fix(cli): escape @ symbols on paste to prevent unintended file expansion by krishdef7 · Pull Request #21239 · google-gemini/gemini-cli

krishdef7 · Mar 5, 2026

Summary

Adds an opt-in setting ui.escapePastedAtSymbols (default: false) that escapes @ symbols in pasted text before they enter the input buffer, preventing emails and npm-style paths like @scope/pkg from triggering unintended @path expansion and ReadManyFiles flooding. Disabled by default to preserve existing behavior for users who intentionally paste @file references.

Details

When enabled, escaping is applied at both paste paths (Ctrl/Cmd+V and bracketed paste events). Escaped \@ is shown as-is in the input, and unescaped back to @ before the query is sent to the model. The unescapeLiteralAt() utility correctly handles sequences like \\@ without corrupting surrounding backslashes. Both escapeAtSymbols() and unescapeLiteralAt() live in atCommandProcessor.ts so they can be tested together.

Related Issues

Fixes #13487

How to Validate

Set "ui": { "escapePastedAtSymbols": true } in ~/.gemini/settings.json
Run node packages/cli/dist/index.js
Paste test@domain.com @README.md, verify no file expansion, input shows test\@domain.com, model receives clean text
With setting at default (false), verify pasted @README.md still expands normally

Pre-Merge Checklist

Added/updated tests (if needed)
Updated settings documentation (npm run docs:settings)
Noted breaking changes (none, disabled by default)

gemini-code-assist · Mar 5, 2026

Summary of Changes

Hello, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request significantly enhances the robustness of the CLI by improving how @ symbols are handled during input, particularly when pasting content. It prevents unintended @path command interpretations, ensures a clean user experience by displaying @ symbols correctly, and guarantees that the language model receives accurate, unescaped input. Additionally, it refines the transcript flushing mechanism to ensure that all model responses, including tool-only calls, are properly recorded, providing a more consistent and reliable interaction flow.

Highlights

Robust @ Symbol Handling: Implemented a mechanism to automatically escape @ symbols when content is pasted into the CLI, preventing them from being misinterpreted as @path commands. This applies to both clipboard and bracketed paste events.
Clean User Interface Display: Ensured that while @ symbols are internally escaped (e.g., to \@) for safe processing, they are displayed to the user in their original, unescaped form (@) to maintain readability and avoid confusing \@ sequences.
Accurate Model Input: Normalized escaped @ symbols back to their literal form before sending text to the language model, guaranteeing that the model receives the intended input without accidental @path interpretations or leaked backslashes.
Consistent Transcript Flushing: Updated the chat logic to ensure that the transcript is flushed even when a model response consists solely of tool invocations or thoughts, without any accompanying text. This guarantees downstream hooks always observe the latest state.

Changelog

packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx
- Escaped @ symbols in text pasted from the clipboard to prevent misinterpretation.
- Modified bracketed paste handling to escape @ symbols in the input sequence.
- Updated display logic to unescape \@ back to @ for user-facing text.
packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/atCommandProcessor.ts
- Modified parseAllAtCommands to unescape \@ in text content before processing, ensuring clean input to the model.
- Ensured remaining text segments also have \@ unescaped before being sent to the model.
packages/core/src/core/geminiChat.test.ts
- Added a new test case to verify that the transcript flushes correctly for model responses containing only tool calls, without text or thoughts.
packages/core/src/core/geminiChat.ts
- Introduced a hasThoughts flag to track if a model response includes thoughts.
- Updated the logic to set hasThoughts to true when thoughts are recorded from model content.
- Modified the condition for recording model responses to include cases where there are thoughts or tool calls, even if no explicit response text is present, ensuring timely transcript flushing.

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krishdef7 · Mar 5, 2026

Follow-up commits removed an earlier duplicate paste insert and accidental debug files.

Final implementation ensures:

pasted @ tokens are escaped internally
clean display in the TUI
clean text sent to the model
correct handling of real @path commands

Manual validation performed with:
node packages/cli/dist/index.js
pasting: test@domain.com @README.md

krishdef7 · Mar 5, 2026

Fixes #13487

This change prevents pasted @ tokens from being interpreted as @path commands, which was triggering ReadManyFiles when pasting content like emails or npm package names.

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request introduces a robust mechanism for handling @ symbols in pasted text to prevent them from being misinterpreted as @path commands. It correctly escapes them on input and un-escapes them for display and for the model. Additionally, it fixes an issue where transcripts were not flushed for tool-only responses, ensuring better state consistency for downstream hooks. The changes are logical and well-tested. However, I've identified a high-severity bug in the new un-escaping logic that can cause data corruption when escaped backslashes are involved. Please see the detailed comments for a fix.

krishdef7 · Mar 5, 2026

Addressed earlier review feedback regarding escaped backslashes.
Latest commit uses unescapeLiteralAt() to correctly preserve sequences like:

test\@foo → test@foo

krishdef7 · Mar 11, 2026

All review feedback has been addressed. The high-severity backslash bug flagged by the bot is fixed via unescapeLiteralAt() in the new utils/unescapeLiteralAt.ts. The outdated inline comments refer to earlier versions of the code that no longer exist in the diff, conflicts have also been resolved

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

This was already fixed last month in #18965

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

Actually, I realize this is slightly different. Reopening

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

My policy is to not review PRs just because someone tagged me (since that's obviously not scalable if everyone does it). But I will make an exception in this case since I accidentally closed it.

