warpdotdev/warp · error

could not determine home directory

Error message

could not determine home directory

What it means

Thrown by codex_config_dir() when the CODEX_HOME env var is unset (or empty) and dirs::home_dir() returns None, leaving no ~/.codex base directory. The harness then cannot write Codex config (agents override, system prompt, auth) before launching the Codex CLI.

Source

Thrown at app/src/ai/agent_sdk/driver/harness/codex.rs:599

        safe_info!(
            safe: ("Published {published} WARP_SKILL_DIRS skill(s) to the Codex skill root"),
            full: (
                "Published {published} WARP_SKILL_DIRS skill(s) to Codex skill root {}",
                skill_root.display()
            )
        );
    }
}

fn codex_config_dir() -> Result<PathBuf> {
    if let Ok(dir) = std::env::var(CODEX_HOME_ENV)
        && !dir.is_empty()
    {
        return Ok(PathBuf::from(dir));
    }
    dirs::home_dir()
        .map(|home| home.join(CODEX_CONFIG_DIR))
        .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("could not determine home directory"))
}

fn write_codex_agents_override(codex_dir: &Path, system_prompt: &str) -> Result<()> {
    fs::create_dir_all(codex_dir).with_context(|| {
        format!(
            "Failed to create Codex config dir at {}",
            codex_dir.display()
        )
    })?;

    // Note: this currently works because we are only doing this for cloud agents; if we enable
    // this for local runs we'll want to make sure we don't clobber any existing file overrides.
    let prompt_path = codex_dir.join(CODEX_AGENTS_OVERRIDE_FILE_NAME);
    fs::write(&prompt_path, system_prompt).with_context(|| {
        format!(
            "Failed to write Codex system prompt to {}",
            prompt_path.display()
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to e72fd7aacb)

Solutions

1. Set CODEX_HOME to a writable directory in the agent's environment — it short-circuits the home lookup entirely.
2. Otherwise set HOME (Unix) or USERPROFILE (Windows) to a writable path.
3. Verify with printenv CODEX_HOME HOME before launching the Codex-harness agent.

Example fix

# before
docker run warp-agent agent run --harness codex …   # HOME unset

# after
docker run -e CODEX_HOME=/var/lib/warp/codex warp-agent agent run --harness codex …

if std::env::var("CODEX_HOME").map_or(true, |d| d.is_empty()) && dirs::home_dir().is_none() {
    anyhow::bail!("set CODEX_HOME or HOME before launching the codex harness");
}

fn codex_config_resolvable() -> bool {
    std::env::var("CODEX_HOME").map(|d| !d.is_empty()).unwrap_or(false) || dirs::home_dir().is_some()
}

match codex_config_dir() {
    Err(err) if err.to_string().contains("could not determine home directory") => {
        std::env::set_var("CODEX_HOME", "/tmp/warp-codex");
        codex_config_dir()
    }
    rest => rest,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Preparing a Codex-harness agent run with CODEX_HOME unset/empty and no resolvable home directory — unset HOME/USERPROFILE, no passwd entry for the UID, or a container/service environment that strips them.

Common situations: Dockerized or CI executions of the Codex harness without HOME; systemd units missing Environment=HOME; minimal images (distroless/scratch) where getpwuid cannot answer; environments where CODEX_HOME was expected to be injected but was not.

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/5158afc15471fd98. Report an issue: GitHub.