warpdotdev/warp · error

could not determine home directory

Error message

could not determine home directory

What it means

Thrown by prepare_gemini_environment_config when dirs::home_dir() returns None, so the Gemini config directory (~/.gemini by GEMINI_CONFIG_DIR) cannot be built. The function needs it to write settings.json, trusted folders, and the optional system prompt (GEMINI_ALL_SYSTEM_PROMPTS/MEMORY) before launching the Gemini CLI.

Source

Thrown at app/src/ai/agent_sdk/driver/harness/gemini.rs:260

        )
        .await
    }

    async fn cleanup(
        &self,
        _cleanup_disposition: HarnessCleanupDisposition,
        _foreground: &ModelSpawner<AgentDriver>,
    ) -> Result<()> {
        Ok(())
    }
}

fn prepare_gemini_environment_config(
    working_dir: &Path,
    system_prompt: Option<&str>,
) -> Result<()> {
    let home_dir =
        dirs::home_dir().ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("could not determine home directory"))?;
    let gemini_dir = home_dir.join(GEMINI_CONFIG_DIR);
    prepare_gemini_settings(
        &gemini_dir.join(GEMINI_SETTINGS_FILE_NAME),
        system_prompt.is_some(),
    )?;
    prepare_gemini_trusted_folders(
        &gemini_dir.join(GEMINI_TRUSTED_FOLDERS_FILE_NAME),
        working_dir,
    )?;
    if let Some(prompt) = system_prompt {
        let prompt_path = gemini_dir.join(GEMINI_SYSTEM_PROMPT_FILE_NAME);
        std::fs::write(&prompt_path, prompt).with_context(|| {
            format!(
                "Failed to write Gemini system prompt to {}",
                prompt_path.display()
            )
        })?;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e72fd7aacb)

Solutions

1. Set HOME (Unix) or USERPROFILE (Windows) to a writable directory in the agent's process environment.
2. For containers, add -e HOME=/root or a passwd entry for the runtime user.
3. Verify with printenv HOME before launching the Gemini-harness agent.

Example fix

# before
docker run warp-agent agent run --harness gemini …   # HOME unset → error

# after
docker run -e HOME=/root warp-agent agent run --harness gemini …

anyhow::ensure!(dirs::home_dir().is_some(), "set HOME before launching the gemini harness");

fn gemini_config_resolvable() -> bool {
    dirs::home_dir().is_some()
}

match prepare_gemini_environment_config(&working_dir, system_prompt.as_deref()) {
    Err(err) if err.to_string().contains("could not determine home directory") => {
        std::env::set_var("HOME", "/tmp/warp-home");
        prepare_gemini_environment_config(&working_dir, system_prompt.as_deref())
    }
    rest => rest,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Preparing a Gemini-harness agent run in an environment where no home directory can be resolved — unset HOME/USERPROFILE, getpwuid failure for the runtime UID, stripped container/CI/service environments. Unlike the Codex/Claude paths there is no env-var override here; only home is consulted.

Common situations: Docker/systemd/CI execution of the Gemini harness with HOME cleared; distroless images with synthetic users; sandboxed executors hiding the home path.

Related errors

• could not determine home directory
• could not determine home directory
• Could not determine home directory
• could not determine home directory
• could not determine home directory

AI-assisted analysis of warpdotdev/warp@e72fd7aacb (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/19cdc421bb352a6c. Report an issue: GitHub.