diff --git a/scripts/manual_sync/delta_sync.sh b/scripts/manual_sync/delta_sync.sh
index bf49dcb..abb2f15 100755
--- a/scripts/manual_sync/delta_sync.sh
+++ b/scripts/manual_sync/delta_sync.sh
@@ -151,7 +151,15 @@ delta_meta_path = Path(sys.argv[8])
 out_md_path = Path(sys.argv[9])
 
 def load_json(p: Path):
-    return json.loads(p.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    s = p.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+    try:
+        return json.loads(s)
+    except json.JSONDecodeError:
+        # Backwards-compat / robustness: tolerate accidental literal trailing "\\n".
+        s2 = s.strip()
+        if s2.endswith("\\n"):
+            s2 = s2[:-2].rstrip()
+        return json.loads(s2)
 
 def load_optional_json(path_s: str):
     if not path_s:
@@ -159,7 +167,7 @@ def load_optional_json(path_s: str):
     p = Path(path_s)
     if not p.exists():
         return None
-    return json.loads(p.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    return load_json(p)
 
 def parse_rrdp_state_tsv(p: Path):
     # format: "<notify_uri>\t<serial>\t<session_id>"
@@ -272,7 +280,7 @@ delta_meta = {
     "total_script": int(os.environ["TOTAL_DURATION_S"]),
   },
 }
-delta_meta_path.write_text(json.dumps(delta_meta, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2) + "\\n", encoding="utf-8")
+delta_meta_path.write_text(json.dumps(delta_meta, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2) + "\n", encoding="utf-8")
 
 now = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
 
diff --git a/scripts/manual_sync/full_sync.sh b/scripts/manual_sync/full_sync.sh
index b2df099..036d356 100755
--- a/scripts/manual_sync/full_sync.sh
+++ b/scripts/manual_sync/full_sync.sh
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ meta = {
   },
 }
 
-meta_path.write_text(json.dumps(meta, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2) + "\\n", encoding="utf-8")
+meta_path.write_text(json.dumps(meta, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2) + "\n", encoding="utf-8")
 
 lines = []
 lines.append("# Manual full sync summary\\n\\n")