diff --git a/pkg/registry/apis/query/query.go b/pkg/registry/apis/query/query.go
index 6e73e9dd63d..a70aa657765 100644
--- a/pkg/registry/apis/query/query.go
+++ b/pkg/registry/apis/query/query.go
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@ package query
 import (
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
 	"net/http"
 	"slices"
 	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/backend"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana-plugin-sdk-go/experimental/apis/data/v0alpha1"
@@ -187,9 +189,25 @@ func (r *queryREST) Connect(connectCtx context.Context, name string, _ runtime.O
 				})
 				return
 			} else {
-				// return the error to the client, will send all non k8s errors as a k8 unexpected error
-				b.log.Error("hit unexpected error while executing query, this will show as an unhandled k8s status error", "err", err)
-				responder.Error(err)
+				var errorDataResponse backend.DataResponse
+				if errors.Is(err, service.ErrInvalidDatasourceID) || errors.Is(err, service.ErrNoQueriesFound) || errors.Is(err, service.ErrMissingDataSourceInfo) || errors.Is(err, service.ErrQueryParamMismatch) || errors.Is(err, service.ErrDuplicateRefId) {
+					errorDataResponse = backend.ErrDataResponseWithSource(backend.StatusBadRequest, backend.ErrorSourceDownstream, err.Error())
+				} else if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "expression request error") {
+					b.log.Error("Error calling TransformData in an expression", "err", err)
+					errorDataResponse = backend.ErrDataResponseWithSource(backend.StatusBadRequest, backend.ErrorSourceDownstream, err.Error())
+				} else {
+					b.log.Error("unknown error, treated as a 500", "err", err)
+					responder.Error(err)
+					return
+				}
+				qdr = &backend.QueryDataResponse{
+					Responses: map[string]backend.DataResponse{
+						"A": errorDataResponse,
+					},
+				}
+				responder.Object(query.GetResponseCode(qdr), &query.QueryDataResponse{
+					QueryDataResponse: *qdr,
+				})
 				return
 			}
 		}
@@ -215,6 +233,7 @@ func handleQuery(ctx context.Context, raw query.QueryDataRequest, b QueryAPIBuil
 
 		jsonQueries = append(jsonQueries, sjQuery)
 	}
+
 	mReq := dtos.MetricRequest{
 		From:    raw.From,
 		To:      raw.To,
@@ -234,7 +253,7 @@ func handleQuery(ctx context.Context, raw query.QueryDataRequest, b QueryAPIBuil
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	dsQuerierLoggerWithSlug := connectLogger.New("slug", instanceConfig.Options["slug"])
+	dsQuerierLoggerWithSlug := connectLogger.New("slug", instanceConfig.Options["slug"], "ruleuid", headers["X-Rule-Uid"])
 
 	mtDsClientBuilder := mtdsclient.NewMtDatasourceClientBuilderWithClientSupplier(
 		b.clientSupplier,