diff --git a/doc_src/cmds/argparse.rst b/doc_src/cmds/argparse.rst
index 393a32e70..fd8f0c64d 100644
--- a/doc_src/cmds/argparse.rst
+++ b/doc_src/cmds/argparse.rst
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ Sometimes you need to validate the option values. For example, that it is a vali
 
 - ``_flag_value`` will be set to the value associated with the flag being processed.
 
-If you do this via a function it should be defined with the ``--no-scope-shadowing`` flag. Otherwise it won't have access to those variables.
+These variables are passed to the function as local exported variables.
 
 The script should write any error messages to stdout, not stderr. It should return a status of zero if the flag value is valid otherwise a non-zero status to indicate it is invalid.
 
diff --git a/src/builtin_argparse.cpp b/src/builtin_argparse.cpp
index 58e941d63..4677d2076 100644
--- a/src/builtin_argparse.cpp
+++ b/src/builtin_argparse.cpp
@@ -457,13 +457,13 @@ static int validate_arg(parser_t &parser, const argparse_cmd_opts_t &opts, optio
     auto &vars = parser.vars();
 
     vars.push(true);
-    vars.set_one(L"_argparse_cmd", ENV_LOCAL, opts.name);
+    vars.set_one(L"_argparse_cmd", ENV_LOCAL | ENV_EXPORT, opts.name);
     if (is_long_flag) {
-        vars.set_one(var_name_prefix + L"name", ENV_LOCAL, opt_spec->long_flag);
+        vars.set_one(var_name_prefix + L"name", ENV_LOCAL | ENV_EXPORT, opt_spec->long_flag);
     } else {
-        vars.set_one(var_name_prefix + L"name", ENV_LOCAL, wcstring(1, opt_spec->short_flag));
+        vars.set_one(var_name_prefix + L"name", ENV_LOCAL | ENV_EXPORT, wcstring(1, opt_spec->short_flag));
     }
-    vars.set_one(var_name_prefix + L"value", ENV_LOCAL, woptarg);
+    vars.set_one(var_name_prefix + L"value", ENV_LOCAL | ENV_EXPORT, woptarg);
 
     int retval = exec_subshell(opt_spec->validation_command, parser, cmd_output, false);
     for (const auto &output : cmd_output) {