diff --git a/common/chat-auto-parser-generator.cpp b/common/chat-auto-parser-generator.cpp
index 81a4ef0aee..d7e117e4d9 100644
--- a/common/chat-auto-parser-generator.cpp
+++ b/common/chat-auto-parser-generator.cpp
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ common_peg_parser analyze_tools::build_tool_parser_tag_json(parser_build_context
 
     foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
         const auto & func   = tool.at("function");
-        std::string  name   = func.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string  name   = func.at("name");
         const auto & schema = func.contains("parameters") ? func.at("parameters") : json::object();
 
         // Build call_id parser based on position (if supported)
@@ -384,7 +384,7 @@ common_peg_parser analyze_tools::build_tool_parser_tag_tagged(parser_build_conte
 
     foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
         const auto &          func       = tool.at("function");
-        std::string           name       = func.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string           name       = func.at("name");
         auto                  params     = func.contains("parameters") ? func.at("parameters") : json::object();
         const auto &          properties = params.contains("properties") ? params.at("properties") : json::object();
 
diff --git a/common/chat-peg-parser.cpp b/common/chat-peg-parser.cpp
index 6f41daa403..e17134b6c2 100644
--- a/common/chat-peg-parser.cpp
+++ b/common/chat-peg-parser.cpp
@@ -488,7 +488,7 @@ common_peg_parser common_chat_peg_builder::standard_constructed_tools(
             continue;
         }
         const auto &   function = tool_def.at("function");
-        std::string    name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string    name     = function.at("name");
         ordered_json   params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : ordered_json::object();
 
         // Build argument parsers
@@ -565,7 +565,7 @@ common_peg_parser common_chat_peg_builder::python_style_tool_calls(
             continue;
         }
         const auto &   function = tool_def.at("function");
-        std::string    name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string    name     = function.at("name");
         ordered_json   params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : ordered_json::object();
 
         auto args = eps();
@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ common_peg_parser common_chat_peg_builder::build_json_tools_function_is_key(
             continue;
         }
         const auto &   function = tool_def.at("function");
-        std::string    name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string    name     = function.at("name");
         ordered_json   params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : ordered_json::object();
 
         // Build inner object fields
@@ -726,7 +726,7 @@ common_peg_parser common_chat_peg_builder::build_json_tools_nested_keys(
             continue;
         }
         const auto &   function = tool_def.at("function");
-        std::string    name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string    name     = function.at("name");
         ordered_json   params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : ordered_json::object();
 
         auto nested_name = literal("\"" + nested_name_field + "\"") + space() + literal(":") + space() +
@@ -795,7 +795,7 @@ common_peg_parser common_chat_peg_builder::build_json_tools_flat_keys(
             continue;
         }
         const auto &   function = tool_def.at("function");
-        std::string    name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+        std::string    name     = function.at("name");
         ordered_json   params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : ordered_json::object();
 
         auto tool_name_ = name_key_parser + space() + literal(":") + space() +
diff --git a/common/chat.cpp b/common/chat.cpp
index 4409a2b2e7..50358729ba 100644
--- a/common/chat.cpp
+++ b/common/chat.cpp
@@ -968,7 +968,7 @@ static std::string common_chat_template_direct_apply_impl(
         jinja::caps_apply_preserve_reasoning(ctx, enabled);
     }
     if (inp.contains("reasoning_effort") && inp["reasoning_effort"].is_string() && !inp["reasoning_effort"].empty()) {
-        std::string reasoning_effort = inp["reasoning_effort"].get<std::string>();
+        std::string reasoning_effort = inp["reasoning_effort"];
         jinja::caps_apply_reasoning_effort(ctx, reasoning_effort);
     }
 
@@ -1113,7 +1113,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_ministral_3(const common_chat_
             auto tool_choice = p.choice();
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-                std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                std::string  name     = function.at("name");
                 const auto & schema   = function.at("parameters");
 
                 tool_choice |=
@@ -1221,7 +1221,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_qwen3_coder(const common_chat_
     // starting <tool_call>. The model may hallucinate a tool name, but it is preferable over
     // constraining on <function which may occur in valid content generation, e.g. #include <functional>
     foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
-        const std::string name = tool.at("function").at("name").get<std::string>();
+        const std::string name = tool.at("function").at("name");
         tool_call_starts.push_back("<function=" + name + ">");
     });
 
