a chat with no chosen directory runs in the caller's own home

The default was DATA_PATH/<email>/general_chat_sessions, a dedicated directory so /chat
sessions formed their own Claude project group instead of cluttering the home. It is a sibling
of the home, and confineUserTree makes every sibling the platform's at 0700 because the others
are attachments and email_accounts. So it was unreachable for a member: the first live member
turn started there and every Bash call failed on its own working directory before doing
anything.

A per-member copy inside each home fixed the symptom and left two rules to remember. The owner
chose one rule instead — the account's own home, whoever they are — and accepted the trade
knowingly: /chat sessions now share a project group with anything else run from that home,
which was the reason the dedicated directory existed.

Removed rather than left dangling: getGeneralChatSessionsCwd, ensureGeneralChatSessionsCwd,
ensureMemberChatCwd, and general_chat_sessions from USER_DIRS so new accounts stop getting it.
Existing directories are untouched and their transcripts stay where they are — Claude groups by
cwd, so the owner's old /chat history remains under its own project slug rather than moving.

The UI labels move with it: the default group now reads "home" rather than naming a directory
that no longer has a role.

ChatIdentity keeps carrying both email and home. The pairing was justified in the comment by
general_chat_sessions being email-derived, which is now gone — but the distinction it encodes
is real (the email says who, the home says where), so the comment explains that instead.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/servers/api/chat/chat.ts

@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import * as errors from '@@/custom-errors';
 import * as sidecar from '@@/sidecar-registry';
 import { getUserSettings } from 'officerdb';
 import {
-  getGeneralChatSessionsCwd,
   listClaudePwds,
   listClaudeSessions,
   loadClaudeSession,
@@ -71,22 +70,22 @@ export const chatRouter = createRouter();
 // reviewer who had not written it. If you are reverting this, revert to a refusal — not to a narrower one.
 
 // The working directory a request operates on: an explicit ?cwd= (a chosen pwd), else the default
-// general_chat_sessions dir. Claude groups sessions by cwd, so this selects which project group we read.
+// caller's own home. Claude groups sessions by cwd, so this selects which project group we read.
 // OpenCode runs on one fixed serve, but each session records the directory its turn ran in, so cwd
 // selects there too.
-const cwdOf = (ctx: Context, email: string): string => ctx.req.query('cwd')?.trim() || getGeneralChatSessionsCwd(email);
+const cwdOf = (ctx: Context, home: string): string => ctx.req.query('cwd')?.trim() || home;
 
 // GET /chat/pwds — the default /chat dir plus every directory that already has Claude sessions.
 chatRouter.get('/pwds', async (ctx) => {
   const who = await chatIdentity(ctx.get('user'));
-  return ctx.json({ pwds: listClaudePwds(who), default: getGeneralChatSessionsCwd(who.email) });
+  return ctx.json({ pwds: listClaudePwds(who), default: who.home });
 });
 
 // GET /chat/sessions[?cwd=] — conversations for a working directory, merged across both harnesses
 // (Claude transcripts + OpenCode's session store), newest first.
 chatRouter.get('/sessions', async (ctx) => {
   const who = await chatIdentity(ctx.get('user'));
-  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.email);
+  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.home);
   const claude = listClaudeSessions(who, cwd).map((s) => ({ ...s, harness: 'claude' as const }));
   const opencode = await listOpenCodeSessions(cwd);
   const sessions = [...claude, ...opencode].sort((a, b) => b.updatedAt.localeCompare(a.updatedAt));
@@ -102,7 +101,7 @@ chatRouter.get('/sessions', async (ctx) => {
 chatRouter.get('/sessions/:id', async (ctx) => {
   const who = await chatIdentity(ctx.get('user'));
   const id = ctx.req.param('id');
-  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.email);
+  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.home);
   // Fall back to a by-id scan when the (default) cwd doesn't hold it — a fresh /chat/<id> deep-link/refresh
   // doesn't know the session's cwd. The returned detail carries the real cwd for the client to scope the UI.
   const detail = isOpenCodeSessionId(id)
@@ -212,7 +211,7 @@ chatRouter.get('/live', async (ctx) => {
 chatRouter.delete('/sessions/:id', async (ctx) => {
   const who = await chatIdentity(ctx.get('user'));
   const id = ctx.req.param('id');
-  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.email);
+  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.home);
   const ok = isOpenCodeSessionId(id) ? await deleteOpenCodeSession(id) : deleteClaudeSession(who, cwd, id);
   if (!ok) return ctx.text('Not found', 404);
   return ctx.json({ ok: true });
@@ -222,7 +221,7 @@ chatRouter.delete('/sessions/:id', async (ctx) => {
 chatRouter.patch('/sessions/:id/title', async (ctx) => {
   const who = await chatIdentity(ctx.get('user'));
   const id = ctx.req.param('id');
-  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.email);
+  const cwd = cwdOf(ctx, who.home);
   const { title } = await ctx.req.json<{ title?: string }>();
   if (!title?.trim()) return ctx.text('title is required', 400);
   const ok = isOpenCodeSessionId(id)

