diff --git a/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp b/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp
index 7b449ebedb2..685cd82a4a4 100644
--- a/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp
+++ b/gnucash/gnucash-commands.cpp
@@ -611,10 +611,11 @@ Gnucash::run_scripting (std::vector<std::string> m_script_args,
         gnc_shutdown_cli (1);
     }
 
-    std::vector<char*> newArgv (m_script_args.size());
-    auto to_c_str = [](std::string& s) { return (char*)s.c_str(); };
-    std::transform (m_script_args.begin(), m_script_args.end(), newArgv.begin(), to_c_str);
-    // note the vector<char*> is valid as long as m_script_args's strings are not damaged!
+    std::vector<const char*> newArgv (m_script_args.size() + 1);
+    newArgv.push_back ("gnucash-cli"); // because python strips argv[0]
+    std::transform (m_script_args.begin(), m_script_args.end(), std::back_inserter(newArgv),
+                    [](const std::string& s) { return s.c_str(); });
+    // note the vector<const char*> is valid as long as m_script_args's strings are not damaged!
 
     gnc_prefs_init ();
     gnc_ui_util_init();
@@ -624,7 +625,7 @@ Gnucash::run_scripting (std::vector<std::string> m_script_args,
     scripting_args args { m_script, m_language, m_interactive };
     if (m_language == "guile")
     {
-        scm_boot_guile (newArgv.size(), newArgv.data(), run_guile_cli, &args);
+        scm_boot_guile (newArgv.size(), (char**)newArgv.data(), run_guile_cli, &args);
         return 0;               // never reached...
     }
 
@@ -634,7 +635,7 @@ Gnucash::run_scripting (std::vector<std::string> m_script_args,
         PyConfig config;
         PyConfig_InitPythonConfig(&config);
 
-        PyStatus status = PyConfig_SetBytesArgv(&config, newArgv.size(), newArgv.data());
+        PyStatus status = PyConfig_SetBytesArgv(&config, newArgv.size(), (char**)newArgv.data());
         try
         {
             if (PyStatus_Exception(status))