stablyai/orca · critical · Error

Refusing to use an unexpected guest cleanup path

Error message

Refusing to use an unexpected guest cleanup path

What it means

Safety guard in the benchmark's teardown logic: it computes cleanupPaths under `${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/benchmarks/<instanceKey>` and `${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/agent-hooks/instance-<instanceKey>`, then refuses to proceed if any path does not begin with `${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/`. This prevents destructive rm -rf against an unexpected location if HOME resolution or path construction goes wrong.

Source

Thrown at config/scripts/wsl-hook-relay-reattach-benchmark.mjs:347

      null
    )
    wslHookRelayManager.ensureForDistro = previousEnsure
    if (singletonProbe.length !== 1 || singletonProbe[0] !== '__bench-singleton-probe__') {
      throw new Error(
        'jiti duplicated the WSL hook-relay manager graph; reattach patch would not observe pty.ts'
      )
    }

    const guestHome = (
      await run('wsl.exe', wslArgs(distro, ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'printf %s "$HOME"']))
    ).stdout.trim()
    const instanceKey = `bench-${process.pid}-${Date.now().toString(36)}`
    const benchmarkRoot = `${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/benchmarks/${instanceKey}`
    const scriptPath = `${benchmarkRoot}/.orca/agent-hooks/codex-hook.sh`
    const endpointPath = `${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/agent-hooks/instance-${instanceKey}/endpoint.env`
    cleanupPaths = [benchmarkRoot, `${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/agent-hooks/instance-${instanceKey}`]
    if (cleanupPaths.some((cleanupPath) => !cleanupPath.startsWith(`${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/`))) {
      throw new Error('Refusing to use an unexpected guest cleanup path')
    }
    const disabledTuiAgents = MANAGED_AGENT_HOOK_TARGETS.filter(
      (target) => target.tuiAgent !== 'codex'
    ).map((target) => target.tuiAgent)
    const bundleVersion = readFileSync(versionPath, 'utf8').trim()
    const warnings = []
    const relayRefreshes = []
    let delivered = 0

    // Why: pty.ts refreshes through the production singleton, so route that singleton at the
    // benchmark-scoped manager instead of calling the reattach helper from here — a removed or
    // mislocated integration call in pty.ts must fail this benchmark.
    wslHookRelayManager.ensureForDistro = (refreshedDistro) => {
      relayRefreshes.push(refreshedDistro)
      manager?.ensureForDistro(refreshedDistro)
    }

    const { runtime, getController } = createRuntimeStub()

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

1. Run `wsl.exe -d <distro> /bin/sh -c 'printf %s "$HOME"'` and confirm it prints the expected home path.
2. Ensure the distro's user profile is intact and HOME is exported in the default shell.
3. If you intentionally changed the benchmark layout, update the `.startsWith(guestHome/.orca-wsl/)` guard to match the new root.
4. Never widen this guard casually — it exists to prevent accidental deletion outside .orca-wsl.

Example fix

// before
if (cleanupPaths.some((cleanupPath) => !cleanupPath.startsWith(`${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/`))) {
  throw new Error('Refusing to use an unexpected guest cleanup path')
}

// after — name the offending path in the message
const bad = cleanupPaths.find((p) => !p.startsWith(`${guestHome}/.orca-wsl/`))
if (bad) {
  throw new Error(`Refusing to use an unexpected guest cleanup path: ${bad} (guestHome=${guestHome})`)
}

// Validate guestHome is non-empty and absolute before computing cleanupPaths
if (!guestHome || !guestHome.startsWith('/') || guestHome.includes('\n')) {
  throw new Error(`Unresolvable guest HOME: ${JSON.stringify(guestHome)}`)
}

function isPathUnderRoot(p: string, root: string): boolean {
  const norm = p.replace(/\\/g, '/')
  return norm.startsWith(root.endsWith('/') ? root : root + '/')
}

When it happens

Trigger: guestHome resolves to an empty/unexpected value (e.g. WSL prints an error to stdout instead of $HOME), or instanceKey contains characters that break the path prefix check, making cleanupPaths fall outside the allowed root.

Common situations: WSL distro where `printf %s "$HOME"` returns empty or an error string, a HOME set to something other than the expected user directory, or a future refactor that changes benchmarkRoot/endpointPath without updating the prefix guard.

Related errors

• Timed out waiting for ${description}
• Could not reserve a guest port: ${result.stdout}
• This benchmark requires a Windows host with WSL
• WSL distro '${distro}' needs Node.js 18 or newer to run Orca
• advertised-url-watcher.ts no longer contains \`${marker}\`

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/204fc5e5fef93870. Report an issue: GitHub.