src/servers/api/chat/claude-sessions.ts

@@ -29,25 +29,20 @@ import { DATA_PATH } from '../../data-path';
 // that were a property rather than an assumption. A member reaching these functions would have been handed the
 // owner's conversation list.
 //
-// So the home arrives resolved, from `resolveHomeDir(userId)`, and this file has no way to invent one. The
+// So the home arrives resolved, from `resolveHomeDir(userId)`, and this file has no way to invent one.
-// email is still passed where a path is genuinely email-derived — `general_chat_sessions` lives under
+//
-// DATA_PATH, not under a home — which is why both travel together rather than one standing in for the other.
+// The email travels alongside it rather than being derived from it, because the two answer different
+// questions: the email says WHO, the home says WHERE. They were briefly conflated in the other direction —
+// `general_chat_sessions` was an email-derived path under DATA_PATH used as a chat's working directory, and
+// because `confineUserTree` makes every sibling of a home the platform's at 0700, a member's turn started in
+// a directory it could not enter. That default is now the caller's own home; the pairing survives because the
+// distinction it encodes is real.
 export type ChatIdentity = {
   email: string;
   /** From `resolveHomeDir`. Never `getOwnerHomeDir`, which ignores its argument. */
   home: string;
 };
 
-/** Dedicated working directory for /chat sessions, so they form their own Claude "project" group. */
-export const getGeneralChatSessionsCwd = (email: string): string => join(DATA_PATH, email, 'general_chat_sessions');
-
-/** Same, but create the directory if it doesn't exist (call before spawning a /chat session). */
-export const ensureGeneralChatSessionsCwd = (email: string): string => {
-  const dir = getGeneralChatSessionsCwd(email);
-  mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true });
-  return dir;
-};
-
 const claudeProjectsDir = (home: string): string => join(home, '.claude', 'projects');
 
 /** Claude's folder name for a working directory. */
@@ -767,10 +762,10 @@ function firstCwd(filePath: string): string {
 
 export type ClaudePwd = { cwd: string; sessionCount: number; updatedAt: string; isDefault: boolean };
 
-/** All working directories that have Claude sessions, plus the default /chat dir. Newest first. */
+/** All working directories that have Claude sessions, plus the caller's home. Newest first. */
 export function listClaudePwds(who: ChatIdentity): ClaudePwd[] {
   const projectsDir = claudeProjectsDir(who.home);
-  const defaultCwd = getGeneralChatSessionsCwd(who.email);
+  const defaultCwd = who.home;
   const byCwd = new Map<string, { count: number; updatedAt: string }>();
 
   if (existsSync(projectsDir)) {

src/servers/api/chat/websocket.ts

@@ -13,13 +13,12 @@ import { sessionManager } from './session-manager';
 import { rememberOpenCodePrompt } from './opencode/state';
 import { sendClaudeCodeStreaming } from '@@/channels/send-claude-code';
 import { sendOpenCodeStreaming } from '@@/channels/send-opencode';
-import { ensureGeneralChatSessionsCwd } from './claude-sessions';
 import * as sidecar from '@@/sidecar-registry';
 import { join } from 'path';
 import { getOwnerHomeDir, getEmailAccountsDir } from '../../../servers/data-path';
 import { getUserSettings, getEmailAccounts, getChatEventsSince, appendChatEvent, getUserById } from 'officerdb';
 import { resolveHomeDir } from '@@/user-home';
-import { claudeLoginState, ensureMemberChatCwd } from '@@/os-user-claude';
+import { claudeLoginState } from '@@/os-user-claude';
 import { mkdirSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { logger } from './logger';
 
