diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index ea007bd4d3b5b..6033a6f7aed18 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -350,6 +350,27 @@ dependencies = [
  "syn 2.0.38",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "dirs"
+version = "5.0.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "44c45a9d03d6676652bcb5e724c7e988de1acad23a711b5217ab9cbecbec2225"
+dependencies = [
+ "dirs-sys",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "dirs-sys"
+version = "0.4.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "520f05a5cbd335fae5a99ff7a6ab8627577660ee5cfd6a94a6a929b52ff0321c"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+ "option-ext",
+ "redox_users",
+ "windows-sys 0.48.0",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "dunce"
 version = "1.0.4"
@@ -1180,6 +1201,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "pulldown-cmark",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
+ "shellexpand",
  "signal-hook",
  "signal-hook-tokio",
  "smallvec",
@@ -1400,6 +1422,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "windows-sys 0.48.0",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "libredox"
+version = "0.0.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "85c833ca1e66078851dba29046874e38f08b2c883700aa29a03ddd3b23814ee8"
+dependencies = [
+ "bitflags 2.4.1",
+ "libc",
+ "redox_syscall 0.4.1",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "link-cplusplus"
 version = "1.0.8"
@@ -1574,6 +1607,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "pathdiff",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "option-ext"
+version = "0.2.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "04744f49eae99ab78e0d5c0b603ab218f515ea8cfe5a456d7629ad883a3b6e7d"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "parking_lot"
 version = "0.12.1"
@@ -1723,6 +1762,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "bitflags 1.3.2",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "redox_users"
+version = "0.4.4"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a18479200779601e498ada4e8c1e1f50e3ee19deb0259c25825a98b5603b2cb4"
+dependencies = [
+ "getrandom",
+ "libredox",
+ "thiserror",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "regex"
 version = "1.10.2"
@@ -1865,6 +1915,15 @@ version = "1.0.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "ae1a47186c03a32177042e55dbc5fd5aee900b8e0069a8d70fba96a9375cd012"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "shellexpand"
+version = "3.1.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "da03fa3b94cc19e3ebfc88c4229c49d8f08cdbd1228870a45f0ffdf84988e14b"
+dependencies = [
+ "dirs",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "signal-hook"
 version = "0.3.17"
diff --git a/helix-term/Cargo.toml b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
index ac5a8475d0804..c07e5d5e0dfd2 100644
--- a/helix-term/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
@@ -71,7 +71,10 @@ serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 grep-regex = "0.1.12"
 grep-searcher = "0.1.13"
 
-[target.'cfg(not(windows))'.dependencies]  # https://github.com/vorner/signal-hook/issues/100
+# expand env-variables in paths
+shellexpand = "3.1"
+
+[target.'cfg(not(windows))'.dependencies] # https://github.com/vorner/signal-hook/issues/100
 signal-hook-tokio = { version = "0.3", features = ["futures-v0_3"] }
 libc = "0.2.150"
 
diff --git a/helix-term/src/commands.rs b/helix-term/src/commands.rs
index e557977adf888..5d49cc5cf6f71 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/commands.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/commands.rs
@@ -1176,6 +1176,8 @@ fn goto_file_impl(cx: &mut Context, action: Action) {
     let primary = selections.primary();
     // Checks whether there is only one selection with a width of 1
     if selections.len() == 1 && primary.len() == 1 {
+        paths.clear();
+
         let count = cx.count();
         let text_slice = text.slice(..);
         // In this case it selects the WORD under the cursor
@@ -1187,14 +1189,18 @@ fn goto_file_impl(cx: &mut Context, action: Action) {
             true,
         );
         // Trims some surrounding chars so that the actual file is opened.
-        let surrounding_chars: &[_] = &['\'', '"', '(', ')'];
-        paths.clear();
-        paths.push(
-            current_word
-                .fragment(text_slice)
-                .trim_matches(surrounding_chars)
-                .to_string(),
-        );
+        let surrounding_chars: &[_] = &['\'', '"', '(', ')', ',', ';', '{', '}', '[', ']'];
+        let path = current_word
+            .fragment(text_slice)
+            .trim_matches(surrounding_chars)
+            .to_string();
+
+        match shellexpand::full(&path) {
+            Ok(path) => paths.push(path.to_string()),
+            Err(e) => {
+                cx.editor.set_status(format!("{}", e));
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     for sel in paths {