• flask
  • jinja
  • json
  • javascript

Jinja renders Python strings without the quotes. The user tries var x = {{ 'value' }} and that renders as var x = value. Whatever value is, it isn’t valid when JavaScript runs it, so the user sees a weird value or gets an error, rather than the string they expected.

Using {{ value|tojson }} produces a JSON string, and since the outer quotes are removed when Jinja renders it, it becomes valid JavaScript with the corect type.