@@ -1249,7 +1249,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_qwen3_coder(const common_chat_
             auto tool_choice = p.choice();
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto & function   = tool.at("function");
-                std::string  name       = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                std::string  name       = function.at("name");
                 auto         parameters = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : json::object();
 
                 auto schema_info = common_schema_info();
@@ -1440,7 +1440,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_gpt_oss(const common_chat_temp
 
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-                std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                std::string  name     = function.at("name");
                 const auto & params   = function.at("parameters");
 
                 auto func_name  = p.literal(" to=functions.") + p.tool_name(p.literal(name));
@@ -1606,7 +1606,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_gemma4(const common_chat_templ
 
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-                std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                std::string  name     = function.at("name");
                 // TODO @aldehir : need to extend json-schema-to-grammar to produce more than JSON rules
                 // const auto & params   = function.at("parameters");
 
@@ -1705,7 +1705,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_functionary_v3_2(const common_
         auto tool_choice = p.choice();
         foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
             const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-            std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+            std::string  name     = function.at("name");
             const auto & schema   = function.at("parameters");
 
             // Tool format: >>>function_name\n{json_args}
@@ -1842,7 +1842,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_kimi_k2(const common_chat_temp
         auto tool_choice = p.choice();
         foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
             const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-            std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+            std::string  name     = function.at("name");
             const auto & schema   = function.at("parameters");
 
             // Match: functions.<name>:<digits>
@@ -2036,7 +2036,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_gigachat_v3(
             auto tool_choice = p.choice();
             for (const auto & tool : inputs.tools) {
                 const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-                std::string name = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                std::string name = function.at("name");
                 const auto & schema = function.at("parameters");
 
                 auto tool_name = p.json_member("name", "\"" + p.tool_name(p.literal(name)) + "\"");
@@ -2232,7 +2232,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_deepseek_v3_2(const common_cha
         if (has_tool_calls) {
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-                std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                std::string  name     = function.at("name");
                 auto         params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : json::object();
                 const auto & props    = params.contains("properties") ? params.at("properties") : json::object();
 
@@ -2467,7 +2467,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_kimi_k3(const common_chat_temp
         auto tool_choices = p.choice();
         foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
             const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-            std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+            std::string  name     = function.at("name");
             const json   schema   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : json::object();
 
             // arguments come one tag per key, with the JSON type in a type="..."
@@ -2788,7 +2788,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_minimax_m3(const common_chat_t
         auto tool_choice = p.choice();
         foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
             const auto & function = tool.at("function");
-            std::string  name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+            std::string  name     = function.at("name");
             auto         params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : json::object();
 
             auto schema_info = common_schema_info();
@@ -3242,7 +3242,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_minicpm5(const common_chat_tem
             auto tool_choice = p.choice();
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto &      function = tool.at("function");
-                const std::string name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                const std::string name     = function.at("name");
                 auto              params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : json::object();
 
                 auto args = p.eps();
@@ -3388,7 +3388,7 @@ static common_chat_params common_chat_params_init_muse_glimmer(const common_chat
             auto tool_choice = p.choice();
             foreach_function(inputs.tools, [&](const json & tool) {
                 const auto &      function = tool.at("function");
-                const std::string name     = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+                const std::string name     = function.at("name");
                 auto              params   = function.contains("parameters") ? function.at("parameters") : json::object();
 
                 auto args = p.eps();
diff --git a/common/download.cpp b/common/download.cpp
index 4b28a708c8..f091ec5112 100644
--- a/common/download.cpp
+++ b/common/download.cpp
@@ -921,7 +921,7 @@ std::string common_docker_resolve_model(const std::string & docker) {
         if (manifest.contains("layers")) {
             for (const auto & layer : manifest["layers"]) {
                 if (layer.contains("mediaType")) {
-                    std::string media_type = layer["mediaType"].get<std::string>();
+                    std::string media_type = layer["mediaType"];
                     if (media_type == "application/vnd.docker.ai.gguf.v3" ||
                         media_type.find("gguf") != std::string::npos) {
                         gguf_digest = layer["digest"].get<std::string>();
diff --git a/common/hf-cache.cpp b/common/hf-cache.cpp
index 50d6dd6105..ce727594ee 100644
--- a/common/hf-cache.cpp
+++ b/common/hf-cache.cpp
@@ -244,8 +244,8 @@ static std::string get_repo_commit(const std::string & repo_id,
                 !branch.contains("targetCommit") || !branch["targetCommit"].is_string()) {
                 continue;
             }
-            std::string _name = branch["name"].get<std::string>();
-            std::string _commit = branch["targetCommit"].get<std::string>();
+            std::string _name = branch["name"];
+            std::string _commit = branch["targetCommit"];
 
