diff --git a/src/jolt/core.janet b/src/jolt/core.janet
index 24fbab0..3584df3 100644
--- a/src/jolt/core.janet
+++ b/src/jolt/core.janet
@@ -959,4 +959,55 @@
             (when (get (core-macro-names) name)
               (put v :macro true)))
           ns)
-      (error "Wrong number of args passed to: init-core!"))))
+       (error "Wrong number of args passed to: init-core!"))))
+
+# ============================================================
+# Edamame + tools.reader shim for SCI eval-string
+# ============================================================
+
+(defn make-string-reader [s]
+  @{:s s :pos 0 :line 1 :col 1})
+
+(defn shim-edamame-eof [] :edamame/eof)
+
+(defn shim-normalize-opts [opts]
+  (if (= true opts)
+    {:all true :row-key :line :col-key :column :read-cond :allow :location? nil}
+    (if (nil? opts) {} opts)))
+
+(defn init-edamame-shim!
+  "Create edamame.core and clojure.tools.reader.reader-types namespaces.
+  Takes parse-str (string→form) and read-f (string pos→[form pos]) from the host reader."
+  [ctx parse-str read-f]
+  (defn edn-parse-string [& args] (parse-str (args 0)))
+  (defn edn-parse-string-all [& args] @[(parse-str (args 0))])
+  (defn edn-parse-next [& args]
+    (def reader (args 0))
+    (def s (reader :s))
+    (def pos (reader :pos))
+    (if (>= pos (length s))
+      (shim-edamame-eof)
+      (let [[form new-pos] (read-f s pos)]
+        (put reader :pos new-pos)
+        (var lp pos)
+        (while (< lp new-pos)
+          (if (= (s lp) 10)
+            (do (put reader :line (+ 1 (reader :line)))
+                (put reader :col 1))
+            (put reader :col (+ 1 (reader :col))))
+          (++ lp))
+        form)))
+  (let [edn (ctx-find-ns ctx "edamame.core")]
+    (ns-intern edn "eof" shim-edamame-eof)
+    (ns-intern edn "normalize-opts" shim-normalize-opts)
+    (ns-intern edn "reader" make-string-reader)
+    (ns-intern edn "parse-string" edn-parse-string)
+    (ns-intern edn "parse-string-all" edn-parse-string-all)
+    (ns-intern edn "parse-next" edn-parse-next)
+    (ns-intern edn "continue" :edamame/continue))
+  (let [rt (ctx-find-ns ctx "clojure.tools.reader.reader-types")]
+    (ns-intern rt "indexing-push-back-reader" identity)
+    (ns-intern rt "string-push-back-reader" make-string-reader)
+    (ns-intern rt "source-logging-reader?" (fn [rdr] false))
+    (ns-intern rt "get-line-number" (fn [rdr] (rdr :line)))
+    (ns-intern rt "get-column-number" (fn [rdr] (rdr :col)))))
diff --git a/test/test-load-sci.janet b/test/test-load-sci.janet
index 06e99e7..9c4b180 100644
--- a/test/test-load-sci.janet
+++ b/test/test-load-sci.janet
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 (use ../src/jolt/types)
 (use ../src/jolt/reader)
 (use ../src/jolt/api)
+(use ../src/jolt/core)
 
 (def ctx (init))
 
@@ -63,6 +64,33 @@
 (printf "TOTAL: %d ok, %d fail, %d total\n" total-ok total-fail (+ total-ok total-fail))
 (printf "==============================\n")
 
+# After loading, check what SCI namespaces exist
+(printf "\ncurrent ns: %s\n" (ctx-current-ns ctx))
+(printf "sci.core exists: %q\n" (not (nil? (ctx-find-ns ctx "sci.core"))))
+(printf "total namespaces: %d\n" (length (keys ((ctx :env) :namespaces))))
+
+# Initialize edamame shim (in core.janet) and test eval-string
+(init-edamame-shim! ctx parse-string read-form)
+
+# Check critical SCI namespaces
+(printf "\n--- Critical SCI namespaces ---\n")
+(def critical-ns ["sci.impl.interpreter" "sci.impl.parser" "sci.impl.analyzer" "sci.impl.opts"])
+(each nsn critical-ns
+  (def ns (ctx-find-ns ctx nsn))
+  (printf "%s: %d bindings\n" nsn (if ns (length (keys (ns-map ns))) 0)))
+
+(printf "\n--- Testing sci.core/eval-string ---\n")
+(def core-ns (ctx-find-ns ctx "sci.core"))
+(def ev (ns-find core-ns "eval-string"))
+(if ev
+  (do
+    (printf "eval-string found, calling...\n")
+    (flush)
+    (def f (var-get ev))
+    (def result (try (f "(+ 1 2 3)") ([err] (string "ERROR: " err))))
+    (printf "eval-string result: %q\n" result))
+  (printf "eval-string NOT found\n"))
+
 (when (> (length all-failures) 0)
   (printf "\n=== FAILURES ===\n")
   (each f all-failures