diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c8dd7436c..12d5aef05 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 - Auto-reply: preserve block reply ordering with timeout fallback for streaming. (#503) — thanks @joshp123
 - Auto-reply: block reply ordering fix (duplicate PR superseded by #503). (#483) — thanks @AbhisekBasu1
 - Auto-reply: avoid splitting outbound chunks inside parentheses. (#499) — thanks @philipp-spiess
+- Auto-reply: preserve spacing when stripping inline directives. (#539) — thanks @joshp123
 - Status: show provider prefix in /status model display. (#506) — thanks @mcinteerj
 - macOS: package ClawdbotKit resources and Swift 6.2 compatibility dylib to avoid launch/tool crashes. (#473) — thanks @gupsammy
 - WhatsApp: group `/model list` output by provider for scannability. (#456) - thanks @mcinteerj
diff --git a/src/auto-reply/reply.directive.parse.test.ts b/src/auto-reply/reply.directive.parse.test.ts
index b4bf49009..91b321a99 100644
--- a/src/auto-reply/reply.directive.parse.test.ts
+++ b/src/auto-reply/reply.directive.parse.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
 
+import { extractStatusDirective } from "./reply/directives.js";
 import {
   extractElevatedDirective,
   extractQueueDirective,
@@ -119,6 +120,24 @@ describe("directive parsing", () => {
     expect(res.cleaned).toBe("please now");
   });
 
+  it("preserves spacing when stripping think directives before paths", () => {
+    const res = extractThinkDirective("thats not /think high/tmp/hello");
+    expect(res.hasDirective).toBe(true);
+    expect(res.cleaned).toBe("thats not /tmp/hello");
+  });
+
+  it("preserves spacing when stripping verbose directives before paths", () => {
+    const res = extractVerboseDirective("thats not /verbose on/tmp/hello");
+    expect(res.hasDirective).toBe(true);
+    expect(res.cleaned).toBe("thats not /tmp/hello");
+  });
+
+  it("preserves spacing when stripping status directives before paths", () => {
+    const res = extractStatusDirective("thats not /status:/tmp/hello");
+    expect(res.hasDirective).toBe(true);
+    expect(res.cleaned).toBe("thats not /tmp/hello");
+  });
+
   it("parses queue options and modes", () => {
     const res = extractQueueDirective(
       "please /queue steer+backlog debounce:2s cap:5 drop:summarize now",
diff --git a/src/auto-reply/reply/queue.ts b/src/auto-reply/reply/queue.ts
index a7cf97e66..0b486fe57 100644
--- a/src/auto-reply/reply/queue.ts
+++ b/src/auto-reply/reply/queue.ts
@@ -271,8 +271,9 @@ export function extractQueueDirective(body?: string): {
   const argsStart = start + "/queue".length;
   const args = body.slice(argsStart);
   const parsed = parseQueueDirectiveArgs(args);
-  const cleanedRaw =
-    body.slice(0, start) + " " + body.slice(argsStart + parsed.consumed);
+  const cleanedRaw = `${body.slice(0, start)} ${body.slice(
+    argsStart + parsed.consumed,
+  )}`;
   const cleaned = cleanedRaw.replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
   return {
     cleaned,