diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-master.yml b/.github/workflows/release-master.yml
index 988d11756ce..151dc67a0a8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-master.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-master.yml
@@ -28,6 +28,6 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           export CIRQ_PRE_RELEASE_VERSION=$(dev_tools/packaging/generate-dev-version-id.sh)
           [[ "$CIRQ_PRE_RELEASE_VERSION" =~ .*dev.* ]] && echo "Deploying dev version '$CIRQ_PRE_RELEASE_VERSION'" || (echo "not dev version"; exit 1)
-          out_dir=$(pwd)/dist
+          out_dir="${PWD}/dist"
           dev_tools/packaging/produce-package.sh ${out_dir} $CIRQ_PRE_RELEASE_VERSION
           twine upload "${out_dir}/*"
diff --git a/check/build-changed-protos b/check/build-changed-protos
index 260752078e7..cd234f12de0 100755
--- a/check/build-changed-protos
+++ b/check/build-changed-protos
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 # All the protos.
-echo "Building protos in $(pwd)"
+echo "Building protos in $PWD"
 
 dev_tools/build-protos.sh
 
diff --git a/dev_tools/build-protos.sh b/dev_tools/build-protos.sh
index 4b1d3cd3808..5cd6c8eb134 100755
--- a/dev_tools/build-protos.sh
+++ b/dev_tools/build-protos.sh
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ trap "{ echo -e '\033[31mFAILED\033[0m'; }" ERR
 cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"
 cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
 
-cd $(pwd)/cirq-google
+cd cirq-google || exit $?
 
 # Build protos for each protobuf package.
 for package in cirq_google/api/v1 cirq_google/api/v2
diff --git a/dev_tools/docs/build-rtd-docs.sh b/dev_tools/docs/build-rtd-docs.sh
index cc884d92528..e53fc809112 100755
--- a/dev_tools/docs/build-rtd-docs.sh
+++ b/dev_tools/docs/build-rtd-docs.sh
@@ -55,5 +55,5 @@ rm -rf "${docs_conf_dir}/generated"
 
 echo
 echo Index Page:
-echo "file://$(pwd)/${out_dir}/html/index.html"
+echo "file://${PWD}/${out_dir}/html/index.html"
 echo