diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/App.tsx b/packages/cli/src/ui/App.tsx
index 30944046..befefec1 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/App.tsx
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/App.tsx
@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@ export const App = ({
       config,
       setDebugMessage,
       handleSlashCommand,
+      shellModeActive,
     );
   const { elapsedTime, currentLoadingPhrase } =
     useLoadingIndicator(streamingState);
@@ -154,16 +155,10 @@ export const App = ({
     (submittedValue: string) => {
       const trimmedValue = submittedValue.trim();
       if (trimmedValue.length > 0) {
-        if (shellModeActive && !trimmedValue.startsWith('!')) {
-          // TODO: Don't prefix (hack) and properly submit pass throughs to a dedicated hook:
-          // https://b.corp.google.com/issues/418509745
-          submitQuery(`!${trimmedValue}`);
-        } else {
-          submitQuery(trimmedValue);
-        }
+        submitQuery(trimmedValue);
       }
     },
-    [submitQuery, shellModeActive],
+    [submitQuery],
   );
 
   const userMessages = useMemo(
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/shellCommandProcessor.ts b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/shellCommandProcessor.ts
index f1d9af32..5e43712b 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/shellCommandProcessor.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/shellCommandProcessor.ts
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import { exec as _exec } from 'child_process';
 import { useCallback } from 'react';
 import { Config } from '@gemini-code/server';
 import { type PartListUnion } from '@google/genai';
-import { getCommandFromQuery } from '../utils/commandUtils.js';
 import { UseHistoryManagerReturn } from './useHistoryManager.js';
 import crypto from 'crypto';
 import path from 'path';
@@ -34,10 +33,6 @@ export const useShellCommandProcessor = (
         return false;
       }
 
-      const [symbol] = getCommandFromQuery(rawQuery);
-      if (symbol !== '!' && symbol !== '$') {
-        return false;
-      }
       let commandToExecute = rawQuery.trim().slice(1).trimStart();
 
       // wrap command to write pwd to temporary file
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useGeminiStream.ts b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useGeminiStream.ts
index 29ce313d..19cb244d 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useGeminiStream.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useGeminiStream.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ export const useGeminiStream = (
   config: Config,
   onDebugMessage: (message: string) => void,
   handleSlashCommand: (cmd: PartListUnion) => boolean,
+  shellModeActive: boolean,
 ) => {
   const toolRegistry = config.getToolRegistry();
   const [initError, setInitError] = useState<string | null>(null);
@@ -120,7 +121,7 @@ export const useGeminiStream = (
       if (handleSlashCommand(trimmedQuery)) {
         return { queryToSend: null, shouldProceed: false };
       }
-      if (handleShellCommand(trimmedQuery)) {
+      if (shellModeActive && handleShellCommand(trimmedQuery)) {
         return { queryToSend: null, shouldProceed: false };
       }
 
@@ -608,6 +609,7 @@ export const useGeminiStream = (
       isResponding,
       setShowHelp,
       handleSlashCommand,
+      shellModeActive,
       handleShellCommand,
       config,
       addItem,
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/utils/commandUtils.ts b/packages/cli/src/ui/utils/commandUtils.ts
index b17b264d..aadd035e 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/utils/commandUtils.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/utils/commandUtils.ts
@@ -24,20 +24,3 @@ export const isAtCommand = (query: string): boolean =>
  * @returns True if the query looks like an '/' command, false otherwise.
  */
 export const isSlashCommand = (query: string): boolean => query.startsWith('/');
-
-const control_symbols: string[] = ['/', '@', '!', '?', '$'];
-/**
- * Returns the first word of query with optional leading slash, ampersand, bang.
- *
- * @param query The input query string.
- * @returns optional leading symbol and first word of query
- */
-export const getCommandFromQuery = (
-  query: string,
-): [string | undefined, string] => {
-  const word = query.trim().split(/\s/, 1)[0];
-  if (word.length > 0 && control_symbols.includes(word[0])) {
-    return [word[0], word.slice(1)];
-  }
-  return [undefined, word];
-};