             if (!is_valid_subpath(refs_path, _name)) {
                 LOG_WRN("%s: skip invalid branch: %s\n", __func__, _name.c_str());
diff --git a/common/json-schema-to-grammar.cpp b/common/json-schema-to-grammar.cpp
index 1d06768440..bb1119cd7a 100644
--- a/common/json-schema-to-grammar.cpp
+++ b/common/json-schema-to-grammar.cpp
@@ -845,7 +845,7 @@ public:
                 }
             } else if (n.is_object()) {
                 if (n.contains("$ref")) {
-                    std::string ref = n["$ref"].get<std::string>();
+                    std::string ref = n["$ref"];
                     if (_refs.find(ref) == _refs.end()) {
                         json target;
                         if (ref.find("https://") == 0) {
@@ -947,7 +947,7 @@ public:
         }
         if ((schema_type.is_null() || schema_type == "object")
                 && (schema.contains("properties") ||
-                    (schema.contains("additionalProperties") && schema["additionalProperties"] != true))) {
+                    (schema.contains("additionalProperties") && !schema["additionalProperties"].get<bool>()))) {
             std::unordered_set<std::string> required;
             if (schema.contains("required") && schema["required"].is_array()) {
                 for (const auto & item : schema["required"]) {
@@ -1135,7 +1135,7 @@ bool common_schema_info::resolves_to_string(const common_json & schema) {
 
         // Handle $ref
         if (s.contains("$ref")) {
-            const std::string ref = s["$ref"].get<std::string>();
+            const std::string ref = s["$ref"];
             if (visited_refs.find(ref) != visited_refs.end()) {
                 // Circular reference, assume not a string to be safe
                 return false;
@@ -1218,7 +1218,7 @@ bool common_schema_info::resolves_to_string(const common_json & schema) {
 
         // Check format - many formats imply string
         if (s.contains("format")) {
-            const std::string fmt = s["format"].get<std::string>();
+            const std::string fmt = s["format"];
             if (fmt == "date" || fmt == "time" || fmt == "date-time" ||
                 fmt == "uri" || fmt == "email" || fmt == "hostname" ||
                 fmt == "ipv4" || fmt == "ipv6" || fmt == "uuid" ||
diff --git a/common/json.h b/common/json.h
index 4a9f5a82f7..9415d57b36 100644
--- a/common/json.h
+++ b/common/json.h
@@ -148,6 +148,10 @@ class common_json {
 
     common_json       & operator[](const std::string & key);
     const common_json & operator[](const std::string & key) const;
+    common_json       & operator[](const char * key)       { return (*this)[std::string(key)]; }
+    const common_json & operator[](const char * key) const { return (*this)[std::string(key)]; }
+    common_json       & operator[](int idx)       { return (*this)[(size_t) idx]; }
+    const common_json & operator[](int idx) const { return (*this)[(size_t) idx]; }
     common_json       & operator[](size_t idx);
     const common_json & operator[](size_t idx) const;
 
@@ -164,6 +168,15 @@ class common_json {
     // only for the types instantiated in json.cpp, the rest fails at link time
     template <typename T> T get() const;
 
+    // implicit get<T>() for plain values, so they can be assigned to their C++ type directly
+    // note: kept to this short list on purpose, a wider one makes j["key"] ambiguous
+    operator std::string() const { return get<std::string>(); }
+    operator bool()        const { return get<bool>(); }
+    operator int()         const { return get<int>(); }
+    operator int64_t()     const { return get<int64_t>(); }
+    operator float()       const { return get<float>(); }
+    operator double()      const { return get<double>(); }
+
     template <typename T>
     T value(const std::string & key, T def) const {
         return contains(key) ? at(key).get<T>() : def;
diff --git a/tests/gguf-model-data.cpp b/tests/gguf-model-data.cpp
index fe8b4ca76e..18e2955dfa 100644
--- a/tests/gguf-model-data.cpp
+++ b/tests/gguf-model-data.cpp
@@ -475,7 +475,7 @@ static std::string detect_gguf_filename(const std::string & repo, const std::str
 
