diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/baseEnvironment.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/baseEnvironment.ts
index e02b1a39e0c374..730eb26e9e6d7b 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/baseEnvironment.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/baseEnvironment.ts
@@ -54,6 +54,13 @@ export class PartialEnvironment {
     topLevelConfig: ResolvedConfig,
     options: ResolvedEnvironmentOptions = topLevelConfig.environments[name],
   ) {
+    // only allow some characters so that we can use name without escaping for directory names
+    // and make users easier to access with `environments.*`
+    if (!/^[\w$]+$/.test(name)) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `Invalid environment name "${name}". Environment names must only contain alphanumeric characters and "$", "_".`,
+      )
+    }
     this.name = name
     this._topLevelConfig = topLevelConfig
     this._options = options