the install root is derived, not configured

Seven variables out of .env. DATA_PATH, OFFICER_ITEMS_DIR and HOME_DIR are gone
from the code entirely; PUBLIC_URL, PUBLIC_BUILD_ENV, JWT_SECRET and
VAULT_STORE_KEY are no longer written by the setup script.

data-path.ts now derives OFFICER_ROOT as dirname(process.cwd()), with data/,
capabilities/ and dockers/ as fixed names under it. The direction used to run the
other way — DATA_PATH from env, then OFFICER_ROOT = dirname(DATA_PATH) in
app-store/paths.ts — which meant three environment variables that had to agree
with each other and with the tree on disk.

Eight files re-read process.env.DATA_PATH independently, each with its own
`?? cwd()/data` fallback. They import the one value now, which is what made
removing it safe: otherwise each would have derived its own and drifted.

Three things this turned up.

The cwd pin in ecosystem.profile.cjs was broken. It set `cwd: __dirname` under a
comment asserting "__dirname is the repo root — this file sits beside
ecosystem.config.cjs", which stopped being true when these files moved into
ecosystem-files/. It walks up to the platform's package.json now, which holds
wherever the file lives. That was a live bug before this change and a load-bearing
one after it, since cwd now decides where the install is.

assertInstallLayout joins the other two boot assertions. A wrong cwd does not
error — it computes a plausible root somewhere else and writes managed homes and
agent runs into it, so the install looks empty and the data looks lost with
nothing naming the cause. It throws before serve(), first of the three, because a
wrong answer there makes the other two check the wrong files.

getOwnerHomeDir captures homedir() once at module load rather than per call.
Measured on bun 1.3.10: both os.homedir() and os.userInfo().homedir return $HOME
when set rather than reading passwd, and user-instance.ts assigns process.env.HOME
on its way to spawning an agent. A lazy read would have returned the owner's home
on the first call and a member's afterwards. data-path.ts imports only node
builtins, so it is evaluated before any of that runs.

JWT_SECRET and VAULT_STORE_KEY leaving .env means an install made by this script
does not boot — jwt.ts throws at module load without one. That is the agreed
sequencing: they move to the SQLite store (docs/secret-store.md), and writing them
here meanwhile would create a second origin for a secret the store then has to be
reconciled with. Said plainly in .env.example and in lib/env.sh rather than left
to be discovered.

Not typechecked: node_modules is empty here and installs are frozen. Every edited
file parses under `bun build --no-bundle`; the profile loads and pins the right
cwd; assertInstallLayout was exercised from both the repo and /tmp; the setup
section was run and writes five variables. Prettier was NOT run — 3.9.6 via bunx
is not the pinned resolution and reformatted unrelated unions and line wraps in
six files, so those were reverted and the edits re-applied by hand.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/server.tsx

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import type { ServerWebSocket } from 'bun';
 import { serve } from 'bun';
 import { honoServer, PROTECTED_API_PREFIXES, UNPROTECTED_API_PREFIXES } from './servers/hono';
 import { assertCapabilityTotality } from './servers/capabilities/totality';
+import { assertInstallLayout } from './servers/data-path';
 import { assertSecretsClosed } from './servers/os-user';
 import { resolveHomeDir } from './servers/user-home';
 import { resolveAuthToken } from './servers/auth-token';
@@ -151,9 +152,13 @@ assertCapabilityTotality({
   wsProviders: Object.keys(handlers),
 });
 
+// That the working directory is the repo, because every path derives from its parent. First of the three,
+// since a wrong answer here makes the other two check the wrong files.
+assertInstallLayout();
+
 // And, when members have real Linux accounts, that they cannot read the credentials that would make those
 // accounts pointless. Also before serve(), also throws: a shell handed out next to a world-readable
-// JWT_SECRET is worse than no isolation, because the model looks intact. No-op while the feature is off.
+// JWT_SECRET is worse than no isolation, because the model looks intact.
 await assertSecretsClosed(process.cwd());
 
 async function upgradeWs(

src/servers/api/activity/router.ts

@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ import { parseTailLine } from './progress';
 
 export const activityRouter = createRouter();
 
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
+
 const HOME_DIR = process.env.HOME_DIR ?? process.env.HOME ?? '';
 const ANNOUNCED_PATH = join(DATA_PATH, 'activity', 'announced.json');
 const ALLOWED_ROOTS = ['/tmp', DATA_PATH, HOME_DIR].filter(Boolean);

src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts

@@ -31,9 +31,10 @@ import { readSttConfig } from '../server-settings/stt';
 /**
  * Whose transcripts a request may read.
  *
- * The home comes from `resolveHomeDir`, never from `getOwnerHomeDir` — that one ignores its argument whenever
- * HOME_DIR is set, which is how every read in this router used to resolve to the owner's `~/.claude` no matter
- * who asked. Throws rather than falling back, for the same reason `resolveTurnIdentity` refuses: there is no
+ * The home comes from `resolveHomeDir`, never from `getOwnerHomeDir` — that one ignores its argument and
+ * always answers the owner, which is how every read in this router used to resolve to the owner's
+ * `~/.claude` no matter who asked. Throws rather than falling back, for the same reason
+ * `resolveTurnIdentity` refuses: there is no
  * safe home to substitute, and the owner's is the one wrong answer.
  *
  * Unreachable by a member today — the router refuses non-owners above — so this is the path being made correct

src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ const IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS = 60 * 60 * 1000; // 1 hour
 /**
  * Where a turn runs, relative to the caller's own home.
  *
- * `root` used to be `getOwnerHomeDir(email)`, which ignores its argument whenever HOME_DIR is set — so every
+ * `root` used to be `getOwnerHomeDir(email)`, which ignores its argument — so every
  * `~` expanded to the OWNER'S home regardless of who asked, and the comment here said "the server owner is
  * the only account" as though that were a property rather than an assumption.
  *

src/servers/app-store/paths.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
-import { DATA_PATH } from '../data-path';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+import { OFFICER_ROOT } from '../data-path';
 
 // Where the app store puts the containers it provisions.
 //
@@ -32,11 +32,13 @@ import { DATA_PATH } from '../data-path';
 // So this directory is exclusively ours to write, and everything in it was put there by an install.
 
 /**
- * The install root — the parent of `data/`. On a conventional install, `~/officerdev`.
+ * The install root — on a conventional install, `~/officerdev`.
  *
- * Derived, not configured: see above.
+ * Derived, not configured: see above. It moved to `../data-path` on 2026-08-12, when the direction
+ * inverted — it used to be `dirname(DATA_PATH)`, back when DATA_PATH was the environment variable that
+ * anchored everything. Re-exported here because this file is where callers expect to find it.
  */
-export const OFFICER_ROOT = dirname(DATA_PATH);
+export { OFFICER_ROOT };
 
 /** Where provisioned services live, one directory each. Created on first install, not at boot. */
 export const DOCKERS_DIR = join(OFFICER_ROOT, 'dockers');

src/servers/capabilities/authorize.ts

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ export async function getEffectiveCapabilities(userId: number | undefined): Prom
       // A confined capability touches the filesystem or runs a process, and is safe only because the
       // account has its own Linux user to be confined to. Without one there is no boundary, so the grant
       // resolves to nothing rather than to the owner's home — which is what it WOULD resolve to, since
-      // `getOwnerHomeDir` ignores the email it is passed whenever HOME_DIR is set.
+      // `getOwnerHomeDir` ignores the email it is passed, always.
       //
       // Dropped here rather than refused per-router so that one rule covers the HTTP routes, the
       // websocket doors and the dock all at once. A member with `files` granted but no OS account sees no

src/servers/data-path.ts

@@ -1,12 +1,70 @@
-import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
-import { chmodSync, mkdirSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { dirname, join, resolve } from 'node:path';
+import { chmodSync, mkdirSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { homedir } from 'node:os';
 
-export const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
+// ── The install root, and why it is derived rather than configured ──
+//
+// An install is one directory with everything under it:
+//
+//   $OFFICER_ROOT/
+//     platform/      the repo — the working directory every process runs in
+//     data/          DATA_PATH
+//     capabilities/  OFFICER_ITEMS_DIR
+//     dockers/       what the app store provisions
+//
+// These were three environment variables until 2026-08-12, which meant three answers that had to agree
+// with each other and with the layout on disk. They are one fact now: the root is the parent of the
+// working directory, and everything else is a fixed name under it. Nothing to set and nothing to
+// disagree.
+//
+// This depends on the working directory being the repo, which is why pm2 pins `cwd` in
+// ecosystem.profile.cjs — read the comment there before changing either. `assertInstallLayout` below
+// is the check that says so out loud instead of silently writing to the wrong place.
+export const OFFICER_ROOT = dirname(process.cwd());
+
+export const DATA_PATH = join(OFFICER_ROOT, 'data');
 