     for (const auto & sibling : j["siblings"]) {
         if (!sibling.contains("rfilename")) { continue; }
-        std::string fname = sibling["rfilename"].get<std::string>();
+        std::string fname = sibling["rfilename"];
         if (fname.size() < 5 || fname.substr(fname.size() - 5) != ".gguf") {
             continue;
         }
diff --git a/tests/test-chat-auto-parser.cpp b/tests/test-chat-auto-parser.cpp
index f98e281086..2209dcac84 100644
--- a/tests/test-chat-auto-parser.cpp
+++ b/tests/test-chat-auto-parser.cpp
@@ -2157,7 +2157,7 @@ static void test_tagged_args_with_embedded_quotes(testing & t) {
         for (const auto & tool_def : tools) {
             if (!tool_def.contains("function")) { continue; }
             const auto & function = tool_def.at("function");
-            std::string name = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+            std::string name = function.at("name");
             const auto & params = function.at("parameters");
 
             if (!params.contains("properties") || !params.at("properties").is_object()) { continue; }
diff --git a/tests/test-chat-peg-parser.cpp b/tests/test-chat-peg-parser.cpp
index 432b67870c..cede556cf3 100644
--- a/tests/test-chat-peg-parser.cpp
+++ b/tests/test-chat-peg-parser.cpp
@@ -114,9 +114,9 @@ static json create_tools() {
                         { "default", 5 } } },
                     { "category",
                       { { "type", "string" },
-                        { "enum", { "api", "troubleshooting", "billing", "general" } },
+                        { "enum", json::array({ "api", "troubleshooting", "billing", "general" }) },
                         { "description", "Filter search by specific category." } } } } },
-                { "required", { "query", "category" } },
+                { "required", json::array({ "query", "category" }) },
                 { "additionalProperties", false } } },
             { "strict", true } } }
     };
@@ -400,13 +400,13 @@ static void test_example_qwen3_coder(testing & t) {
         std::vector<common_peg_parser> tool_parsers;
         for (const auto & def : tools) {
             auto        function   = def.at("function");
-            std::string name       = function.at("name").get<std::string>();
+            std::string name       = function.at("name");
             auto        parameters = function.at("parameters");
             auto        properties = parameters.at("properties");
 
             std::set<std::string> required_properties;
             if (function.contains("required")) {
-                required_properties = function.at("required").get<std::vector<std::string>>();
+                required_properties = function.at("required").get<std::set<std::string>>();
             }
 
             std::vector<common_peg_parser> arg_parsers;
diff --git a/tests/test-chat.cpp b/tests/test-chat.cpp
index 7918f0ffcf..d43c14ffa3 100644
--- a/tests/test-chat.cpp
+++ b/tests/test-chat.cpp
@@ -7052,7 +7052,7 @@ static void test_reasoning_budget_message_per_request() {
     if (!llama_params.contains("reasoning_budget_message")) {
         throw std::runtime_error("reasoning_budget_message missing from llama_params (thinking_end_tag may be empty for this template)");
     }
-    std::string got = llama_params["reasoning_budget_message"].get<std::string>();
+    std::string got = llama_params["reasoning_budget_message"];
     if (got != per_request_message) {
         throw std::runtime_error("Expected reasoning_budget_message='" + per_request_message + "', got '" + got + "'");
     }
diff --git a/tools/cli/cli-context.cpp b/tools/cli/cli-context.cpp
index f6a9c74ac6..a1dffc5776 100644
--- a/tools/cli/cli-context.cpp
+++ b/tools/cli/cli-context.cpp
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ bool cli_context::list_and_ask_models() {
         if (!m.contains("id") || !m.at("id").is_string()) {
             continue;
         }
-        std::string name = m.at("id").get<std::string>();
+        std::string name = m.at("id");
         std::string display = name;
         if (m.contains("aliases") && m.at("aliases").is_array()) {
             std::vector<std::string> aliases;
@@ -387,14 +387,14 @@ bool cli_context::generate_completion(generated_content & content_out, cli_timin
         }
         const auto & delta = choice.at("delta");
         if (delta.contains("reasoning_content") && delta.at("reasoning_content").is_string()) {
-            const std::string text = delta.at("reasoning_content").get<std::string>();
+            const std::string text = delta.at("reasoning_content");
             if (!text.empty()) {
                 content_out.reasoning += text;
                 a.push(ui::ASSISTANT_DISPLAY_MODE_REASONING, text);
             }
         }
         if (delta.contains("content") && delta.at("content").is_string()) {
-            const std::string text = delta.at("content").get<std::string>();
+            const std::string text = delta.at("content");
             if (!text.empty()) {
                 content_out.content += text;
                 a.push(ui::ASSISTANT_DISPLAY_MODE_CONTENT, text);
diff --git a/tools/server/server-chat.cpp b/tools/server/server-chat.cpp
index a6fe3c6ba6..2411ec7089 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-chat.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-chat.cpp
@@ -679,12 +679,12 @@ json convert_transcriptions_to_chatcmpl(
     chatcmpl_body["stream"] = stream == "true";
 
