diff --git a/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/NixStringLiteralEscaper.kt b/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/NixStringLiteralEscaper.kt
index 2e7ea0cf..ff3144cb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/NixStringLiteralEscaper.kt
+++ b/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/NixStringLiteralEscaper.kt
@@ -17,14 +17,14 @@ class NixStringLiteralEscaper(host: AbstractNixString) : LiteralTextEscaper<PsiL
     }
 
     override fun decode(rangeInsideHost: TextRange, outChars: StringBuilder): Boolean {
-        // only indented strings supported for now
+        // TODO only indented strings supported for now
+        // single line strings require a new decode function because
+        // it uses different escaping mechanisms
         if (myHost !is NixIndString) return false
 
         val subText: String = rangeInsideHost.substring(myHost.text)
-
-
         val array = IntArray(subText.length + 1)
-        val success = unescapeAndDecode(subText, outChars, array, interpolations = false)
+        val success = unescapeAndDecode(subText, outChars, array)
         outSourceOffsets = array
         return success
     }
@@ -32,17 +32,13 @@ class NixStringLiteralEscaper(host: AbstractNixString) : LiteralTextEscaper<PsiL
     override fun getOffsetInHost(offsetInDecoded: Int, rangeInsideHost: TextRange): Int {
         val offsets = outSourceOffsets ?: throw IllegalStateException("#decode was not called")
         val result = if (offsetInDecoded < offsets.size) offsets[offsetInDecoded] else -1
-        println("gotOffsetInHost decoded=${offsetInDecoded} rangeInsideHost=${rangeInsideHost} result=$result")
         return result.coerceIn(2..rangeInsideHost.length) + rangeInsideHost.startOffset
     }
 
     companion object {
-        fun unescapeAndDecode(
-            chars: String,
-            outChars: StringBuilder,
-            sourceOffsets: IntArray?,
-            interpolations: Boolean
-        ): Boolean {
+        // this function does not consider interpolations so that
+        // they do appear in the guest language and remain when we end up converting back to Nix
+        fun unescapeAndDecode(chars: String, outChars: StringBuilder, sourceOffsets: IntArray?): Boolean {
             assert(sourceOffsets == null || sourceOffsets.size == chars.length + 1)
 
             var index = 0
@@ -118,21 +114,6 @@ class NixStringLiteralEscaper(host: AbstractNixString) : LiteralTextEscaper<PsiL
                     continue
                 }
 
-//                 // $ removes any special meaning from the following $.
-//                if (c == '$') {
-//                    if (index == chars.length) return false
-//                    c = chars[index++]
-//                    if (c != '$') {
-//                        // if what follows isn't another ' then we are not escaping anything,
-//                        // so we can continue
-//                        outChars.append('$')
-//                        updateOffsets(index - 1)
-//                        outChars.append(c)
-//                        continue
-//                    }
-//                    // what here??
-//                }
-
                 outChars.append(c)
             }
             return true
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/impl/AbstractNixString.kt b/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/impl/AbstractNixString.kt
index 42cab13c..ce541265 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/impl/AbstractNixString.kt
+++ b/src/main/java/org/nixos/idea/psi/impl/AbstractNixString.kt
@@ -1,23 +1,33 @@
 package org.nixos.idea.psi.impl
 
 import com.intellij.lang.ASTNode
+import com.intellij.openapi.diagnostic.Logger
 import com.intellij.psi.PsiLanguageInjectionHost
+import com.intellij.psi.impl.source.tree.LeafElement
+import com.intellij.util.IncorrectOperationException
+import org.nixos.idea.psi.NixIndString
 import org.nixos.idea.psi.NixString
 import org.nixos.idea.psi.NixStringLiteralEscaper
 
 
-abstract class AbstractNixString(node: ASTNode) : PsiLanguageInjectionHost, AbstractNixPsiElement(node), NixString {
+abstract class AbstractNixString(private val astNode: ASTNode) : PsiLanguageInjectionHost, AbstractNixPsiElement(astNode),NixString {
 
     override fun isValidHost() = true
 
-    override fun updateText(text: String): NixString {
-        // TODO implement. This is called when you edit the injected file in
-        //   order for the final Nix string to get updated
-        //   It is not necessary for syntax highlighting in injections
-        //   but is a nice to have
+    override fun updateText(s: String): NixString {
+        // TODO also support single-line strings
+        if (this !is NixIndString) {
+            LOG.info("not a nix ind string")
+            return this
+        }
+        (astNode.firstChildNode as LeafElement).replaceWithText(s)
         return this
     }
 
     override fun createLiteralTextEscaper() = NixStringLiteralEscaper(this)
+
+    companion object {
+        val LOG = Logger.getInstance(AbstractNixString::class.java)
+    }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/nixos/idea/util/NixIndStringUtilTest.java b/src/test/java/org/nixos/idea/util/NixIndStringUtilTest.java
index 63d18881..846c05d7 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/nixos/idea/util/NixIndStringUtilTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/nixos/idea/util/NixIndStringUtilTest.java
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.CsvSource;
+import org.nixos.idea.psi.NixStringLiteralEscaper;
 
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
 
@@ -21,13 +22,16 @@ final class NixIndStringUtilTest {
             |''\\r|         , |\r|
             |''\\n|         , |\n|
             |'''|           , |''|
-            $$              , $
+            $$              , $$
+            ''$             , $
             # supplementary character, i.e. character form a supplementary plane,
             # which needs a surrogate pair to be represented in UTF-16
             \uD83C\uDF09    , \uD83C\uDF09
             """)
-    void unescape(String unescaped, String expectedResult) {
-        var str = NixIndStringUtil.unescape(unescaped);
+    void unescape(String escaped, String expectedResult) {
+        var sb = new StringBuilder();
+        NixStringLiteralEscaper.Companion.unescapeAndDecode(escaped, sb, null);
+        var str = sb.toString();
         assertEquals(expectedResult, str);
     }
 }