diff --git a/src/nix/develop.cc b/src/nix/develop.cc
index ba7ba7c25..4de109754 100644
--- a/src/nix/develop.cc
+++ b/src/nix/develop.cc
@@ -246,6 +246,7 @@ struct Common : InstallableCommand, MixProfile
         "NIX_LOG_FD",
         "NIX_REMOTE",
         "PPID",
+        "SHELL",
         "SHELLOPTS",
         "SSL_CERT_FILE", // FIXME: only want to ignore /no-cert-file.crt
         "TEMP",