chenhg5/cc-connect · error

cannot resolve home directory: %w

Error message

cannot resolve home directory: %w

What it means

resolveLocalDirPath wraps os.UserHomeDir failures with this error when the target path starts with '~' or '~/'. The home directory cannot be determined because the environment provides no usable HOME (or equivalent) value, so the tilde path cannot be expanded.

Source

Thrown at core/engine.go:16979

	return false
}

func looksLikeGitURL(s string) bool {
	return strings.HasPrefix(s, "https://") ||
		strings.HasPrefix(s, "http://") ||
		strings.HasPrefix(s, "git@") ||
		strings.HasPrefix(s, "ssh://")
}

// resolveLocalDirPath resolves a user-provided directory path to an absolute
// path, expanding ~/... and joining relative paths with baseDir. It rejects
// paths that escape baseDir via ../ traversal.
func resolveLocalDirPath(target, baseDir string) (string, error) {
	dirPath := target
	if dirPath == "~" || strings.HasPrefix(dirPath, "~/") {
		home, err := os.UserHomeDir()
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("cannot resolve home directory: %w", err)
		}
		dirPath = filepath.Join(home, dirPath[2:])
	} else if !filepath.IsAbs(dirPath) {
		dirPath = filepath.Join(baseDir, dirPath)
	}
	cleaned := filepath.Clean(dirPath)
	resolved, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(cleaned)
	if err != nil {
		resolved = cleaned
	}
	if baseDir != "" && !filepath.IsAbs(target) && !strings.HasPrefix(target, "~") {
		cleanBase := filepath.Clean(baseDir)
		if evalBase, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(cleanBase); err == nil {
			cleanBase = evalBase
		}
		if !strings.HasPrefix(resolved, cleanBase+string(filepath.Separator)) && resolved != cleanBase {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("path escapes workspace base directory")
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

1. Set the HOME environment variable for the process (e.g. Environment=HOME=/home/user in the systemd unit)
2. Replace the ~/ prefix in the configured path with an absolute path
3. Run the service as a normal login user so the home directory resolves
4. Use the daemon's baseDir-relative path instead of a tilde path

Example fix

// before (config.toml)
workspaceDir = "~/projects/repo"
// after
workspaceDir = "/home/alice/projects/repo"

if os.Getenv("HOME") == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("HOME is not set; tilde paths cannot be resolved")
}

path, err := resolveLocalDirPath(target, baseDir)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "cannot resolve home directory") {
    slog.Warn("HOME unset; expand tilde manually or use absolute path", "err", err)
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling resolveLocalDirPath with target == "~" or a "~/..." path while os.UserHomeDir() returns an error — typically because $HOME is unset/empty (Linux) or the user profile cannot be resolved (Windows).

Common situations: Running the daemon under systemd with a minimal environment lacking HOME; running in a container or cron job where HOME is not set; SSH non-login shells with stripped environment.

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

• resolve home directory for Agy permission bridge: %w
• resolve home directory: %w
• resolve home dir: %w
• codex: resolve codex home: %w
• resolve home directory: %w

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0639695bc9092a0c. Report an issue: GitHub.