I don't think we want to enable this by default. There are many users who depend on this feature (I have many times in the past). Add a setting to control this that is disabled by default.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

Also, please clean up and shorten the description to a length that a human can actually read it. Follow the PR format in pull_request_template.md.

krishdef7 · Mar 11, 2026

Addressed reviewer feedback:

Added ui.escapePastedAtSymbols setting (default: false) so existing behavior is unchanged for users who paste @file references intentionally
Escaping is only applied when the setting is enabled
Shortened PR description per template

scidomino

Even when it's escaped, we still highlight it as if it were a link. There might not be an elegant way to fix that.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

 | Show Home Directory Warning          | `ui.showHomeDirectoryWarning`          | Show a warning when running Gemini CLI in the home directory.                                                                                                     | `true`   |
 | Show Compatibility Warnings          | `ui.showCompatibilityWarnings`         | Show warnings about terminal or OS compatibility issues.                                                                                                          | `true`   |
 | Hide Tips                            | `ui.hideTips`                          | Hide helpful tips in the UI                                                                                                                                       | `false`  |
+| Escape Pasted @ Symbols              | `ui.escapePastedAtSymbols`             | When enabled, @ symbols in pasted text are escaped to prevent unintended @path expansion. Disable if you intentionally paste @file references.                    | `false`  |


"Disable if you intentionally paste @file references."

if you intentionally paste @file references, you don't need to do anything at all since this is the default. I'd leave this sentence out.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026


+- **`ui.escapePastedAtSymbols`** (boolean):
+  - **Description:** When enabled, @ symbols in pasted text are escaped to
+    prevent unintended @path expansion. Disable if you intentionally paste @file


scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

+        requiresRestart: false,
+        default: false,
+        description:
+          'When enabled, @ symbols in pasted text are escaped to prevent unintended @path expansion. Disable if you intentionally paste @file references.',


scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

        }
-        // Ensure we never accidentally interpret paste as regular input.
-        buffer.handleInput(key);
+        let sequenceToProcess = key.sequence || '';


This can be simplified a lot:

if (settings.ui?.escapePastedAtSymbols) {
const escapedSequence = (key.sequence || '').replace(/(?<!\)@/g, '\@');
buffer.handleInput({ ...key, sequence: escapedSequence });
} else {
buffer.handleInput(key);
}

Done, matches your suggested pattern.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+/**


Do not create a new file for a single method. There are many files this could reasonably be added to. Too many, in fact. Review the options and pick one of them.

Also, add some tests for it.

Moved to atCommandProcessor.ts, tests added.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

+ * Copyright 2025 Google LLC
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+


It would make sense for the escaping logic to live next to this method so we can test them together.

Done, both live in atCommandProcessor.ts.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

                  segments.forEach((seg, segIdx) => {
                    const segLen = cpLen(seg.text);
-                    let display = seg.text;
+                    let display = unescapeLiteralAt(seg.text);


I'm worried this will lead to display bugs since the cursor position is calculated using this in cursorVisualColAbsolute()

Honestly, I think we should just show the slash in the input so users aren't confused.

Kept \@ visible in input as suggested.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

      parts.push({
        type: 'text',
-        content: query.substring(lastIndex, matchIndex),
+        content: unescapeLiteralAt(query.substring(lastIndex, matchIndex)),


Here and elsewhere in this class, we should only unescape if the setting is enabled. Otherwise, we will be taking out only slashes we ourselves did not put in.

Gated behind escapePastedAtSymbols check.

scidomino

Please look into fixing the highlighting problem in parseInputForHighlighting(). It might be hard. It might be easy. Either way I need to hear from you that you looked into it.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

        }
-        // Ensure we never accidentally interpret paste as regular input.
-        buffer.handleInput(key);
+        if (settings.ui?.escapePastedAtSymbols) {


Restrict this to paste keys only:

if(key.paste && settings.ui?.escapePastedAtSymbols)

Done, guarded with key.paste &&.

scidomino · Mar 11, 2026

-        // Ensure we never accidentally interpret paste as regular input.
-        buffer.handleInput(key);
+        if (settings.ui?.escapePastedAtSymbols) {
+          const escapedSequence = (key.sequence || '').replace(


use the escape function you wrote instead of reimplementing it.