@@ -132,21 +131,29 @@ async function resolveEmailCwd(userId: number, ownerEmail: string, accountEmail?
 }
 
 // The working directory a chat turn runs in, by context: email → the account dir; /chat → a chosen
-// pwd or the default general_chat_sessions dir; everything else (browser/project/dashboard) → the given cwd.
+// pwd or the caller's own home; everything else (browser/project/dashboard) → the given cwd.
 async function resolveChatCwd(
   msg: { context?: string; contextId?: string; cwd?: string },
   email: string,
   userId: number,
   home: string,
-  member?: { osUser: string; home: string },
 ): Promise<string> {
   if (msg.context === 'email') return resolveEmailCwd(userId, email, msg.contextId);
   if (msg.context === 'chat') {
     if (msg.cwd?.trim()) return resolveCwd(home, msg.cwd);
-    // The default chat directory. The owner's is a sibling of their home; a member's is INSIDE theirs,
+    // The caller's own home, for everyone.
-    // because that sibling is platform-owned at 0700 by design and a member cannot enter it — which is
+    //
-    // exactly how the first live member turn failed, with every Bash call dying on its own cwd.
+    // This used to be `DATA_PATH/<email>/general_chat_sessions`, a dedicated directory so /chat sessions
-    return member ? ensureMemberChatCwd(member) : ensureGeneralChatSessionsCwd(email);
+    // formed their own Claude project group and did not clutter the home. That is a sibling of the home,
+    // and `confineUserTree` makes every sibling the platform's at 0700 because the others are `attachments`
+    // and `email_accounts` — so it was unreachable for a member. The first live member turn ran there and
+    // every Bash call failed on its own working directory before doing anything.
+    //
+    // A per-member copy inside each home would have worked and would have left two rules to remember. The
+    // owner chose one: a chat with no chosen directory runs in the account's own home, whoever they are.
+    // The cost is that /chat sessions now share a project group with anything else run from that home,
+    // which was the reason the dedicated directory existed and is a trade the owner made knowingly.
+    return home;
   }
   return resolveCwd(home, msg.cwd);
 }
@@ -402,7 +409,7 @@ async function handleClaudeCodeChat(
 
   const home = identity.kind === 'member' ? identity.run.home : getOwnerHomeDir(email);
 
-  const cwd = await resolveChatCwd(msg, email, userId, home, identity.kind === 'member' ? identity.run : undefined);
+  const cwd = await resolveChatCwd(msg, email, userId, home);
 
   const groupSlug = msg.groupSlug || null;
 

src/servers/data-path.ts

@@ -52,16 +52,7 @@ export const getOwnerHomeDir = (email: string): string => process.env.HOME_DIR ?
 // Single-sourced here rather than in the script that used to own the list, because there are now two
 // callers — `scripts/provision-user-dirs.ts` and the owner's create-account handler — and a skeleton
 // that differs depending on how the account was made is a bug nobody would think to look for.
-export const USER_DIRS = [
+export const USER_DIRS = ['home', 'attachments', 'cache', 'dashboards', 'email_accounts', 'logs', 'sidecar'] as const;
-  'home',
-  'attachments',
-  'cache',
-  'dashboards',
-  'email_accounts',
-  'general_chat_sessions',
-  'logs',
-  'sidecar',
-] as const;
 
 /**
  * Create an account's root and its skeleton, closed by default.

src/servers/os-user-claude.ts

@@ -123,23 +123,6 @@ export async function provisionClaudeCli(params: { email: string; osUser: string
   return { ok: true, binPath, wrote: true };
 }
 
-/**
- * A member's own chat-sessions directory, created as them, inside their home.
- *
- * The owner's equivalent lives at `DATA_PATH/<email>/general_chat_sessions` — a SIBLING of the home, which
- * `confineUserTree` deliberately makes the platform's at 0700 because the other siblings are `attachments`
- * and `email_accounts`. Correct for those, and fatal as a member's cwd: the first live member turn ran there
- * and every Bash call failed, because the account could not enter its own working directory.
- *
- * So a member's goes inside their home instead. Created through `runAs` because the platform cannot mkdir
- * into a 0700 home it does not own — and `mkdir -p` is idempotent, so this is safe to call per turn.
- */
-export async function ensureMemberChatCwd(params: { osUser: string; home: string }): Promise<string> {
-  const dir = join(params.home, 'general_chat_sessions');
-  await asMember(params.osUser, ['mkdir', '-p', dir]);
-  return dir;
-}
-
 export type ClaudeLoginState = {
   /** The binary is present and executable in their home. */
   installed: boolean;

