diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/.gitignore b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/.gitignore
index fee49fd401..7ea55ed0e5 100644
--- a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/.gitignore
+++ b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+/.nyc_output
 *-debug.log
 *-error.log
 .oclif.manifest.json
diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/package.json b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/package.json
index 90f4ace13b..d6d7575ae5 100644
--- a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/package.json
+++ b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/package.json
@@ -18,18 +18,18 @@
     "@oclif/plugin-help": "^1.2.10",
     "@oclif/test": "^1.0.6",
     "@oclif/tslint": "1",
-    "@types/chai": "4",
+    "@types/chai": "^4.1.3",
     "@types/lodash": "^4.14.108",
     "@types/mocha": "5",
     "@types/node": "^10.0.3",
     "@types/supports-color": "^5.3.0",
-    "chai": "4",
+    "chai": "^4.1.2",
     "globby": "8",
     "mocha": "5",
     "nyc": "11",
     "ts-node": "6.0.2",
     "tslib": "1",
-    "tslint": "5",
+    "tslint": "5.10.0",
     "typescript": "2.8"
   },
   "engines": {
diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/commands/config/edit.ts b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/commands/config/edit.ts
index a4da8d61a5..df432e77fb 100644
--- a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/commands/config/edit.ts
+++ b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/commands/config/edit.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ import {Command, flags} from '@heroku-cli/command'
 import {cli} from 'cli-ux'
 import * as _ from 'lodash'
 
-const shell = require('shell-quote')
+import {parse, quote} from '../../quote'
+
 const edit = require('edit-string')
 
 interface Config {
@@ -35,18 +36,6 @@ function stringToConfig(s: string): Config {
   }, {})
 }
 
-function quote(a: string): string {
-  a = a.replace(/\n/g, '\\n')
-  if (a.match(/[:@]/)) return shell.quote([`'${a}`]).replace(/^"'/, '"')
-  return shell.quote([a])
-}
-
-function parse(a: string): string {
-  let parsed = shell.parse(a)
-  if (parsed.length > 1) throw new Error(`Invalid token: ${a}`)
-  return parsed[0].replace(/\\\\n/g, '\n')
-}
-
 function allKeys(a: Config, b: Config): string[] {
   return _.uniq([...Object.keys(a), ...Object.keys(b)].sort())
 }
diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/quote.ts b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/quote.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c57877a231
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/src/quote.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+const shell = require('shell-quote')
+
+// slightly modifed form of shell-quote to default to using single-quotes over backslashes
+export function quote(s: string): string {
+  if (/["\s#!$&'()*,:;<=>?@\[\\\]^`{|}]/.test(s)) {
+    if (/['\n]/.test(s)) return '"'
+      + s
+    .replace(/(["\\$`!])/g, '\\$1')
+    .replace(/\n/g, '\\n')
+      + '"'
+    return "'" + s.replace(/(['\\])/g, '\\$1') + "'"
+  }
+  return s
+}
+
+export function parse(a: string): string {
+  if (a.startsWith('"')) {
+    a = a.replace(/\\n/g, '\n')
+  } else if (a.startsWith("'")) {
+    a = a.replace(/\\\\/g, '\\')
+  }
+  let parsed = shell.parse(a)
+  if (parsed.length > 1) throw new Error(`Invalid token: ${a}`)
+  return parsed[0]
+  // return parsed[0].replace(/\\\\n/g, '\n')
+}
diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/test/commands/hello.test.ts b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/test/commands/hello.test.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 8f243040b4..0000000000
--- a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/test/commands/hello.test.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-import {expect, test} from '@oclif/test'
-
-describe('hello', () => {
-  test
-  .skip()
-  .stdout()
-  .command(['hello'])
-  .it('runs hello', ctx => {
-    expect(ctx.stdout).to.contain('hello world')
-  })
-})
diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/test/quote.test.ts b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/test/quote.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8558468c70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/test/quote.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+import {expect} from 'chai'
+
+import {parse, quote} from '../src/quote'
+
+describe('quote', () => {
+  [
+    ['abc', 'abc'],
+    ['ab$c', "'ab$c'"],
+    ['a\'bc', '"a\'bc"'],
+    ['a\nb\nc', '"a\\nb\\nc"'],
+    ['foo\\nb:ar\\bz', "'foo\\\\nb:ar\\\\bz'"],
+  ].map(([a, b]) => {
+    it(`${a}===${b}`, () => {
+      expect(quote(a)).to.eq(b)
+    })
+  });
+
+  [
+    'abc',
+    'ab$c',
+    'a\'bc',
+    'a\nb\nc',
+    'foo\\nb:ar\\bz',
+  ].map(s => {
+    it(`parses "${s}"`, () => {
+      expect(parse(quote(s))).to.eq(s)
+    })
+  })
+})
diff --git a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/yarn.lock b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/yarn.lock
index d958599c01..3c6e8c2212 100644
--- a/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/yarn.lock
+++ b/packages/heroku-cli-plugin-config/yarn.lock
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@
   dependencies:
     tslint-xo "^0.7.0"
 
-"@types/chai@4":
+"@types/chai@^4.1.3":
   version "4.1.3"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@types/chai/-/chai-4.1.3.tgz#b8a74352977a23b604c01aa784f5b793443fb7dc"
 
@@ -458,7 +458,7 @@ center-align@^0.1.1:
     align-text "^0.1.3"
     lazy-cache "^1.0.3"
 
-chai@4:
+chai@^4.1.2:
   version "4.1.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/chai/-/chai-4.1.2.tgz#0f64584ba642f0f2ace2806279f4f06ca23ad73c"
   dependencies:
@@ -2458,9 +2458,9 @@ tslint-xo@^0.7.0:
     tslint-eslint-rules "^5.1.0"
     tslint-microsoft-contrib "^5.0.2"
 
-tslint@5:
-  version "5.9.1"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/tslint/-/tslint-5.9.1.tgz#1255f87a3ff57eb0b0e1f0e610a8b4748046c9ae"
+tslint@5.10.0:
+  version "5.10.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/tslint/-/tslint-5.10.0.tgz#11e26bccb88afa02dd0d9956cae3d4540b5f54c3"
   dependencies:
     babel-code-frame "^6.22.0"
     builtin-modules "^1.1.1"