diff --git a/.changeset/good-lamps-serve.md b/.changeset/good-lamps-serve.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..66736244
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/good-lamps-serve.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@ryanatkn/belt": patch
+---
+
+add `embed_json` helper for embedding parsed json strings in js
diff --git a/src/lib/json.test.ts b/src/lib/json.test.ts
index f9379071..9ac5abf1 100644
--- a/src/lib/json.test.ts
+++ b/src/lib/json.test.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 import {test} from 'uvu';
 import * as assert from 'uvu/assert';
 
-import {to_json_type} from '$lib/json.js';
+import {to_json_type, embed_json} from '$lib/json.js';
 import {noop} from '$lib/function.js';
 
-test('basic behavior', () => {
+test('to_json_type', () => {
 	assert.is(to_json_type(''), 'string');
 	assert.is(to_json_type('1'), 'string');
 	assert.is(to_json_type(1), 'number');
@@ -20,4 +20,10 @@ test('basic behavior', () => {
 	assert.is(to_json_type(Symbol() as any), undefined);
 });
 
+test('embed_json', () => {
+	assert.is(embed_json('hello"world'), `JSON.parse('"hello\\"world"')`);
+	assert.is(embed_json("hello'world"), `JSON.parse('"hello\\'world"')`);
+	assert.is(embed_json("'hello'w''or'''ld'"), `JSON.parse('"\\'hello\\'w\\'\\'or\\'\\'\\'ld\\'"')`);
+});
+
 test.run();
diff --git a/src/lib/json.ts b/src/lib/json.ts
index a821b103..8de2ce75 100644
--- a/src/lib/json.ts
+++ b/src/lib/json.ts
@@ -35,3 +35,10 @@ export const canonicalize = <T extends Json>(value: T): T => {
 			.map(([k, v]) => [k, canonicalize(v)]),
 	) as any;
 };
+
+/**
+ * Embeds `data` as a JSON string, escaping single quotes.
+ * Useful for optimizing JSON in JS because it parses faster.
+ */
+export const embed_json = <T>(data: T, stringify: (data: T) => string = JSON.stringify): string =>
+	`JSON.parse('${stringify(data).replaceAll("'", "\\'")}')`;
diff --git a/src/routes/package.ts b/src/routes/package.ts
index e3149300..109dc665 100644
--- a/src/routes/package.ts
+++ b/src/routes/package.ts
@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ export const src_json = {
 				{name: 'Json_Type', kind: 'type'},
 				{name: 'to_json_type', kind: 'function'},
 				{name: 'canonicalize', kind: 'function'},
+				{name: 'embed_json', kind: 'function'},
 			],
 		},
 		'./log.js': {