[BUG] Shell snapshot generates unquoted PATH on macOS with spaces in home directory

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

When the macOS user's home directory path contains spaces (e.g., /Users/Nan's document), Claude Code generates shell snapshot files with unquoted PATH export statements, causing all Bash tool invocations to fail with "command not found" errors.

The generated snapshot file at ~/.claude/shell-snapshots/snapshot-zsh-*.sh contains:

export PATH=/Users/Nans document/Library/pnpm:/Users/Nans document/.npm-global/bin:...

This causes the shell to fail parsing the export statement because paths with spaces are not quoted, resulting in:

/Users/Nan's document/.claude/shell-snapshots/snapshot-zsh-*.sh:export:25: not valid in this context: document/Library/pnpm:/Users/Nans

Impact: All Bash tool invocations fail - commands like openclaw, npm, gh, rm, head cannot be executed. This completely breaks Claude Code's ability to run any shell commands.

What Should Happen?

The PATH export statement in the snapshot file should be properly quoted:

export PATH="/Users/Nan's document/Library/pnpm:/Users/Nan's document/.npm-global/bin:..."

This would allow the shell to correctly parse paths containing spaces and special characters.

Error Messages/Logs

/Users/Nan's document/.claude/shell-snapshots/snapshot-zsh-1773371788164-6ea15a.sh:export:25: not valid in this context: document/Library/pnpm:/Users/Nans
(eval):1: command not found: openclaw
(eval):1: command not found: rm
(eval):1: command not found: head

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a macOS user account with a space in the username (e.g., "John Doe" or "Nan's document")
2. The home directory becomes /Users/John Doe or /Users/Nan's document
3. Install and run Claude Code
4. Try to execute any Bash command (e.g., ask Claude to run ls or any file operation)
5. Observe that all commands fail with "command not found"
6. Check ~/.claude/shell-snapshots/snapshot-zsh-*.sh line 25
7. Observe the unquoted PATH export statement

Note: The user's ~/.zshrc correctly quotes all PATH additions:

export PATH="/Users/Nan's document/.antigravity/antigravity/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"
export PNPM_HOME="/Users/Nan's document/Library/pnpm"

But the snapshot generation logic doesn't preserve these quotes when writing to the snapshot file.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.74 (VSCode extension: anthropic.claude-code-2.1.74-darwin-arm64)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

Root Cause

The shell snapshot generation logic reads the current $PATH from the shell environment and writes it to the snapshot file without quoting, causing paths with spaces to be split into multiple arguments during shell parsing.

Workaround

Manually edit the snapshot file to add quotes around the PATH value:

# Before (broken)
export PATH=/Users/Nans document/Library/pnpm:...

# After (fixed)
export PATH="/Users/Nan's document/Library/pnpm:..."

However, this is tedious because the snapshot file gets regenerated with the same bug on every new shell session.

Related Issues

• #16451 - Similar issue on Windows with spaces in username path (closed as duplicate)
• #4999 - Malformed alias in shell snapshot (Windows + zsh)

However, this is a macOS-specific variant that hasn't been reported yet.

Suggested Fix

When generating shell snapshot files, ensure that the PATH export statement is properly quoted:

export PATH="$PATH"

Or properly escape/quote individual path components before concatenating them into the export statement.