diff --git a/lib/backend.ts b/lib/backend.ts
index 09cb785..cfd42b0 100644
--- a/lib/backend.ts
+++ b/lib/backend.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,26 @@
 import path from 'node:path';
 import express, { type Express } from 'express';
 import { DynamoDBClient } from '@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb';
+import { NumberValue } from '@aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb';
 import { createAwsConfig } from './config';
 import { setupRoutes } from './routes';
 import { DynamoApiController } from './dynamoDbApi';
 
+// Fix: DynamoDB number attributes that exceed Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER are
+// returned as BigInt by the AWS SDK v3. With wrapNumbers enabled in the
+// DynamoDBDocumentClient, all numbers are wrapped in NumberValue objects.
+// This toJSON method ensures they serialise correctly: safe numbers become
+// JSON numbers, and values that would lose precision become strings.
+(NumberValue.prototype as unknown as { toJSON: () => number | string }).toJSON = function (this: NumberValue) {
+    const str = this.toString();
+    const num = Number(str);
+    // Preserve as a number if the conversion is lossless (i.e. Number -> String round-trips)
+    if (String(num) === str) {
+        return num;
+    }
+    return str;
+};
+
 export type CreateServerOptions = {
     dynamoDbClient?: DynamoDBClient;
     expressInstance?: Express;
diff --git a/lib/dynamoDbApi.ts b/lib/dynamoDbApi.ts
index e8d5d4d..0a0bb92 100644
--- a/lib/dynamoDbApi.ts
+++ b/lib/dynamoDbApi.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,9 @@ export class DynamoApiController {
 
     constructor(dynamodb: DynamoDBClient) {
         this.dynamodb = dynamodb;
-        this.docClient = DynamoDBDocumentClient.from(dynamodb);
+        this.docClient = DynamoDBDocumentClient.from(dynamodb, {
+            unmarshallOptions: { wrapNumbers: true },
+        });
     }
 
     async batchWriteItem(input: BatchWriteCommandInput): Promise<BatchWriteCommandOutput> {
diff --git a/lib/numberValueSerialization.test.ts b/lib/numberValueSerialization.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..499aebd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/numberValueSerialization.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll } from 'vitest';
+import { NumberValue } from '@aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb';
+
+// Apply the toJSON patch as the backend module does at import time.
+beforeAll(async () => {
+    await import('./backend');
+});
+
+describe('NumberValue JSON serialization', () => {
+    it('serialises small integers as numbers', () => {
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue('42')))).toBe(42);
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue('0')))).toBe(0);
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue('-5')))).toBe(-5);
+    });
+
+    it('serialises decimal values as numbers', () => {
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue('3.14')))).toBe(3.14);
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue('0.001')))).toBe(0.001);
+    });
+
+    it('serialises MAX_SAFE_INTEGER as a number', () => {
+        const maxSafe = String(Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER);
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue(maxSafe)))).toBe(Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER);
+    });
+
+    it('serialises values exceeding safe integer range as strings', () => {
+        const large = '1773962769160000125';
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue(large)))).toBe(large);
+    });
+
+    it('serialises negative large values as strings', () => {
+        const largeNeg = '-9007199254740999';
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue(largeNeg)))).toBe(largeNeg);
+    });
+
+    it('preserves precision for values just beyond MAX_SAFE_INTEGER', () => {
+        // 9007199254740993 cannot be exactly represented as a double
+        const beyondSafe = '9007199254740993';
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new NumberValue(beyondSafe)))).toBe(beyondSafe);
+    });
+
+    it('works inside a nested object mimicking a DynamoDB item', () => {
+        const item = {
+            pk: 'user-123',
+            insertedAt: new NumberValue('1773962769160000125'),
+            version: new NumberValue('1'),
+            score: new NumberValue('99.5'),
+        };
+        const parsed = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(item));
+        expect(parsed).toEqual({
+            pk: 'user-123',
+            insertedAt: '1773962769160000125',
+            version: 1,
+            score: 99.5,
+        });
+    });
+});