From af821cf586a729720230266ff018f81c5b4a977e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jeffrey Seyfried <jeffrey.seyfried@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:28:50 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] JSON fallback.

---
 taskgen/base.py       | 16 ++++++++++++----
 taskgen/base_async.py |  9 +++++++++
 taskgen/utils.py      | 10 ++++++++--
 3 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/taskgen/base.py b/taskgen/base.py
index 24d6782..962a815 100644
--- a/taskgen/base.py
+++ b/taskgen/base.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 import ast
 from typing import Tuple
 
+from .utils import load_string
+
 # TODO we never use sync flow anywhere, better to cleanup sync flow altogether
 
 ### Helper Functions ###
@@ -64,10 +66,7 @@ def convert_to_dict(field: str, keys:list, delimiter: str) -> dict:
     my_matches = [match for match in matches if match !='']
 
     # remove the ' from the value matches
-    curated_matches = [
-        json.loads(match) if match[0] == '"' else json.loads(f'"{match[1:-1]}"') if match[0] == "'" else match
-        for match in my_matches
-    ]
+    curated_matches = [load_string(match) for match in my_matches]
 
     # create a dictionary
     for i in range(0, len(curated_matches), 2):
@@ -313,6 +312,15 @@ def check_key(field, output_format, new_output_format, delimiter: str, delimiter
         
         return [check_key(str(field[num]), output_format[num], new_output_format[num], delimiter, delimiter_num+1) for num in range(len(output_format))]
     
+    # if string, then do literal eval to convert output field for further processing
+    elif isinstance(output_format, str):
+        # if literal eval fails, just leave it as string, no need to raise error
+        try:
+            field = ast.literal_eval(field)
+        except Exception as e:
+            pass
+        return field
+    
     # otherwise just return the value
     else:
         return field
diff --git a/taskgen/base_async.py b/taskgen/base_async.py
index 3eb1ea7..3a056da 100644
--- a/taskgen/base_async.py
+++ b/taskgen/base_async.py
@@ -150,6 +150,15 @@ async def check_key_async(field, output_format, new_output_format, delimiter: st
         results = await asyncio.gather(*coroutines)
         return results
     
+    # if string, then do literal eval to convert output field for further processing
+    elif isinstance(output_format, str):
+        # if literal eval fails, just leave it as string, no need to raise error
+        try:
+            field = ast.literal_eval(field)
+        except Exception as e:
+            pass
+        return field
+    
     # otherwise just return the value
     else:
         return field
diff --git a/taskgen/utils.py b/taskgen/utils.py
index 1916fc2..f7edbac 100644
--- a/taskgen/utils.py
+++ b/taskgen/utils.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import ast
 import heapq
 import inspect
+import json
 import re
 
 
@@ -49,6 +50,11 @@ def top_k_index(lst, k):
     return top_k_indices
 
 
-
-
+def load_string(value: str) -> str:
+    if value[0] == '"':
+        return json.loads(value)
+    try:
+        return ast.literal_eval(value)
+    except Exception:
+        return value