diff --git a/format-adapter.lua b/format-adapter.lua
index 060af49b..fe6ac55a 100644
--- a/format-adapter.lua
+++ b/format-adapter.lua
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ local function syntax_convert(tree)
 	elseif tree.kind == "literal" then
 		return metalanguage.value(tree.anchor, { type = tree.literaltype, val = tree.val })
 	elseif tree.kind == "string" then
+    if type(tree.elements) == "string" then
+			return metalanguage.value(tree.anchor, { type = "string", val = tree.elements })
+		end
 		if #tree.elements ~= 1 or tree.elements[1].literaltype ~= "bytes" then
 			error "NYI: strings with splices / not exactly one literal"
 		end
diff --git a/format.lua b/format.lua
index 624a19b6..f416a2ac 100644
--- a/format.lua
+++ b/format.lua
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ local grammar = P {
 		* (C(V "subordinate_indent" * V "contiguous_body") + (C(V "newline") * S "\t " ^ 0 * #V "newline")) ^ 0,
 	comment = element("comment", Cg(P "#" * lpeg.Cf(V "subordinate_body", string_concat), "val")),
 	-- TODO automatically convert body to schema bytes variant
-	longstring = element("string", Cg(lpeg.Cf((P [[""""]] * V "subordinate_body"), string_concat), "val")),
+	longstring = element("string", Cg(lpeg.Cf((P [[""""]] * V "subordinate_body"), string_concat), "elements")),
 
 	-- numbers are limited, they are not bignums, they are standard lua numbers. scopes shares the problem of files not having arbitrary precision
 	-- so it probably doesn't matter.