diff --git a/src/domain/desktop/appExportPython.ts b/src/domain/desktop/appExportPython.ts
index 844df74526..9d1d871dc2 100644
--- a/src/domain/desktop/appExportPython.ts
+++ b/src/domain/desktop/appExportPython.ts
@@ -205,8 +205,10 @@ def _keyfile_line(raw: str) -> tuple:
     header = GROUP_HEADER.match(line)
     if header:
         return ("group", header.group(1))
-    key, equals, value = line.partition("=")
-    return ("entry", key.strip(), value.strip()) if equals and key else ("other",)
+    key, equals, value = raw.partition("=")
+    key = key.strip()
+    # Only ASCII space and tab immediately after '=' are padding.
+    return ("entry", key, value.lstrip(" \t")) if equals and key else ("other",)
 
 
 def _each_line(text: str):
diff --git a/src/domain/desktop/stateChanges.test.ts b/src/domain/desktop/stateChanges.test.ts
index 8dbc97343c..1321c3b28c 100644
--- a/src/domain/desktop/stateChanges.test.ts
+++ b/src/domain/desktop/stateChanges.test.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
 
 import type { JsonValue } from "../jsonValue.js";
 import { diffStateViews } from "./stateChanges.js";
+import { keyfileView } from "./stateFormats.js";
 import { resolvePointer } from "./viewPointer.js";
 
 describe("diffStateViews", () => {
@@ -84,6 +85,33 @@ describe("diffStateViews", () => {
 });
 
 describe("diffStateViews fidelity", () => {
+  it("preserves significant keyfile whitespace in views and differences", () => {
+    const view = (suffix: string, unicode: string, padding: string) =>
+      keyfileView(
+        `[ui]\r\nsuffix=${suffix}\r\nunicode=${unicode}\r\npadded=${padding}\r\n`,
+      );
+    const before = view("hello ", "\u00a0hello\u00a0", "   hello");
+    const after = view("hello  ", "\u00a0hello\u00a0\u00a0", "\thello");
+    expect(before.ui).toEqual({
+      suffix: "hello ",
+      unicode: "\u00a0hello\u00a0",
+      padded: "hello",
+    });
+    expect(after.ui).toEqual({
+      suffix: "hello  ",
+      unicode: "\u00a0hello\u00a0\u00a0",
+      padded: "hello",
+    });
+    expect(
+      diffStateViews("keyfile", { groups: before }, { groups: after }),
+    ).toMatchObject({
+      kind: "keys",
+      changed: ["ui/suffix", "ui/unicode"],
+      changed_count: 2,
+      complete: true,
+    });
+  });
+
   it("keeps empty containers as values", () => {
     expect(diffStateViews("json", {}, { items: [] })).toMatchObject({
       added: ["/items"],
diff --git a/src/domain/desktop/stateFormats.ts b/src/domain/desktop/stateFormats.ts
index e4eed2e211..2e868563da 100644
--- a/src/domain/desktop/stateFormats.ts
+++ b/src/domain/desktop/stateFormats.ts
@@ -49,13 +49,16 @@ const keyfileLine = (raw: string): KeyfileLine => {
     return { kind: "skip" };
   const name = /^\[(?<name>[^\]]+)\]$/u.exec(line)?.groups?.name;
   if (name !== undefined) return { kind: "group", name };
-  const equals = line.indexOf("=");
-  return equals <= 0
+  const equals = raw.indexOf("=");
+  if (equals < 0) return { kind: "other" };
+  const key = raw.slice(0, equals).trim();
+  return key.length === 0
     ? { kind: "other" }
     : {
         kind: "entry",
-        key: line.slice(0, equals).trim(),
-        value: line.slice(equals + 1).trim(),
+        key,
+        // Only ASCII space and tab immediately after '=' are padding.
+        value: raw.slice(equals + 1).replace(/^[ \t]+/u, ""),
       };
 };
 
diff --git a/tests/boundary/providers/desktopExportPython.test.ts b/tests/boundary/providers/desktopExportPython.test.ts
index 57ec3b6621..f7938aa320 100644
--- a/tests/boundary/providers/desktopExportPython.test.ts
+++ b/tests/boundary/providers/desktopExportPython.test.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import {
 } from "../../../src/domain/desktop/appExportPython.js";
 import {
   detectStateFormat,
+  keyfileView,
   isJsonText,
   jsonView,
   textualView,
@@ -397,3 +398,24 @@ it("spells infinite and negative-zero SQLite reals as REA's SQLite reader does",
 
   expect(JSON.parse(cells)).toEqual(["Infinity", "-Infinity", "-0", 0, 1.5]);
 });
+
+it("keeps the same keyfile whitespace as the retained state view", async () => {
+  const inputs = [
+    "[ui]\nsuffix=hello \nunicode=\u00a0hello\u00a0\npadded=   hello\n",
+    "[ui]\r\nsuffix=hello  \r\nunicode=\u00a0hello\u00a0\u00a0\r\npadded=\thello\r\n",
+  ];
+  const imports = PYTHON_IMPORTS.split("\n")
+    .filter((line) => !line.includes("agentenv_protocol"))
+    .join("\n");
+  const program = `${imports}${PYTHON_HELPERS}
+print(json.dumps([_text_view("settings.ini", text, len(text.encode()))["view"]["groups"] for text in json.load(sys.stdin)]))
+`;
+  const root = await createTestTempDirectory("rea-keyfile-python-");
+  const script = join(root, "fixture.py");
+  await writeFile(script, program, "utf8");
+  const output = execFileSync("python3", ["-I", "-B", "-X", "utf8", script], {
+    input: JSON.stringify(inputs),
+    encoding: "utf8",
+  });
+  expect(JSON.parse(output)).toEqual(inputs.map(keyfileView));
+});