diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5052ac214..b859bb580 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -231,8 +231,12 @@ function fine within Ghostty with the above mentioned shell integration features
 inoperative. **If you want to disable automatic shell integration,** set
 `shell-integration = none` in your configuration file.
 
-Automatic `bash` shell integration requires Bash version 4 or later and must be
-explicitly enabled by setting `shell-integration = bash`.
+> [!NOTE]
+>
+> The version of Bash distributed with macOS (`/bin/bash`) does not support
+> automatic shell integration. You'll need to manually source the shell
+> integration script (as shown below). You can also install a standard
+> version of Bash from Homebrew or elsewhere and set it as your shell.
 
 **For the automatic shell integration to work,** Ghostty must either be run
 from the macOS app bundle or be installed in a location where the contents of
diff --git a/src/shell-integration/README.md b/src/shell-integration/README.md
index d5294046f..78f5687df 100644
--- a/src/shell-integration/README.md
+++ b/src/shell-integration/README.md
@@ -18,9 +18,6 @@ our integration script (`bash/ghostty.bash`). This prevents Bash from loading
 its normal startup files, which becomes our script's responsibility (along with
 disabling POSIX mode).
 
-Because automatic Bash shell integration requires Bash version 4 or later, it
-must be explicitly enabled (`shell-integration = bash`).
-
 Bash shell integration can also be sourced manually from `bash/ghostty.bash`.
 This also works for older versions of Bash.
 
@@ -31,6 +28,13 @@ if [ -n "${GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR}" ]; then
 fi
 ```
 
+> [!NOTE]
+>
+> The version of Bash distributed with macOS (`/bin/bash`) does not support
+> automatic shell integration. You'll need to manually source the shell
+> integration script (as shown above). You can also install a standard
+> version of Bash from Homebrew or elsewhere and set it as your shell.
+
 ### Elvish
 
 For [Elvish](https://elv.sh), `$GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR/src/shell-integration`
diff --git a/src/termio/shell_integration.zig b/src/termio/shell_integration.zig
index 06f2abc67..3d7b769cf 100644
--- a/src/termio/shell_integration.zig
+++ b/src/termio/shell_integration.zig
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 const std = @import("std");
+const builtin = @import("builtin");
 const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
 const ArenaAllocator = std.heap.ArenaAllocator;
 const EnvMap = std.process.EnvMap;
@@ -57,11 +58,21 @@ pub fn setup(
     };
 
     const result: ShellIntegration = shell: {
-        // For now, bash integration must be explicitly enabled via force_shell.
-        // Our automatic shell integration requires bash version 4 or later,
-        // and systems like macOS continue to ship bash version 3 by default.
-        // This approach avoids the cost of performing a runtime version check.
-        if (std.mem.eql(u8, "bash", exe) and force_shell == .bash) {
+        if (std.mem.eql(u8, "bash", exe)) {
+            // Apple distributes their own patched version of Bash 3.2
+            // on macOS that disables the ENV-based POSIX startup path.
+            // This means we're unable to perform our automatic shell
+            // integration sequence in this specific environment.
+            //
+            // If we're running "/bin/bash" on Darwin, we can assume
+            // we're using Apple's Bash because /bin is non-writable
+            // on modern macOS due to System Integrity Protection.
+            if (comptime builtin.target.isDarwin()) {
+                if (std.mem.eql(u8, "/bin/bash", command)) {
+                    return null;
+                }
+            }
+
             const new_command = try setupBash(
                 alloc_arena,
                 command,