diff --git a/scripts/install.sh b/scripts/install.sh
index ad53a1709e25..c8cefabe68fd 100755
--- a/scripts/install.sh
+++ b/scripts/install.sh
@@ -1762,8 +1762,7 @@ fix_npm_permissions() {
     npm config set prefix "$HOME/.npm-global"
     ui_warn "Avoid sudo npm i -g for future OpenClaw updates; use npm i -g openclaw@latest so npm keeps using this user prefix instead of a different global prefix."
 
-    # shellcheck disable=SC2016
-    persist_shell_path_prepend "$HOME/.npm-global/bin" '$HOME/.npm-global/bin' || true
+    persist_shell_path_prepend "$HOME/.npm-global/bin" "\$HOME/.npm-global/bin" || true
 
     export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"
     ui_success "npm configured for user installs"
@@ -1917,8 +1916,7 @@ ensure_user_local_bin_on_path() {
 
     export PATH="$target:$PATH"
 
-    # shellcheck disable=SC2016
-    local path_line='export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"'
+    local path_line="export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\""
     for rc in "$HOME/.bashrc" "$HOME/.zshrc"; do
         if [[ -f "$rc" ]] && ! grep -q ".local/bin" "$rc"; then
             echo "$path_line" >> "$rc"