If a filename begins with $ and ends with $, TCC will first look to see if the file exists. If not, TCC will remove the enclosing $'s and see if the file exists. If it does, TCC will convert it to a WSL path (like the @WSLPATH variable function, but easier to type). For example, if your current directory is d:\foo:
grep $myfile.dat$
will be translated to:
grep //mnt/d/foo/myfile.dat
You can enable / disable the filename translation with the WSLPath=YES|no directive in TCMD.INI.
See also @WSLPATH.