CXone Studio ASSIGN/IF logic failing on type cast

Getting a silent failure on the IF action when checking a string variable set via ASSIGN. The variable @cust_id is populated correctly, but the condition @cust_id == "VIP" never triggers, even though the debug log shows the value is exactly “VIP”.

• Using CXone Studio snippet mode
• ASSIGN sets @cust_id from a JSON response field
• IF action uses strict equality check
• Tried trimming whitespace in ASSIGN, no change

Here’s the snippet structure:

ASSIGN @cust_id = GetRESTProxy().response.body.customerId
IF @cust_id == "VIP"
 GOTO VIP_QUEUE
ENDIF

Is the IF action doing a loose comparison or is there a hidden type coercion happening with the ASSIGN output?