Problem (one or two sentences)
A command with an unterminated quote (e.g. sh -c 'echo a'; sh 'echo b) is currently blocked from auto-approval but can still be manually approved and sent to the terminal. The shell executes the well-formed prefix before hitting the syntax error, resulting in partial execution of the intended command.
Context (who is affected and when)
Affects any user who manually approves a command that Zoo Code flags as containing an unterminated quote. LLMs frequently generate malformed quoting when deeply nested quoting is required, so this surfaces in real usage — not just edge cases.
Reproduction steps
- Configure an allowlist that does not include
sh (so auto-approval is blocked and the prompt appears).
- Ask the agent to run:
sh -c 'echo a'; sh 'echo b (unterminated quote on the second sub-command).
- Manually approve the command when prompted.
- Observe:
echo a executes and prints a; the shell then emits a syntax error for the malformed second statement.
Expected result
The command is rejected before reaching the terminal with a clear error message sent back to the agent (e.g. "Command contains an unterminated quote and cannot be executed. Please fix the quoting and retry.").
Actual result
The well-formed prefix (sh -c 'echo a') executes successfully; only the remainder causes a shell syntax error after partial execution has already occurred.
App Version
v3.53.0+
Additional notes
Problem (one or two sentences)
A command with an unterminated quote (e.g.
sh -c 'echo a'; sh 'echo b) is currently blocked from auto-approval but can still be manually approved and sent to the terminal. The shell executes the well-formed prefix before hitting the syntax error, resulting in partial execution of the intended command.Context (who is affected and when)
Affects any user who manually approves a command that Zoo Code flags as containing an unterminated quote. LLMs frequently generate malformed quoting when deeply nested quoting is required, so this surfaces in real usage — not just edge cases.
Reproduction steps
sh(so auto-approval is blocked and the prompt appears).sh -c 'echo a'; sh 'echo b(unterminated quote on the second sub-command).echo aexecutes and printsa; the shell then emits a syntax error for the malformed second statement.Expected result
The command is rejected before reaching the terminal with a clear error message sent back to the agent (e.g. "Command contains an unterminated quote and cannot be executed. Please fix the quoting and retry.").
Actual result
The well-formed prefix (
sh -c 'echo a') executes successfully; only the remainder causes a shell syntax error after partial execution has already occurred.App Version
v3.53.0+
Additional notes
findUnterminatedQuote()was introduced in PR fix(commands): correct multi-line quoted command parsing, auto-approval, and malformed-command error surfacing #483 and is already exported — it can be reused here to detect the malformed command pre-execution.findUnterminatedQuote(), and if it returns a non-null result, return a structured error to the agent instead of passing the command to the terminal.