diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index ec2cc0c7..cde81156 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ Revision history for Red
     - Track in-place mutations of Positional, Associative and Json columns when saving.
     - Snapshot mutable collection values deeply and retain independent old values for dirty tracking.
     - Refresh snapshots on clean-up and partial refresh without marking unchanged collections dirty.
+    - Return explicitly bound drivers directly and replace literal name separators without regex matching.
+    - Retain formatter coercions, repeated separators, Unicode and embedded control characters.
     - schema: add named CHECK and PostgreSQL EXCLUDE constraints with driver selection
     - indexes: support access methods, per-key operator classes and partial predicates
     - pg: add range constructors and native range/regex expression helpers
diff --git a/lib/Red/DB.rakumod b/lib/Red/DB.rakumod
index 86759567..578a0d34 100644
--- a/lib/Red/DB.rakumod
+++ b/lib/Red/DB.rakumod
@@ -4,9 +4,8 @@ use X::Red::Exceptions;
 
 #| Returns the database connection
 sub get-RED-DB is export {
-    with $*RED-DB {
-        .return
-    }
+    my $driver = $*RED-DB;
+    return $driver if $driver.defined;
     if %*RED-DEFAULT-DRIVERS.defined and %*RED-DEFAULT-DRIVERS<default>:exists {
         return %*RED-DEFAULT-DRIVERS<default>
     }
diff --git a/lib/Red/Utils.rakumod b/lib/Red/Utils.rakumod
index 04880bdc..29c7db24 100644
--- a/lib/Red/Utils.rakumod
+++ b/lib/Red/Utils.rakumod
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ use Red::AST::Unary;
 =head2 Red::Utils
 
 #| Accepts a string and converts snake case (`foo_bar`) into kebab case (`foo-bar`).
-sub snake-to-kebab-case(Str() $_ --> Str) is export { S:g/'_'/-/ }
+sub snake-to-kebab-case(Str() $_ --> Str) is export { .subst('_', '-', :g) }
 #| Accepts a string and converts kebab case (`foo-bar`) into snake case (`foo_bar`).
-sub kebab-to-snake-case(Str() $_ --> Str) is export { S:g/'-'/_/ }
+sub kebab-to-snake-case(Str() $_ --> Str) is export { .subst('-', '_', :g) }
 #| Accepts a string and converts camel case (`fooBar`) into snake case (`foo_bar`).
 sub camel-to-snake-case(Str() $_ --> Str) is export { kebab-to-snake-case lc S:g/(\w)<?before <[A..Z]>>/$0_/ }
 #| Accepts a string and converts camel case (`fooBar`) into kebab case (`foo-bar`).
@@ -26,4 +26,4 @@ multi compare(Red::AST::So $a, Red::AST $b) {
 
 multi compare(Red::AST $a, Red::AST::So $b) {
     compare $a, $b.value
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/t/104-name-formatters.rakutest b/t/104-name-formatters.rakutest
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9e625903
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/104-name-formatters.rakutest
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+use Test;
+use Red::Utils;
+
+for ['plain', 'plain'], ['a-b-c', 'a_b_c'], ['--a--', '__a__'], ['', ''],
+    ['ação-número', 'ação_número'], ["a\n-\0b", "a\n_\0b"] -> @pair {
+    is kebab-to-snake-case(@pair[0]), @pair[1], 'Format kebab separators';
+    is snake-to-kebab-case(@pair[1]), @pair[0], 'Format snake separators';
+}
+is kebab-to-snake-case('already_snake'), 'already_snake', 'Keep existing underscores';
+is snake-to-kebab-case('already-kebab'), 'already-kebab', 'Keep existing hyphens';
+is kebab-to-snake-case(42), '42', 'Kebab formatter retains Str coercion';
+is snake-to-kebab-case(42), '42', 'Snake formatter retains Str coercion';
+
+done-testing;