never reaches
+      // traced output, and the CJS build is the one Next.js loads, so `output: 'standalone'`,
+      // Docker and Vercel builds lose channel instrumentation entirely and only say so behind
+      // `debug: true`. A literal relative path is static in either build, and it is still computed
+      // at runtime from `__filename`/`import.meta.url`, so nothing absolute is baked in.
+      //
+      // Built from `join()` rather than `new URL('./hook.js', import.meta.url)` because webpack
+      // reads that second form as an asset reference: it copies the hook next to the app bundle
+      // without its vendored chunks, which would leave the loader thread importing a file whose
+      // own imports are missing.
+      let hookPath: string;
+      /*! rollup-include-cjs-only */
+      // This file is `build/cjs/register.js`; the loader thread needs the ESM build, which shares
+      // the vendored dependency chunks.
+      hookPath = join(__dirname, '../esm/hook.js');
+      /*! rollup-include-cjs-only-end */
+      /*! rollup-include-esm-only */
+      hookPath = join(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), 'hook.js');
+      /*! rollup-include-esm-only-end */
+
+      // The path only points at the shipped hook while this package runs from `node_modules`. A
+      // copy bundled into an app sits somewhere else entirely, so it keeps the self-reference,
+      // which at least resolves against the app's own install. The same fallback catches a broken
+      // path after a build layout change, hence the log: tracers would quietly stop following the
+      // hook again, and this line is the only thing that says so.
+      const hookFound = existsSync(hookPath);
+      if (!hookFound) {
+        debug.warn(`No orchestrion ESM hook at ${hookPath}; falling back to the package specifier.`);
+      }
+
+      const hookSpecifier = hookFound ? pathToFileURL(hookPath).href : '@sentry/server-runtime-injection/hook';
+
+      mod.register(hookSpecifier, {
         parentURL,
         data: { instrumentations: SENTRY_INSTRUMENTATIONS, diagnosticsPort },
         transferList: [diagnosticsPort],
diff --git a/packages/server-runtime-injection/test/nftTrace.test.ts b/packages/server-runtime-injection/test/nftTrace.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2aa8ff749dbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/server-runtime-injection/test/nftTrace.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+import { nodeFileTrace } from '@vercel/nft';
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+/**
+ * `Module.register()` resolves its specifier at runtime. nft does evaluate those calls, but it lost
+ * the hook in the CJS build, where rollup reaches `node:module` through an interop namespace helper
+ * it cannot follow, and that is the build Next.js loads. `output: 'standalone'`, Docker and Vercel
+ * builds then leave the hook out and drop channel-based instrumentation, saying so only behind
+ * `debug: true`.
+ *
+ * Runs the real `@vercel/nft` over the emitted entry points, because the guarantee is a property of
+ * the built files, not of the source: it needs the package built.
+ */
+const repoRoot = join(__dirname, '..', '..', '..');
+const buildDir = 'packages/server-runtime-injection/build';
+
+async function traceFrom(entry: string): Promise<Set<string>> {
+  const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace([join(repoRoot, entry)], { base: repoRoot });
+  return fileList;
+}
+
+describe.each(['cjs', 'esm'])('the %s build', variant => {
+  it('traces the ESM loader hook and the chunks it imports', { timeout: 60_000 }, async () => {
+    const traced = await traceFrom(`${buildDir}/${variant}/register.js`);
+
+    expect(traced).toContain(`${buildDir}/esm/hook.js`);
+    // The hook is ESM. Without this marker the loader thread parses it as CommonJS and fails.
+    expect(traced).toContain(`${buildDir}/esm/package.json`);
+    // The hook re-exports the vendored chain, so its presence alone would not prove the tracer
+    // followed the hook's own imports rather than copying it as an opaque asset.
+    expect(traced).toContain(`${buildDir}/esm/vendored/@apm-js-collab/tracing-hooks/hook.js`);
+  });
+});