Done, using escapeAtSymbols().

krishdef7 · Mar 11, 2026

Addressed both points. Also looked into parseInputForHighlighting() in highlight.ts, the @ pattern there had no lookbehind, so \@ was still being highlighted as a link. Fixed it by adding (?<!\\)@ to the regex, so escaped \@ tokens are no longer treated as file references. The fix is in the same commit.

scidomino

I misremembered. it's actual key.name == 'paste' or something like that. You would have noticed that had you tested your code after making the change, or even tried to build it. As it is, your PR doesn't build. Please make the change, and test it manually. Let me know when you are ready for review.

Adds an opt-in setting \ui.escapePastedAtSymbols\ (default: false) that escapes @ symbols in pasted text before they enter the input buffer, preventing emails and npm-style paths like @scope/pkg from triggering unintended @path expansion and ReadManyFiles flooding. When enabled, escaping is applied at both paste paths (Ctrl/Cmd+V and bracketed paste events). Escaped tokens are unescaped at the display layer so users see clean @ in the UI, and again before text is sent to the model via unescapeLiteralAt(). The setting is disabled by default to preserve existing behavior for users who intentionally paste @file references. Fixes google-gemini#13487

krishdef7 · Mar 12, 2026

Build is fixed, removed key.paste && since we're already inside if (key.name === 'paste') and key.paste doesn't exist on the Key type. Build passes clean.
Sorry for pushing without verifying the build first, still getting used to open source contribution workflow. Won't happen again.

scidomino · Mar 12, 2026

Awesome! Thanks for the contribution!

…ion (#21239)

…ion (google-gemini#21239)

krishdef7 requested a review from a team as a code owner March 5, 2026 09:16

gemini-code-assist Bot reviewed Mar 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx Outdated

Comment thread packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/atCommandProcessor.ts Outdated

Comment thread packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/atCommandProcessor.ts Outdated

gemini-cli Bot added the status/need-issue Pull requests that need to have an associated issue. label Mar 5, 2026

krishdef7 mentioned this pull request Mar 5, 2026

ReadManyFiles triggered erroneously on pasted input, flooding context window #13487

Closed

krishdef7 force-pushed the fix/paste-at-escape-complete branch 2 times, most recently from 39d6838 to 7e57513 Compare March 11, 2026 03:51

scidomino closed this Mar 11, 2026

scidomino reopened this Mar 11, 2026

scidomino self-requested a review March 11, 2026 04:48

krishdef7 closed this Mar 11, 2026

krishdef7 force-pushed the fix/paste-at-escape-complete branch from e2771a4 to 88638c1 Compare March 11, 2026 10:31

krishdef7 reopened this Mar 11, 2026

krishdef7 requested a review from a team as a code owner March 11, 2026 10:44

krishdef7 changed the title ~~fix(cli): robust @ paste escaping and model handling~~ fix(cli): escape @ symbols on paste to prevent unintended file expansion Mar 11, 2026

scidomino reviewed Mar 11, 2026

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krishdef7 force-pushed the fix/paste-at-escape-complete branch from 160fe07 to b010834 Compare March 11, 2026 19:49

krishdef7 force-pushed the fix/paste-at-escape-complete branch from b010834 to 2007ae5 Compare March 11, 2026 20:06

scidomino reviewed Mar 11, 2026

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krishdef7 force-pushed the fix/paste-at-escape-complete branch 2 times, most recently from 2f50eff to 51176a3 Compare March 11, 2026 22:03

scidomino approved these changes Mar 12, 2026

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scidomino enabled auto-merge March 12, 2026 15:55

scidomino requested changes Mar 12, 2026

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auto-merge was automatically disabled March 12, 2026 19:43
Head branch was pushed to by a user without write access

krishdef7 force-pushed the fix/paste-at-escape-complete branch from 51176a3 to 008eb83 Compare March 12, 2026 19:43

scidomino approved these changes Mar 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

scidomino added this pull request to the merge queue Mar 12, 2026

Merged via the queue into google-gemini:main with commit 19e0b1f Mar 12, 2026
26 of 27 checks passed

ruomengz pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Mar 13, 2026

fix(cli): escape @ symbols on paste to prevent unintended file expans…

8ac2600

…ion (#21239)

krishdef7 mentioned this pull request Mar 24, 2026

GSoC Behavioral evals, Quality, and the OSS Community #23331

Open

SUNDRAM07 pushed a commit to SUNDRAM07/gemini-cli that referenced this pull request Mar 30, 2026

fix(cli): escape @ symbols on paste to prevent unintended file expans…

2e2fcc7

…ion (google-gemini#21239)

warrenzhu25 pushed a commit to warrenzhu25/gemini-cli that referenced this pull request Apr 9, 2026

fix(cli): escape @ symbols on paste to prevent unintended file expans…

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…ion (google-gemini#21239)

sripasg added the size/m A medium sized PR label Jun 2, 2026

software-0ficial pushed a commit to software-0ficial/gemini-cli that referenced this pull request Jul 9, 2026

fix(cli): escape @ symbols on paste to prevent unintended file expans…

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…ion (google-gemini#21239)

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Summary

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Related Issues

How to Validate

Pre-Merge Checklist

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gemini-code-assist Bot commented Mar 5, 2026

Summary of Changes

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