diff --git a/deps/dkjson.lua b/deps/dkjson.lua
index 7a86724..3bfbec2 100644
--- a/deps/dkjson.lua
+++ b/deps/dkjson.lua
@@ -7,11 +7,11 @@ local global_module_name = 'json'
 
 David Kolf's JSON module for Lua 5.1 - 5.4
 
-Version 2.7
+Version 2.8
 
 
 For the documentation see the corresponding readme.txt or visit
-<http://dkolf.de/src/dkjson-lua.fsl/>.
+<http://dkolf.de/dkjson-lua/>.
 
 You can contact the author by sending an e-mail to 'david' at the
 domain 'dkolf.de'.
@@ -42,8 +42,8 @@ SOFTWARE.
 --]==]
 
 -- global dependencies:
-local pairs, type, tostring, tonumber, getmetatable, setmetatable, rawset =
-      pairs, type, tostring, tonumber, getmetatable, setmetatable, rawset
+local pairs, type, tostring, tonumber, getmetatable, setmetatable =
+      pairs, type, tostring, tonumber, getmetatable, setmetatable
 local error, require, pcall, select = error, require, pcall, select
 local floor, huge = math.floor, math.huge
 local strrep, gsub, strsub, strbyte, strchar, strfind, strlen, strformat =
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ local strrep, gsub, strsub, strbyte, strchar, strfind, strlen, strformat =
 local strmatch = string.match
 local concat = table.concat
 
-local json = { version = "dkjson 2.7" }
+local json = { version = "dkjson 2.8" }
 
 local jsonlpeg = {}
 
@@ -225,6 +225,10 @@ local function addpair (key, value, prev, indent, level, buffer, buflen, tables,
   if indent then
     buflen = addnewline2 (level, buffer, buflen)
   end
+  -- When Lua is compiled with LUA_NOCVTN2S this will fail when
+  -- numbers are mixed into the keys of the table. JSON keys are always
+  -- strings, so this would be an implicit conversion too and the failure
+  -- is intentional.
   buffer[buflen+1] = quotestring (key)
   buffer[buflen+2] = ":"
   return encode2 (value, indent, level, buffer, buflen + 2, tables, globalorder, state)
@@ -392,7 +396,7 @@ local function loc (str, where)
       break
     end
   end
-  return "line " .. line .. ", column " .. (where - linepos)
+  return strformat ("line %d, column %d", line, where - linepos)
 end
 
 local function unterminated (str, what, where)
@@ -511,7 +515,6 @@ end
 local scanvalue -- forward declaration
 
 local function scantable (what, closechar, str, startpos, nullval, objectmeta, arraymeta)
-  local len = strlen (str)
   local tbl, n = {}, 0
   local pos = startpos + 1
   if what == 'object' then
diff --git a/tools/get-deps.fnl b/tools/get-deps.fnl
index 27da844..b5675fc 100644
--- a/tools/get-deps.fnl
+++ b/tools/get-deps.fnl
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@
 (local fennel-version "1.5.3")
 (local faith-version "0.2.0")
 (local penlight-version "1.14.0")
-(local dkjson-version "2.7")
+(local dkjson-version "2.8")
 ;; dkjson is hosted over http (unencrypted), so I check to make sure the file's not been tampered
-(local dkjson-md5sum "94320e64e95f9bb5b06d9955e5391a78  build/dkjson.lua")
-(local dkjson-sha1sum "6926b65aa74ae8278b6c5923c0c5568af4f1fef1  build/dkjson.lua")
+(local dkjson-md5sum "6bdfb30f5e192315ad0bb249f1d48e72  build/dkjson.lua")
+(local dkjson-sha1sum "19b27918b411b52b1c2b0061dd479672cb746687  build/dkjson.lua")
 
 
 ;; get fennel