fix(paths): expand ~ in CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR (stray ~ dirs)

[quinnmacro]

Problem

A literal ~-prefixed CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR (e.g. ~/.claude-mem written into settings.json, or set as an env var from a non-shell context) produced stray directories literally named ~ across the workspace.

resolveDataDir() returned the value verbatim from both the env var and settings.json, without tilde expansion. Node's path.join / fs do not expand ~ (only the shell does), so the value was treated as a relative path and resolved against the process cwd. claude-mem workers inherit the cwd of whatever spawned them — a subagent pinned to a subdirectory, a plugin-install dir, the repo root, an Obsidian plugin folder — so each worker created its own cwd/~/.claude-mem/ tree (logs + a settings.json snapshot), e.g.:

<repo>/~/.claude-mem/logs/...
<repo>/<subdir>/~/.claude-mem/logs/...
<repo>/<subdir>/<nested-dir>/~/.claude-mem/logs/...
<repo>/<plugin-dir>/~/.claude-mem/...

The default value (join(homedir(), '.claude-mem')) was already absolute, so this only bit users whose settings.json literally contained "~/.claude-mem" (hand-edited configs, or configs written by tooling that didn't expand ~).

Fix

Add expandHome() in src/shared/paths.ts and route both return paths of resolveDataDir() through it:

• ~/foo → join(homedir(), 'foo')
• bare ~ → homedir()
• absolute paths → untouched
• relative paths without ~ → untouched
• ~user/... → intentionally untouched (resolving another user's home is out of scope and platform-dependent)

This keeps every downstream path (LOGS_DIR, DB_PATH, paths.*) absolute regardless of how the value was authored, without changing behavior for the (already-absolute) default.

Verification

• bun test tests/shared/paths.test.ts → 12 pass (6 new expandHome cases + 3 resolveDataDir tilde cases + 3 existing)
• bun test tests/shared/ → 130 pass, 0 fail
• tsc --noEmit → 0 errors

The resolveDataDir tests exercise the env-var branch (consulted first) so they don't touch the real ~/.claude-mem/settings.json on disk.

Workaround already in place locally

Beyond this source fix, the equivalent defense without a code change is to set CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR to an absolute path in the Claude Code env block (~/.claude/settings.json) so te()/resolveDataDir() hits the env-var branch first — useful for anyone who can't upgrade immediately.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR expands ~ in configured claude-mem data directories. The main changes are:

• Adds expandHome() for bare ~ and leading ~/ paths.
• Applies expansion to CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR from both the environment and settings.json.
• Adds tests for tilde expansion and resolveDataDir() env-var behavior.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Safe to merge with minimal risk.

The change is narrow, preserves existing behavior for absolute and non-tilde relative paths, and adds tests for the affected path-resolution behavior.

No files require special attention.

T-Rex Logs

What T-Rex did

• The focused path tests were run and passed with exit code 0, as shown in the log shared-paths-01-focused.log.
• The broader shared tests were run and passed with exit code 0, as shown in the log shared-paths-02-shared-suite.log.
• The root typecheck completed successfully with exit code 0, as shown in the log shared-paths-03-typecheck-root.log.

_{Ran code and verified through T-Rex}

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
src/shared/paths.ts	Adds expandHome() and applies it to data-dir values from the environment and settings before downstream paths are derived.
tests/shared/paths.test.ts	Adds focused coverage for tilde expansion and resolveDataDir() behavior through the environment-variable branch.

Sequence Diagram

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
sequenceDiagram
  participant Env as CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR env
  participant Settings as settings.json
  participant Resolver as resolveDataDir()
  participant Expander as expandHome()
  participant Paths as DATA_DIR-derived paths

  Resolver->>Env: Check env var first
  alt env var is set
    Env-->>Resolver: data-dir value
    Resolver->>Expander: normalize leading ~
  else env var is unset
    Resolver->>Settings: Read default settings file
    alt settings contains CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR
      Settings-->>Resolver: data-dir value
      Resolver->>Expander: normalize leading ~
    else no configured value
      Resolver-->>Paths: homedir()/.claude-mem default
    end
  end
  Expander-->>Resolver: expanded or unchanged path
  Resolver-->>Paths: DATA_DIR for logs/db/settings accessors

Loading

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sequenceDiagram
  participant Env as CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR env
  participant Settings as settings.json
  participant Resolver as resolveDataDir()
  participant Expander as expandHome()
  participant Paths as DATA_DIR-derived paths

  Resolver->>Env: Check env var first
  alt env var is set
    Env-->>Resolver: data-dir value
    Resolver->>Expander: normalize leading ~
  else env var is unset
    Resolver->>Settings: Read default settings file
    alt settings contains CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR
      Settings-->>Resolver: data-dir value
      Resolver->>Expander: normalize leading ~
    else no configured value
      Resolver-->>Paths: homedir()/.claude-mem default
    end
  end
  Expander-->>Resolver: expanded or unchanged path
  Resolver-->>Paths: DATA_DIR for logs/db/settings accessors

Loading

_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "fix(paths): expand `~` in CLAUDE_MEM_DAT..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[quinnmacro]

Hi 👋 — gentle follow-up on this one.

This came from a real production hit: a ~-prefixed CLAUDE_MEM_DATA_DIR (written literally into settings.json) produced stray directories named ~ scattered across the workspace wherever a worker's cwd happened to be (subagent-pinned subdirs, plugin-install dirs, the repo root). The fix is narrow — route both resolveDataDir() return paths through a new expandHome() that only touches leading ~/ and bare ~; absolute and non-tilde paths are byte-for-byte unchanged.

Greptile's T‑Rex already cloned the branch and ran the tests green (focused path tests, the shared suite, and tsc --noEmit — all exit 0), so the verification is already on the PR.

Happy to squash, rebase onto a newer main, split the test additions into a separate commit, or adjust the ~user/ scope decision if you'd prefer different behavior. Just let me know.