Tilde (~) in PAI_DIR env variable not expanded, causing hook and statusline failures

[flexorflex]

Description

The PAI_DIR environment variable is set to ~/.claude in settings.json, but the tilde (~) is not expanded when accessed as an environment variable in code. This causes hooks and the statusline to fail silently or show incorrect data.

Root Cause

In settings.json:

"env": {
  "PAI_DIR": "~/.claude",
  ...
}

When code accesses process.env.PAI_DIR, it gets the literal string ~/.claude instead of /Users/username/.claude. The shell only expands ~ in certain contexts:

• ✅ At the start of a command: ~/.claude/hooks/foo.ts works
• ❌ From variable expansion: ${PAI_DIR}/hooks/foo.ts → ~/.claude/hooks/foo.ts (tilde NOT expanded)

Impact

1. Hook commands fail: ${PAI_DIR}/hooks/StartupGreeting.hook.ts becomes ~/.claude/hooks/... which the shell can't execute
2. TypeScript code fails: process.env.PAI_DIR returns ~/.claude, and fs.readFileSync('~/.claude/settings.json') fails
3. Statusline shows "—": Can't read settings.json to get version number

Steps to Reproduce

# Simulate how Claude Code sets the env var
export PAI_DIR="~/.claude"

# Try to run a hook (fails)
${PAI_DIR}/hooks/StartupGreeting.hook.ts
# Error: no such file or directory: ~/.claude/hooks/StartupGreeting.hook.ts

# Try to read settings in code
node -e "console.log(require('fs').existsSync(process.env.PAI_DIR + '/settings.json'))"
# false

Suggested Fixes

Fix 1: Change hook commands to use literal ~ (portable)

In settings.json, change from:

"command": "${PAI_DIR}/hooks/SecurityValidator.hook.ts"

To:

"command": "~/.claude/hooks/SecurityValidator.hook.ts"

The tilde works when it's at the start of the command string.

Fix 2: Add tilde expansion in shell scripts

In statusline-command.sh:

PAI_DIR="${PAI_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}"
# Add this line to expand tilde:
PAI_DIR="${PAI_DIR/#\~/$HOME}"

Fix 3: Use centralized path resolution in TypeScript

The lib/paths.ts already has getPaiDir() with proper expansion. All hooks should use it instead of direct process.env.PAI_DIR access:

// BAD - tilde not expanded
const baseDir = process.env.PAI_DIR || join(process.env.HOME!, '.claude');

// GOOD - uses centralized expansion
import { getPaiDir } from './lib/paths';
const baseDir = getPaiDir();

Affected Files

settings.json

• All hook command paths using ${PAI_DIR}
• statusLine command using ${PAI_DIR}

TypeScript files using direct PAI_DIR access

• hooks/lib/IdealState.ts
• hooks/lib/notifications.ts
• hooks/AutoWorkCreation.hook.ts
• hooks/ImplicitSentimentCapture.hook.ts
• hooks/ExplicitRatingCapture.hook.ts

Shell scripts

• statusline-command.sh

Environment

• PAI Version: 2.3.0
• Claude Code Version: 2.1.17
• OS: macOS (also affects Linux)
• Shell: zsh/bash

Related

This is a different issue from #477 (stderr causing false errors). Both can appear as "hook error" but have different root causes.

[kaimagnus]

Thanks for the detailed analysis! In v3.0 (now released), the installer generates settings.json with fully expanded paths (e.g., /Users/username/.claude instead of ~/.claude), which resolves the tilde expansion issue. Please upgrade to v3.0 — if you still see tilde issues, please open a new issue.