diff --git a/pkgs/jaml/jaml/_config.py b/pkgs/jaml/jaml/_config.py
index dd919322ae..e118ca17cf 100644
--- a/pkgs/jaml/jaml/_config.py
+++ b/pkgs/jaml/jaml/_config.py
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ def dumps(self) -> str:
     dump = staticmethod(lambda obj, fp: fp.write(Config.dumps(obj)))  # type: ignore
 
     # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── resolution
-    def resolve(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+    def resolve(self, strip_quotes: bool = True) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         logger.debug("\n\n\n\n⮕ [resolve] entered...")
         from ._eval import safe_eval
         from ._fstring import _eval_fstrings
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ def repl(m):
                 final[k] = v
             else:
                 final[k] = _expand(v, collapsed)
-        return _strip_quotes(final)
+        return _strip_quotes(final) if strip_quotes else final
 
     def render(self, context: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         """
diff --git a/pkgs/jaml/jaml/api.py b/pkgs/jaml/jaml/api.py
index e0abe87994..5b02bf190a 100644
--- a/pkgs/jaml/jaml/api.py
+++ b/pkgs/jaml/jaml/api.py
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ def loads(s: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
     transformer = ConfigTransformer()
     transformer._context = type("Context", (), {"text": s})
     config = transformer.transform(parse_tree)
-    return config.resolve()  # Resolve and return plain dictionary
+    # Preserve surrounding quotes during load to match specification tests
+    return config.resolve(strip_quotes=False)
 
 
 def load(fp: IO[str]) -> Dict[str, Any]: