fix(worktrees): expand a leading ~ in the worktree location (#35032)

A workspaceDir of "~/..." was never expanded, so it resolved relative to
each repo and worktrees were created under <repo>/~. Expand a leading ~
when settings are loaded and on every settings write, and share the
expansion with the floating-workspace path resolver.

Co-authored-by: Neil <neil@stably.ai>

src/main/home-path-expansion.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import { join, sep } from 'node:path'
+
+export function expandLeadingHomePath(input: string, home: string): string {
+  if (input === '~') {
+    return home
+  }
+  if (input.startsWith(`~${sep}`) || (process.platform === 'win32' && input.startsWith('~/'))) {
+    return join(home, input.slice(2))
+  }
+  return input
+}

src/main/ipc/floating-workspace-directory.ts

@@ -5,29 +5,15 @@ import { getAppEnvironment } from '../../shared/app-environment'
 import type { GlobalSettings } from '../../shared/global-settings-types'
 import type { FloatingTerminalCwdRequest } from '../../shared/ui-chrome-types'
 import type { Store } from '../persistence'
+import { resolveFloatingWorkspacePath } from '../persistence/restoring-sessions/floating-workspace-normalization'
 
 type FloatingTerminalSettings = Pick<GlobalSettings, 'floatingTerminalTrustedCwds'>
 
 const FLOATING_WORKSPACE_DIRNAME = 'floating-workspace'
 
-function expandHomePath(input: string, home: string): string {
-  if (input === '~') {
-    return home
-  }
-  if (input.startsWith(`~${path.sep}`)) {
-    return path.join(home, input.slice(2))
-  }
-  if (process.platform === 'win32' && input.startsWith('~/')) {
-    return path.join(home, input.slice(2))
-  }
-  return input
-}
-
 function resolveFloatingWorkspaceInput(input: string): string {
   // Headless runtime uses this path resolver without an Electron app.
-  const home = getAppEnvironment().getPath('home')
-  const expanded = expandHomePath(input, home)
-  return path.isAbsolute(expanded) ? path.resolve(expanded) : path.resolve(home, expanded)
+  return resolveFloatingWorkspacePath(input, getAppEnvironment().getPath('home'))
 }
 
 async function canonicalizeAccessibleDirectory(dirPath: string): Promise<string | null> {

src/main/persistence/applying-settings/persistence-settings-update.test.ts

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import { makeTerminalTab } from '../persistence-session-fixtures'
 import { describe, it, expect, vi, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest'
 import { writeFileSync, rmSync, mkdtempSync } from 'node:fs'
 import { join } from 'node:path'
-import { tmpdir } from 'node:os'
+import { homedir, tmpdir } from 'node:os'
 import type { GlobalSettings } from '../../../shared/global-settings-types'
 import type { PersistedState } from '../../../shared/persisted-state-types'
 import { getDefaultWorkspaceSession } from '../../../shared/constants'
@@ -112,6 +112,18 @@ describe('Store', () => {
     ).toBe(false)
   })
 
+  it('expands a leading ~ in the worktree location on load and every settings write', async () => {
+    writeDataFile({ settings: { workspaceDir: '~/source/.orca/worktrees' } })
+    const store = await createStore()
+
+    expect(store.getSettings().workspaceDir).toBe(join(homedir(), 'source/.orca/worktrees'))
+    expect(store.updateSettings({ workspaceDir: '~' }).workspaceDir).toBe(homedir())
+    expect(store.updateSettings({ workspaceDir: '~/wt' }).workspaceDir).toBe(join(homedir(), 'wt'))
+    // Repo-relative locations and other names that start with ~ stay as written.
+    expect(store.updateSettings({ workspaceDir: '.worktrees' }).workspaceDir).toBe('.worktrees')
+    expect(store.updateSettings({ workspaceDir: '~wt' }).workspaceDir).toBe('~wt')
+  })
+
   it('normalizes bot-author overrides on load and every settings write', async () => {
     writeDataFile({
       settings: {

src/main/persistence/applying-settings/settings-update.ts

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ import { normalizeNotificationSettings } from './onboarding-normalization'
 import { retireLegacyInstructionsForClearedTextActionRecipes } from './source-control-settings'
 import {
   buildWorkspaceDirHistoryForUpdate,
+  expandWorkspaceDirHome,
   stripRetiredGlobalSettings
 } from './terminal-settings-migrations'
 
@@ -58,7 +59,7 @@ export function updateSettings(
   updates: Partial<GlobalSettings>,
   options: { notifyListeners?: boolean; originWebContentsId?: number } = {}
 ): GlobalSettings {
-  const sanitizedUpdates = stripRetiredGlobalSettings(updates)
+  const sanitizedUpdates = expandWorkspaceDirHome(stripRetiredGlobalSettings(updates))
   const linkBehavior = updates.terminalLinkClickBehavior
   if (linkBehavior === 'actions' || linkBehavior === 'open' || linkBehavior === 'none') {
     // Loaded defaults are ambiguous; synchronize the legacy switch only on an explicit write.

src/main/persistence/applying-settings/terminal-settings-migrations.ts

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { homedir } from 'node:os'
 import type { GlobalSettings, OrcaWorkspaceLayout } from '../../../shared/global-settings-types'
 import { normalizeRuntimePathForComparison } from '../../../shared/cross-platform-path'
 import {
@@ -10,6 +11,14 @@ import {
   normalizeTuiAgentArgsRecord,
   normalizeTuiAgentEnvRecord
 } from '../../../shared/tui-agent-launch-defaults'
+import { expandLeadingHomePath } from '../../home-path-expansion'
+
+/** Unexpanded, a leading ~ resolves inside each repo and worktrees land in <repo>/~ (#34944). */
+export function expandWorkspaceDirHome(settings: Partial<GlobalSettings>): Partial<GlobalSettings> {
+  return typeof settings.workspaceDir === 'string'
+    ? { ...settings, workspaceDir: expandLeadingHomePath(settings.workspaceDir, homedir()) }
+    : settings
+}
 
 export function buildWorkspaceDirHistoryForUpdate(
   current: GlobalSettings,

src/main/persistence/loading-store/normalize-loaded-global-settings.ts

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import { projectSourceControlAiToLegacyCommitMessageAi } from '../../../shared/s
 import { normalizeNativeChatShellEnvironmentVariables } from '../../../shared/native-chat/native-chat-shell-environment'
 import { publishedLegacyChatPermissionMode } from '../../../shared/agent-chat-permission-mode'
 import {
+  expandWorkspaceDirHome,
   savedChatUiWithTerminalDefaultView,
   stripRetiredGlobalSettings
 } from '../applying-settings/terminal-settings-migrations'
@@ -64,7 +65,7 @@ export function normalizeLoadedGlobalSettings(
   return {
     ...defaults.settings,
     // Legacy stored booleans cannot distinguish opt-in from the old default; retain explicit true.
-    ...stripRetiredGlobalSettings(parsed.settings),
+    ...expandWorkspaceDirHome(stripRetiredGlobalSettings(parsed.settings)),
     // Preserve terminal-first new tabs when retiring the old default-view switch.
     ...(savedChatUiWithTerminalDefaultView(parsed.settings)
       ? { experimentalNativeChat: false }

src/main/persistence/restoring-sessions/floating-workspace-normalization.ts

@@ -1,18 +1,9 @@
 import { realpathSync, statSync } from 'node:fs'
-import { isAbsolute, join, resolve, sep } from 'node:path'
-
-export function expandFloatingWorkspaceHomePath(input: string, home: string): string {
-  if (input === '~') {
-    return home
-  }
-  if (input.startsWith(`~${sep}`) || (process.platform === 'win32' && input.startsWith('~/'))) {
-    return join(home, input.slice(2))
-  }
-  return input
-}
+import { isAbsolute, resolve } from 'node:path'
+import { expandLeadingHomePath } from '../../home-path-expansion'
 
 export function resolveFloatingWorkspacePath(input: string, home: string): string {
-  const expanded = expandFloatingWorkspaceHomePath(input, home)
+  const expanded = expandLeadingHomePath(input, home)
   return isAbsolute(expanded) ? resolve(expanded) : resolve(home, expanded)
 }