diff --git a/src/VolcanicCore.Nodes/PythonTransformNode.cs b/src/VolcanicCore.Nodes/PythonTransformNode.cs
index 71169d2..d2773e2 100644
--- a/src/VolcanicCore.Nodes/PythonTransformNode.cs
+++ b/src/VolcanicCore.Nodes/PythonTransformNode.cs
@@ -59,12 +59,19 @@ public sealed class PythonTransformNode : IActionNode
                 string.IsNullOrEmpty(formatted) ? ex.Message : formatted);
         }
 
-        if (!scope.TryGetVariable("output", out object? outputObj))
+        if (!scope.TryGetVariable("output", out object? outputObj) || outputObj is null)
             return Task.FromResult<IReadOnlyList<IReadOnlyList<Item>>>(new[] { Array.Empty<Item>() });
 
+        // Fan out only when `output` serializes to a JSON array. A naive
+        // `IEnumerable` check would treat a bare string as an iterable of chars
+        // (`output = "hello"` → 5 items) and a bare dict as an iterable of keys.
+        // Serializing first and dispatching on ValueKind gives one predictable rule.
+        var element = JsonToPython.ToJson(outputObj);
         var outItems = new List<Item>();
-        if (outputObj is System.Collections.IEnumerable ie)
-            foreach (var v in ie) outItems.Add(new Item(JsonToPython.ToJson(v)));
+        if (element.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Array)
+            foreach (var el in element.EnumerateArray()) outItems.Add(new Item(el.Clone()));
+        else
+            outItems.Add(new Item(element));
 
         return Task.FromResult<IReadOnlyList<IReadOnlyList<Item>>>(new[] { outItems });
     }
diff --git a/tests/VolcanicCore.Tests/PythonTransformNodeTests.cs b/tests/VolcanicCore.Tests/PythonTransformNodeTests.cs
index 3624190..580599f 100644
--- a/tests/VolcanicCore.Tests/PythonTransformNodeTests.cs
+++ b/tests/VolcanicCore.Tests/PythonTransformNodeTests.cs
@@ -73,6 +73,51 @@ public class PythonTransformNodeTests
         Assert.Contains("line 2", ex.Message);
     }
 
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task Bare_string_output_is_a_single_item_not_one_char_per_item()
+    {
+        var node = new PythonTransformNode();
+        var outs = await node.ExecuteAsync(Ctx("output = 'hello'"),
+            new IReadOnlyList<Item>[] { Array.Empty<Item>() }, CancellationToken.None);
+        Assert.Single(outs);
+        Assert.Single(outs[0]);
+        Assert.Equal("hello", outs[0][0].Json.GetString());
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task Bare_dict_output_is_a_single_item_not_one_key_per_item()
+    {
+        var node = new PythonTransformNode();
+        var outs = await node.ExecuteAsync(Ctx("output = {'test': 'hi', 'n': 3}"),
+            new IReadOnlyList<Item>[] { Array.Empty<Item>() }, CancellationToken.None);
+        Assert.Single(outs);
+        Assert.Single(outs[0]);
+        Assert.Equal(JsonValueKind.Object, outs[0][0].Json.ValueKind);
+        Assert.Equal("hi", outs[0][0].Json.GetProperty("test").GetString());
+        Assert.Equal(3, outs[0][0].Json.GetProperty("n").GetInt32());
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task Bare_number_output_is_a_single_item()
+    {
+        var node = new PythonTransformNode();
+        var outs = await node.ExecuteAsync(Ctx("output = 42"),
+            new IReadOnlyList<Item>[] { Array.Empty<Item>() }, CancellationToken.None);
+        Assert.Single(outs);
+        Assert.Single(outs[0]);
+        Assert.Equal(42, outs[0][0].Json.GetInt64());
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task None_output_yields_empty_list()
+    {
+        var node = new PythonTransformNode();
+        var outs = await node.ExecuteAsync(Ctx("output = None"),
+            new IReadOnlyList<Item>[] { Array.Empty<Item>() }, CancellationToken.None);
+        Assert.Single(outs);
+        Assert.Empty(outs[0]);
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public async Task Syntax_error_message_contains_python_traceback()
     {