diff --git a/.templates/01-config_yaml.sh b/.templates/01-config_yaml.sh
index 1e3e9850a..efd18b632 100644
--- a/.templates/01-config_yaml.sh
+++ b/.templates/01-config_yaml.sh
@@ -55,8 +55,8 @@ shell_escape() { printf '%q' "$1"; }
 
 # Prints key=value from YAML, ignoring comments/underscored keys
 read_config() {
-	local file="$1"
-	yq eval 'to_entries | .[] | select(.key|test("^[#_]")|not) | "\(.key)=\"\(.value | @json)\""' "$file" 2>/dev/null
+        local file="$1"
+        yq eval 'to_entries | .[] | select(.key|test("^[#_]")|not) | "\(.key)=\(.value | @sh)"' "$file" 2>/dev/null
 }
 
 SECRETSFILE="/config/secrets.yaml"