     if (inp_body.contains("max_tokens")) {
-        std::string inp = inp_body["max_tokens"].get<std::string>();
+        std::string inp = inp_body["max_tokens"];
         chatcmpl_body["max_tokens"] = std::stoul(inp);
     }
 
     if (inp_body.contains("temperature")) {
-        std::string inp = inp_body["temperature"].get<std::string>();
+        std::string inp = inp_body["temperature"];
         chatcmpl_body["temperature"] = std::stof(inp);
     }
 
diff --git a/tools/server/server-context.cpp b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
index 1df9e4a1af..b78cbf07f7 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-context.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
@@ -5207,7 +5207,7 @@ void server_routes::init_routes() {
 std::unique_ptr<server_res_generator> server_routes::handle_slots_save(const server_http_req & req, int id_slot) {
     auto res = create_response();
     const json request_data = json::parse(req.body);
-    std::string filename = request_data.at("filename").get<std::string>();
+    std::string filename = request_data.at("filename");
     if (!fs_validate_filename(filename)) {
         res->error(format_error_response("Invalid filename", ERROR_TYPE_INVALID_REQUEST));
         return res;
@@ -5243,7 +5243,7 @@ std::unique_ptr<server_res_generator> server_routes::handle_slots_save(const ser
 std::unique_ptr<server_res_generator> server_routes::handle_slots_restore(const server_http_req & req, int id_slot) {
     auto res = create_response();
     const json request_data = json::parse(req.body);
-    std::string filename = request_data.at("filename").get<std::string>();
+    std::string filename = request_data.at("filename");
     if (!fs_validate_filename(filename)) {
         res->error(format_error_response("Invalid filename", ERROR_TYPE_INVALID_REQUEST));
         return res;
@@ -5332,7 +5332,7 @@ std::unique_ptr<server_res_generator> server_routes::handle_embeddings_impl(cons
 
     bool use_base64 = false;
     if (body.count("encoding_format") != 0) {
-        const std::string format = body.at("encoding_format").get<std::string>();
+        const std::string format = body.at("encoding_format");
         if (format == "base64") {
             use_base64 = true;
         } else if (format != "float") {
diff --git a/tools/server/server-http.cpp b/tools/server/server-http.cpp
index 2ec137aa07..249e71b416 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-http.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-http.cpp
@@ -785,7 +785,7 @@ void server_http_context::register_gcp_compat() const {
 
                 try {
                     json payload = instance;
-                    const std::string format = payload.at("@requestFormat").get<std::string>();
+                    const std::string format = payload.at("@requestFormat");
                     payload.erase("@requestFormat");
 
