Handle shell quoting

If your topic contains $, backticks, or other special characters, wrap it in quotes to prevent your shell from interpreting them.

Bash / Zsh

Use single quotes to prevent shell expansion:

council convene 'Should we raise salaries to $180K?'

Or escape individual characters:

council convene "Should we raise salaries to \$180K?"

PowerShell

Use single quotes or escape with backtick:

# Single quotes (safest)
council convene 'Should we raise salaries to $180K?'

# Backtick escape
council convene "Should we raise salaries to `$180K?"

Bulletproof option: `--prompt-file`

To sidestep shell quoting entirely, write your topic to a file and pass it via --prompt-file:

echo "Should we raise salaries to $180K?" > topic.txt
council convene --prompt-file topic.txt

Or pipe from stdin:

echo "Should we raise salaries to $180K?" | council convene --prompt-file -

The file bypasses the shell, so $180K, backticks, and $variables survive exactly as written.

Shell character reference

Character	Bash/Zsh	PowerShell	In file (`--prompt-file`)
`$`	`'...'` or `\$`	`'...'` or `$	Already safe
Backtick	`'...'` or \`	Already escaped	Already safe
`!`	`'...'` or `\!`	Already safe	Already safe
`*`	`'...'` or `\*`	`'...'`	Already safe

Shell-expansion detection

When a topic looks like it may have been mangled by the shell (for example, a $amount that expanded to nothing), Council echoes what it received and asks for confirmation before proceeding.

Ask a quick question — using council ask with special characters