diff --git a/src/parser.ts b/src/parser.ts
index 845adfc..e701a6e 100644
--- a/src/parser.ts
+++ b/src/parser.ts
@@ -60,18 +60,42 @@ function tokenizeCommand(input) {
     const ch = input[i];
 
     if (quote) {
+      if (quote === "'") {
+        if (ch === '\\' && input[i + 1] === quote) {
+          current += quote;
+          i++;
+          continue;
+        }
+        if (ch === quote) {
+          quote = null;
+          continue;
+        }
+        current += ch;
+        continue;
+      }
+
+      // Double-quoted mode: preserve unknown escapes (\n, \t, etc) while
+      // unescaping only shell-like quote/backslash escapes.
       if (ch === '\\') {
         const next = input[i + 1];
-        if (next) {
+        if (next === '"' || next === '\\' || next === '$' || next === '`') {
           current += next;
           i++;
           continue;
         }
+        if (next === '\n') {
+          i++;
+          continue;
+        }
+        current += ch;
+        continue;
       }
+
       if (ch === quote) {
         quote = null;
         continue;
       }
+
       current += ch;
       continue;
     }
diff --git a/test/parser.test.ts b/test/parser.test.ts
index 2db7cbf..fda4412 100644
--- a/test/parser.test.ts
+++ b/test/parser.test.ts
@@ -18,3 +18,26 @@ test('parsePipeline keeps quoted pipes', () => {
   assert.equal(p.length, 2);
   assert.deepEqual(p[0].args._, ['echo', 'a|b']);
 });
+
+test('parsePipeline preserves JSON escapes in double-quoted args', () => {
+  const p = parsePipeline('openclaw.invoke --tool llm-task --action json --args-json "{\\"prompt\\":\\"line1\\\\nline2\\",\\"schema\\":{\\"type\\":\\"object\\"}}"');
+  assert.equal(p.length, 1);
+  const raw = p[0].args['args-json'];
+  const parsed = JSON.parse(raw);
+  assert.equal(parsed.prompt, 'line1\nline2');
+  assert.equal(parsed.schema.type, 'object');
+});
+
+test('parsePipeline keeps single-quoted args literal', () => {
+  const p = parsePipeline("openclaw.invoke --args-json '{\"x\":\"a\\\\nb\"}'");
+  assert.equal(p.length, 1);
+  assert.equal(p[0].args['args-json'], '{"x":"a\\\\nb"}');
+});
+
+test('parsePipeline preserves escaped apostrophes in single-quoted args', () => {
+  const p = parsePipeline("openclaw.invoke --args-json '{\"prompt\":\"don\\'t\"}'");
+  assert.equal(p.length, 1);
+  const raw = p[0].args['args-json'];
+  const parsed = JSON.parse(raw);
+  assert.equal(parsed.prompt, "don't");
+});