                     if (payload.contains("stream")) {
diff --git a/tools/server/server-schema.cpp b/tools/server/server-schema.cpp
index 7b368ef788..914c2b7021 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-schema.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-schema.cpp
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ std::vector<std::unique_ptr<field>> make_llama_cmpl_schema(const common_params &
     add((new field_str("generation_prompt"))
         ->set_desc("Generation prompt appended to the chat template output")
         ->set_handler([&](field_eval_context & ctx, const json & data) {
-            std::string s = data.at("generation_prompt").get<std::string>();
+            std::string s = data.at("generation_prompt");
             ctx.params.chat_parser_params.generation_prompt = s;
             ctx.params.sampling.generation_prompt = s;
         }));
@@ -399,13 +399,13 @@ std::vector<std::unique_ptr<field>> make_llama_cmpl_schema(const common_params &
             ctx.params.sampling.reasoning_budget_end.clear();
             if (data.contains("reasoning_budget_end_tags")) {
                 for (const auto & t : data.at("reasoning_budget_end_tags")) {
-                    std::string tag = t.get<std::string>();
+                    std::string tag = t;
                     if (!tag.empty()) {
                         ctx.params.sampling.reasoning_budget_end.push_back(common_tokenize(ctx.vocab, tag, false, true));
                     }
                 }
             } else if (data.contains("reasoning_budget_end_tag")) {
-                std::string tag = data.at("reasoning_budget_end_tag").get<std::string>();
+                std::string tag = data.at("reasoning_budget_end_tag");
                 if (!tag.empty()) {
                     ctx.params.sampling.reasoning_budget_end.push_back(common_tokenize(ctx.vocab, tag, false, true));
                 }
diff --git a/tools/server/server-stream.cpp b/tools/server/server-stream.cpp
index f6b9b8a9f4..a591fa27f5 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-stream.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-stream.cpp
@@ -510,7 +510,7 @@ server_http_context::handler_t server_stream_make_lookup_handler() {
             if (body.contains("conversation_ids") && body["conversation_ids"].is_array()) {
                 for (const auto & v : body["conversation_ids"]) {
                     if (v.is_string()) {
-                        std::string id = v.get<std::string>();
+                        std::string id = v;
                         if (!id.empty()) {
                             requested.push_back(std::move(id));
                         }
diff --git a/tools/server/server-tools.cpp b/tools/server/server-tools.cpp
index 12e9dbb8cf..82553fe01d 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-tools.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-tools.cpp
@@ -896,7 +896,7 @@ struct server_tool_read_file : server_tool {
     }
 
     json invoke(json params, server_tool::stream *) const override {
-        std::string path  = params.at("path").get<std::string>();
+        std::string path  = params.at("path");
         int  start_line   = json_value(params, "start_line", 1);
         int  end_line     = json_value(params, "end_line",  -1); // -1 = no limit
         bool append_loc   = json_value(params, "append_loc", false);
@@ -1015,7 +1015,7 @@ struct server_tool_file_glob_search : server_tool {
     json invoke(json params, server_tool::stream *) const override {
         auto io = make_tools_io(params);
 
-        const std::string path = params.at("path").get<std::string>();
+        const std::string path = params.at("path");
 
         std::string base      = io->resolve(path);
         std::string include   = json_value(params, "include", std::string("**"));
@@ -1128,8 +1128,8 @@ struct server_tool_grep_search : server_tool {
     }
 
     json invoke(json params, server_tool::stream *) const override {
-        std::string path        = params.at("path").get<std::string>();
-        std::string pat_str     = params.at("pattern").get<std::string>();
+        std::string path        = params.at("path");
+        std::string pat_str     = params.at("pattern");
         std::string include     = json_value(params, "include", std::string("**"));
         std::string exclude     = json_value(params, "exclude", std::string(""));
         bool        show_lineno = json_value(params, "return_line_numbers", false);
@@ -1271,7 +1271,7 @@ struct server_tool_exec_shell_command : server_tool {
     }
 
     json invoke(json params, server_tool::stream * st) const override {
-        std::string command   = params.at("command").get<std::string>();
+        std::string command   = params.at("command");
         int    timeout        = json_value(params, "timeout",         10);
         size_t max_output     = (size_t) json_value(params, "max_output_size", (int) SERVER_TOOL_EXEC_SHELL_COMMAND_MAX_OUTPUT_SIZE);
 
@@ -1348,8 +1348,8 @@ struct server_tool_write_file : server_tool {
     }
 
     json invoke(json params, server_tool::stream *) const override {
-        std::string path    = params.at("path").get<std::string>();
-        std::string content = params.at("content").get<std::string>();
+        std::string path    = params.at("path");
+        std::string content = params.at("content");
 
         auto io = make_tools_io(params);
         if (!io->write_file(path, content)) {
@@ -1405,7 +1405,7 @@ struct server_tool_edit_file : server_tool {
     }
 
     json invoke(json params, server_tool::stream *) const override {
-        std::string path = params.at("path").get<std::string>();
+        std::string path = params.at("path");
         const json & edits_json = params.at("edits");
 
         if (!edits_json.is_array() || edits_json.empty()) {
@@ -2078,7 +2078,7 @@ void server_tools::setup(const std::vector<std::string> & enabled_tools,
         auto res = std::make_unique<server_tools_res>();
         try {
             json body = json::parse(req.body);
-            std::string tool_name = body.at("tool").get<std::string>();
+            std::string tool_name = body.at("tool");
             json params = body.value("params", json::object());
             bool stream = body.value("stream", false);