CXone Studio ASSIGN + IF branching logic not evaluating correctly

Weird behavior in a Studio snippet. I’m trying to set a variable based on a REST response, then branch. The ASSIGN action sets var.status to ‘active’, but the subsequent IF action checking var.status == 'active' always falls to the else branch.

ASSIGN var.status = json.status
IF var.status == 'active' THEN
 ... 

The debug log shows the value is set, but the comparison fails. Is there a type mismatch issue with Studio’s string evaluation?