 // Unified, file-based store for all agent items, living outside the repo. Every skill/tool/task/
 // process/extension is a directory under one of these type subfolders — no scope tiers, no DB.
-export const OFFICER_ITEMS_DIR = process.env.OFFICER_ITEMS_DIR ?? join(process.cwd(), 'officer-items');
+export const OFFICER_ITEMS_DIR = join(OFFICER_ROOT, 'capabilities');
+
+/**
+ * Refuse to boot when the working directory is not the platform repo.
+ *
+ * Same posture as `assertCapabilityTotality` and `assertSecretsClosed`: a prerequisite that silently
+ * not holding is worse than one that fails. Every path in this file hangs off `dirname(process.cwd())`,
+ * so a process started from the wrong directory does not error — it computes a plausible root somewhere
+ * else and writes managed homes, capabilities and agent runs into it. The install looks empty and the
+ * data looks lost, with nothing naming the cause.
+ *
+ * `ecosystem.profile.cjs` already pins `cwd` for exactly this reason. This is the check that the pin
+ * still works, which is the part that was missing when the ecosystem files moved directory.
+ */
+export function assertInstallLayout(): void {
+  const manifest = join(process.cwd(), 'package.json');
+  let name: string | undefined;
+  try {
+    name = JSON.parse(readFileSync(manifest, 'utf8')).name;
+  } catch {
+    // Absent or unreadable is the same answer as wrong: this is not the repo.
+  }
+
+  if (name === 'officer') return;
+
+  throw new Error(
+    [
+      `Officer must run from the platform repo, but the working directory is ${process.cwd()}`,
+      '',
+      `  expected  a directory containing the platform's package.json ("officer")`,
+      `  found     ${name ? `package.json for "${name}"` : 'no readable package.json'}`,
+      '',
+      'Every path is derived from this — the install root is its parent, and data/, capabilities/ and',
+      `dockers/ hang off that. Continuing would write to ${OFFICER_ROOT} instead of the real install.`,
+      '',
+      'Under pm2 this means the `cwd` pin in ecosystem.profile.cjs no longer points at the repo.',
+    ].join('\n'),
+  );
+}
 
 export type ItemType = 'skills' | 'tools' | 'tasks' | 'processes' | 'extensions' | 'agents';
 
@@ -33,14 +91,39 @@ export const SEED_PATH = resolve(import.meta.dir, '../../seed');
 
 // The managed home under DATA_PATH. A remnant of the first architecture, where every user ran inside
 // their own Docker container and this was that container's home — seeded by provisioning, described to
-// the agent by a generated CLAUDE.md. Both of those are gone, and nothing executes here any more:
-// terminals, chats and task runs all use getOwnerHomeDir below. It survives only as that function's
-// fallback for when HOME_DIR is unset, and in pipeline-executor.
+// the agent by a generated CLAUDE.md. Both of those are gone, and the OWNER's sessions never come here
+// any more — terminals, chats and task runs all use getOwnerHomeDir below.
+//
+// It is not dead, though: user-home.ts returns it for a NON-owner, where it is deliberately the same
+// path as osUserHome, and pipeline-executor still calls it.
+//
+// It was also getOwnerHomeDir's fallback until 2026-08-12, which is the only reason an unset HOME_DIR
+// used to run the owner's terminals in a directory nobody meant.
 export const getHomeDir = (email: string) => join(DATA_PATH, email, 'home');
 
-// Where the owner's sessions actually run: their real login home when HOME_DIR is set, so platform
-// terminals/chats/tasks share config and credentials with the shell they use outside Officer.
-export const getOwnerHomeDir = (email: string): string => process.env.HOME_DIR ?? getHomeDir(email);
+// Where the owner's sessions actually run: their real login home, so platform terminals/chats/tasks
+// share config and credentials with the shell they use outside Officer.
+//
+// `homedir()` is right here for one reason, and it is worth stating because everything below rests on
+// it: the server process runs AS the owner. It is not a general "whose home is this" helper — a member
+// never reaches this function, because their sessions go through os-user.ts and setpriv. It ignores the
+// email it is passed, which it also did before; the callers that must not are already commented as such.
+//
+// ── Why this is captured once, and not read per call ──
+//
+// Measured on bun 1.3.10: BOTH `os.homedir()` and `os.userInfo().homedir` return $HOME when it is set,
+// rather than reading the password file. And `sidecar/claude/user-instance.ts` assigns `process.env.HOME`
+// on its way to spawning an agent. So a lazy read here would hand back whichever home was most recently
+// spawned into — the owner's on the first call and something else afterwards.
+//
+// This module imports nothing but node builtins, so it is evaluated before any of that can run. The
+// value is the owner's home, taken while $HOME still means what it says.
+const OWNER_HOME = homedir();
+
+// This was HOME_DIR in .env until 2026-08-12, whose absence fell back to getHomeDir — the managed home
+// under DATA_PATH, not a login home at all. So forgetting to set it did not fail; it quietly ran every
+// terminal somewhere else.
+export const getOwnerHomeDir = (_email: string): string => OWNER_HOME;
 
