diff --git a/lib/turns.ts b/lib/turns.ts
index 2a719e7..6fa101a 100644
--- a/lib/turns.ts
+++ b/lib/turns.ts
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@ export function buildTelegramTurnPrompt(options: {
   files: DownloadedTelegramTurnFileLike[];
   historyTurns?: Pick<PendingTelegramTurn, "historyText">[];
 }): string {
-  let prompt = options.telegramPrefix;
+  // Let pi handle `!` shell commands natively - don't prepend [telegram] prefix
+  let prompt = options.rawText.trimStart().startsWith("!") ? "" : options.telegramPrefix;
   if ((options.historyTurns?.length ?? 0) > 0) {
     prompt +=
       "\n\nEarlier Telegram messages arrived after an aborted turn. Treat them as prior user messages, in order:";