LGUG2Z/komorebi · critical

there is no local data directory

Error message

there is no local data directory

What it means

DATA_DIR is a lazily-initialized static computed once from dirs::data_local_dir(). If the OS provides no local data directory (e.g. HOME/profile environment broken), the expect panics with this message at first access of DATA_DIR. This happens on Windows when the %LOCALAPPDATA% env var is unset, or on Unix when XDG_DATA_HOME and HOME are both missing.

Source

Thrown at komorebi/src/lib.rs:213

        Arc::new(Mutex::new(HashMap::new()));
    static ref TCP_CONNECTIONS: Arc<Mutex<HashMap<String, TcpStream>>> =
        Arc::new(Mutex::new(HashMap::new()));
    static ref HIDING_BEHAVIOUR: Arc<Mutex<HidingBehaviour>> =
        Arc::new(Mutex::new(HidingBehaviour::Cloak));
    pub static ref HOME_DIR: PathBuf = {
        std::env::var("KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME").map_or_else(|_| dirs::home_dir().expect("there is no home directory"), |home_path| {
            let home = home_path.replace_env();

            assert!(
                home.is_dir(),
                "$Env:KOMOREBI_CONFIG_HOME is set to '{home_path}', which is not a valid directory"
            );


            home
        })
    };
    pub static ref DATA_DIR: PathBuf = dirs::data_local_dir().expect("there is no local data directory").join("komorebi");
    pub static ref AHK_EXE: String = {
        let mut ahk: String = String::from("autohotkey.exe");

        if let Ok(komorebi_ahk_exe) = std::env::var("KOMOREBI_AHK_EXE")
            && which(&komorebi_ahk_exe).is_ok() {
                ahk = komorebi_ahk_exe;
            }

        ahk
    };
    static ref WINDOWS_11: bool = {
        matches!(
            os_info::get().version(),
            Version::Semantic(_, _, x) if x >= &22000
        )
    };

    // Use app-specific titlebar removal options where possible

View on GitHub (pinned to e0709f02bf)

Solutions

1. Ensure %LOCALAPPDATA% (Windows) or $HOME / $XDG_DATA_HOME (Unix) is set for the process launching komorebi
2. Re-create the user profile environment variables if they were lost
3. Run komorebi as an interactive user, not under a system account with no profile
4. If vendoring, replace the expect with a fallback path and log a clear error instead of panicking

Example fix

// before
pub static ref DATA_DIR: PathBuf = dirs::data_local_dir().expect("there is no local data directory").join("komorebi");
// after
pub static ref DATA_DIR: PathBuf = dirs::data_local_dir().unwrap_or_else(|| {
    std::env::var_os("LOCALAPPDATA").map(PathBuf::from)
        .unwrap_or_else(|| PathBuf::from(".")).join("komorebi")
});

if std::env::var_os("LOCALAPPDATA").is_none() && std::env::var_os("HOME").is_none() {
    panic!("no local data directory: set LOCALAPPDATA or HOME before starting");
}

When it happens

Trigger: First access of DATA_DIR (komorebi/src/lib.rs:213) while dirs::data_local_dir() returns None, typically because KOMOREBI runs in an environment where the per-user local app-data path cannot be resolved.

Common situations: Running komorebi from a service/scheduler context with a stripped environment; broken %LOCALAPPDATA% on Windows after user profile issues; Unix-like CI shells with no HOME or XDG_DATA_HOME.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• no home directory found
• there is no home directory
• unable to get exec path
• there is no local data directory
• there is no home directory

AI-assisted analysis of LGUG2Z/komorebi@e0709f02bf (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87c3702d796189bd. Report an issue: GitHub.