 // The directory skeleton a new account gets under DATA_PATH.
 //

src/servers/sidecar/caldav/index.ts

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import type { SidecarCommand, SidecarEvent } from '../protocol';
 import { createSidecarConnector } from '../connect';
 import { startRadicale, davPaths } from './radicale';
 import { listCollections, listEvents, listContacts } from './collections';
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 
 // The officer-caldav sidecar. Owns the whole CalDAV/CardDAV contract: it supervises Radicale, owns the
 // collection storage under DATA_PATH/dav, and exposes two very different doors.
@@ -23,7 +24,6 @@ import { listCollections, listEvents, listContacts } from './collections';
 // ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 const API_URL = process.env.API_URL ?? `ws://127.0.0.1:${process.env.PORT ?? '5000'}`;
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? `${process.cwd()}/data`;
 
 /** Grab an ephemeral free port by briefly binding one and releasing it. */
 function getFreePort(): number {

src/servers/sidecar/claude/claude-manager.ts

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ console.log(`[claude] CLI resolved to ${CLAUDE_BIN}`);
 
 // Capture original HOME before user-instance overrides it
 const HOST_HOME = process.env.HOME!;
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 
 // Tear a persistent session down after this long with no new turn (see PersistentSession below).
 const IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS = 30 * 60 * 1000;

src/servers/sidecar/claude/state.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import { mkdirSync, existsSync, readFileSync, writeFileSync, unlinkSync } from 'node:fs';
-
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 
 /**
  * A resumable session, and whose it is.

src/servers/sidecar/claude/user-instance.ts

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import * as claudeManager from './claude-manager';
 import { createSidecarConnector } from '../connect';
 import { sign } from '../../jwt';
 import { getUserByEmail, getOwnerUser, getEmailAccounts } from 'officerdb';
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 
 // PM2 starts this sidecar with no user in its env, so resolve the owner from the database rather than
 // being told who to run as by the main server — one less thing that has to come from `officer` before
@@ -60,7 +61,6 @@ async function resolveOwner() {
 const dbUser = await resolveOwner();
 const email = dbUser.email;
 
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
 // Same officer instance for both, so the fallback port has to agree. It used to default to 5000 for the
 // WebSocket and 9010 for the REST base, which would have split them apart if PORT were ever unset.
 const OFFICER_PORT = process.env.PORT ?? '9010';

src/servers/sidecar/headscale/claude-proxy.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { existsSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 
 // One-shot model calls, for sidecar features that need a sentence of reasoning rather than an agent.
 //
@@ -16,7 +17,6 @@ import { join } from 'node:path';
 // surface, which already exists and already persists.
 
 const PROXY_PORT = process.env.ANTHROPIC_PROXY_PORT ?? '5051';
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? '';
 const DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS = 120_000;
 
 /** The proxy is not running, has no token, or refused us. Distinct from the model declining to answer. */

src/servers/sidecar/music/index.ts

@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ import {
   setPlaylistItems,
   type FavoriteKind,
 } from 'officerdb';
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 
-const DATA_PATH = process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data');
 
 // ── Per-user state validation ──
 // The authenticated user id arrives in X-Officer-User (the platform proxy injects it after auth; we're

src/servers/sidecar/music/indexer.ts

@@ -20,9 +20,11 @@ import { homedir } from 'node:os';
 // name+size+mtime, cover size+mtime). It drives BOTH incremental build (skip unchanged albums) and the
 // phone's resync diff (fetch only changed `v`s).
 
+import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
+
 const HOME = process.env.HOME_DIR ?? homedir();
 export const MUSIC_ROOT = join(HOME, 'Music');
-const CACHE_ROOT = join(process.env.DATA_PATH ?? join(process.cwd(), 'data'), 'music', 'cache');
+const CACHE_ROOT = join(DATA_PATH, 'music', 'cache');
 const MANIFEST_PATH = join(CACHE_ROOT, 'manifest.json');
 
 const AUDIO_EXT = new Set(['mp3', 'flac', 'm4a', 'aac', 'ogg', 'opus', 'wav', 'wma']);