diff --git a/matrix/api.js b/matrix/api.js
index 5bbafffb..74357d49 100644
--- a/matrix/api.js
+++ b/matrix/api.js
@@ -121,7 +121,8 @@ async function sendState(roomID, type, stateKey, content, mxid) {
 	assert.ok(type)
 	assert.ok(typeof stateKey === "string")
 	/** @type {Ty.R.EventSent} */
-	const root = await mreq.mreq("PUT", path(`/client/v3/rooms/${roomID}/state/${type}/${stateKey}`, mxid), content)
+	// encodeURIComponent is necessary because state key can contain some special characters like / but you must encode them so they fit in a single component of the URI
+	const root = await mreq.mreq("PUT", path(`/client/v3/rooms/${roomID}/state/${type}/${encodeURIComponent(stateKey)}`, mxid), content)
 	return root.event_id
 }
 
diff --git a/matrix/kstate.js b/matrix/kstate.js
index e8402543..e37fb963 100644
--- a/matrix/kstate.js
+++ b/matrix/kstate.js
@@ -19,9 +19,10 @@ function kstateToState(kstate) {
 	const events = []
 	kstateStripConditionals(kstate)
 	for (const [k, content] of Object.entries(kstate)) {
-		const [type, state_key] = k.split("/")
-		assert.ok(typeof type === "string")
-		assert.ok(typeof state_key === "string")
+		const slashIndex = k.indexOf("/")
+		assert(slashIndex > 0)
+		const type = k.slice(0, slashIndex)
+		const state_key = k.slice(slashIndex + 1)
 		events.push({type, state_key, content})
 	}
 	return events
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ function diffKState(actual, target) {
 	const diff = {}
 	// go through each key that it should have
 	for (const key of Object.keys(target)) {
-		if (!key.includes("/")) throw new Error(`target kstate's key "${key}" does not contain a slash separator; if a blank state_key was intended, add a trailing slash to the kstate key.`)
+		if (!key.includes("/")) throw new Error(`target kstate's key "${key}" does not contain a slash separator; if a blank state_key was intended, add a trailing slash to the kstate key.\ncontext: ${JSON.stringify(target)}`)
 
 		if (key === "m.room.power_levels/") {
 			// Special handling for power levels, we want to deep merge the actual and target into the final state.
diff --git a/matrix/kstate.test.js b/matrix/kstate.test.js
index 11d51312..7ab52db8 100644
--- a/matrix/kstate.test.js
+++ b/matrix/kstate.test.js
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ test("kstate strip: keeps true conditions while removing $if", t => {
 test("kstate2state: general", t => {
 	t.deepEqual(kstateToState({
 		"m.room.name/": {name: "test name"},
-		"m.room.member/@cadence:cadence.moe": {membership: "join"}
+		"m.room.member/@cadence:cadence.moe": {membership: "join"},
+		"uk.half-shot.bridge/org.matrix.appservice-irc://irc/epicord.net/#general": {creator: "@cadence:cadence.moe"}
 	}), [
 		{
 			type: "m.room.name",
@@ -38,6 +39,13 @@ test("kstate2state: general", t => {
 			content: {
 				membership: "join"
 			}
+		},
+		{
+			type: "uk.half-shot.bridge",
+			state_key: "org.matrix.appservice-irc://irc/epicord.net/#general",
+			content: {
+				creator: "@cadence:cadence.moe"
+			}
 		}
 	])
 })
@@ -57,10 +65,18 @@ test("state2kstate: general", t => {
 			content: {
 				membership: "join"
 			}
+		},
+		{
+			type: "uk.half-shot.bridge",
+			state_key: "org.matrix.appservice-irc://irc/epicord.net/#general",
+			content: {
+				creator: "@cadence:cadence.moe"
+			}
 		}
 	]), {
 		"m.room.name/": {name: "test name"},
-		"m.room.member/@cadence:cadence.moe": {membership: "join"}
+		"m.room.member/@cadence:cadence.moe": {membership: "join"},
+		"uk.half-shot.bridge/org.matrix.appservice-irc://irc/epicord.net/#general": {creator: "@cadence:cadence.moe"}
 	})
 })