chenhg5/cc-connect · error

gemini: cannot determine home dir: %w

Error message

gemini: cannot determine home dir: %w

What it means

DeleteSession needs the user's home directory to locate ~/.gemini/tmp/<slug>/chats. os.UserHomeDir() failed (usually $HOME unset), so the session cannot be deleted. The error wraps the underlying OS error.

Source

Thrown at agent/gemini/gemini.go:237

	if a.activeIdx >= 0 && a.activeIdx < len(a.providers) {
		if m := a.providers[a.activeIdx].Model; m != "" {
			model = m
		}
	}
	a.mu.Unlock()

	return newGeminiSession(ctx, cmd, extraArgs, workDir, model, mode, sessionID, extraEnv, timeout)
}

// ListSessions reads sessions from ~/.gemini/tmp/<project_hash>/chats/.
func (a *Agent) ListSessions(_ context.Context) ([]core.AgentSessionInfo, error) {
	return listGeminiSessions(a.workDir)
}

func (a *Agent) DeleteSession(_ context.Context, sessionID string) error {
	homeDir, err := os.UserHomeDir()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("gemini: cannot determine home dir: %w", err)
	}
	chatsDir := filepath.Join(homeDir, ".gemini", "tmp", geminiProjectSlug(a.workDir), "chats")
	// Session files are named session-<timestamp>-<uuid_prefix>.json, not <uuid>.json.
	// Scan the directory to find the file containing the matching sessionId.
	entries, err := os.ReadDir(chatsDir)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("session file not found: %s", sessionID)
	}
	for _, entry := range entries {
		if entry.IsDir() || !strings.HasSuffix(entry.Name(), ".json") {
			continue
		}
		fpath := filepath.Join(chatsDir, entry.Name())
		data, err := os.ReadFile(fpath)
		if err != nil {
			continue
		}
		var sf struct {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

1. Set HOME in the process environment (e.g. Environment=HOME=/home/user in the systemd unit)
2. Run cc-connect as a normal user with a valid home directory
3. Pass the home dir via env explicitly when launching the daemon in containers (ENV HOME=/root)
4. Log the wrapped inner error to confirm which env var is missing

Example fix

// before: docker run with no HOME
CMD ["/usr/local/bin/cc-connect"]
// after
docker run -e HOME=/home/ccuser ...

home, err := os.UserHomeDir()
if err != nil || home == "" {
  return fmt.Errorf("cannot manage gemini sessions: set $HOME for this process")
}

if err := agent.DeleteSession(ctx, id); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "cannot determine home dir") {
  log.Printf("environment misconfigured (HOME unset): %v", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Agent.DeleteSession(ctx, sessionID) in an environment where os.UserHomeDir() returns an error: $HOME (and on Windows USERPROFILE) is unset, e.g. daemons, containers, or services running with a scrubbed environment.

Common situations: systemd service with minimal env; Docker container running as non-root without HOME; cron jobs lacking HOME; running under a service manager with a restricted 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

• pi: cannot determine settings path
• get home dir: %w
• resolve home directory for Agy permission bridge: %w
• create Agy permission overlay: %w
• read existing Agy hooks %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/21cf79cfc685431d. Report an issue: GitHub.