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/ChatHistory/ChatDetailPanel.tsx

@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ function NewChat(props: NewChatProps) {
     invalidateClaudeSessions();
   }, [invalidateClaudeSessions]);
 
-  // context 'chat' tells the backend to run this session from the dedicated general_chat_sessions cwd, so
+  // context 'chat' tells the backend to run this session from the caller's own home, so
   // its transcript lands in Claude's own store as an isolated project group (source of truth).
   const chat = useChat(undefined, locationState?.model, {
     resumeSummary,

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/ChatHistory/PwdSelector.tsx

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import { useChatPwds } from 'state/useClaudeSessions';
 import { DirPickerModal } from './DirPickerModal';
 
 type PwdSelectorProps = {
-  value: string | null; // null = the default general_chat_sessions dir
+  value: string | null; // null = the caller's own home
   onChange: (cwd: string | null) => void;
 };
 
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export const PwdSelector = ({ value, onChange }: PwdSelectorProps) => {
   const [custom, setCustom] = useState('');
 
   const isDefaultActive = value === null || value === defaultCwd;
-  const label = isDefaultActive ? 'general_chat_sessions' : basename(value!);
+  const label = isDefaultActive ? 'home' : basename(value!);
 
   const pick = (cwd: string | null) => {
     onChange(cwd);
@@ -58,9 +58,7 @@ export const PwdSelector = ({ value, onChange }: PwdSelectorProps) => {
                     className={`flex w-full items-center gap-2 px-3 py-1.5 text-left text-xs cursor-pointer hover:bg-muted ${selected ? 'text-duck-teal' : 'text-foreground/80'}`}
                   >
                     <Check className={`h-3.5 w-3.5 shrink-0 ${selected ? 'opacity-100' : 'opacity-0'}`} />
-                    <span className="min-w-0 flex-1 truncate">
+                    <span className="min-w-0 flex-1 truncate">{p.isDefault ? 'Default · home' : shorten(p.cwd)}</span>
-                      {p.isDefault ? 'Default · general_chat_sessions' : shorten(p.cwd)}
-                    </span>
                     {p.sessionCount > 0 && <span className="shrink-0 opacity-40">{p.sessionCount}</span>}
                   </button>
                 );

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/ChatHistory/SessionList.tsx

@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ export const SessionList = () => {
   const [selected, setSelected] = useSelectedChatSession();
   // A group path when we're on one; otherwise the open session's own directory, so /chat/<id> shows
   // that session among its neighbours instead of snapping the list back to the default group. Null =
-  // the default general_chat_sessions dir.
+  // the caller's own home.
   const activeCwd = cwdFromSplat(splat) ?? selected?.cwd ?? null;
   const { sessions, isLoading, error, refetch, deleteSession, renameSession } = useClaudeSessions(activeCwd);
   const [editingId, setEditingId] = useState<string | null>(null);

src/workspaces/officerdev/src/apps/ChatHistory/chat-routes.ts

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ export const GROUP_SEGMENT = 'g';
 /** Absolute cwd → path suffix. Encoded per segment; React Router decodes it the same way. */
 const encodeCwd = (cwd: string): string => cwd.split('/').filter(Boolean).map(encodeURIComponent).join('/');
 
-/** The list for a group. `null` = the default general_chat_sessions group. */
+/** The list for a group. `null` = the caller's own home. */
 export const chatListPath = (cwd: string | null | undefined): string =>
   cwd ? `/chat/${GROUP_SEGMENT}/${encodeCwd(cwd)}` : '/chat';
 

src/workspaces/state/src/useClaudeSessions.ts

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ export type ClaudeSessionDetail = {
 
 export type ClaudePwd = { cwd: string; sessionCount: number; updatedAt: string; isDefault: boolean };
 
-// Query string for the selected working directory (null/undefined = the default general_chat_sessions dir).
+// Query string for the selected working directory (null/undefined = the caller's own home).
 const cwdQuery = (cwd?: string | null) => (cwd ? `?cwd=${encodeURIComponent(cwd)}` : '');
 
 /** The default /chat dir plus every directory that already has Claude sessions. */