Read paths from an interactive & login shell #5774

jamadeo · 2025-11-17T20:31:47Z

No description provided.

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds functionality to read PATH environment variables from an interactive and login shell, addressing the common issue where GUI-launched applications don't inherit the user's shell PATH configuration.

Key changes:

New paths.rs module that asynchronously retrieves PATH from the user's shell using login and interactive modes
Integration in rmcp_developer.rs to override PATH before executing shell commands
Lazy initialization with caching to avoid repeatedly spawning shells

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs	New module implementing shell PATH retrieval with platform-specific logic for Unix and Windows, using OnceCell for caching
crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/rmcp_developer.rs	Integrates shell PATH retrieval by calling `get_shell_path_dirs()` and setting PATH environment variable before command execution
crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/mod.rs	Exposes the new `paths` module as public

Copilot · 2025-11-17T20:40:17Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs

+    let output = output.map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to execute shell command: {}", e))?;
+
+    if !output.status.success() {
+        let stderr = String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr);


The -NoProfile flag prevents loading PowerShell profiles, which means this won't get the user's customized PATH. This is inconsistent with the Unix implementation which uses -l (login) to load profiles. Consider removing -NoProfile or using -NoLogo instead if you want to suppress the banner while still loading profiles.

Copilot · 2025-11-17T20:40:17Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs

+        .map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!("Invalid UTF-8 in shell output: {}", e))?
+        .trim()
+        .to_string();
+


The -l -i flag combination will fail with fish shell, which doesn't support using -l with -c. Consider using only -l (login mode sources profile files) or detecting the shell type and adjusting flags accordingly.

i mean fish?

I blindly accepted copilot's suggestion, but if I try it myself this works just fine:

% fish -i -l -c 'echo $PATH' /usr/local/bin ...

michaelneale · 2025-11-17T21:09:55Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs

+async fn get_shell_path_async() -> Result<String> {
+    let shell = env::var("SHELL").unwrap_or_else(|_| {
+        if cfg!(windows) {
+            "cmd".to_string()


could use a macro, but then I think this is probably fine (and probably less lines of code)

michaelneale · 2025-11-17T21:10:09Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs

+    });
+
+    {
+        #[cfg(windows)]


if using macro here, could use it for if statement above?

michaelneale · 2025-11-17T21:11:14Z

I think this is good - the copilot feedback if right is quite helpful (ie powershell woudln't pick things up, and fish shell would break with -c - not sure if true though!)

DOsinga · 2025-11-18T00:16:25Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs

+        .map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!("Invalid UTF-8 in shell output: {}", e))?
+        .trim()
+        .to_string();
+


i mean fish?

michaelneale · 2025-11-18T00:26:21Z

@DOsinga fish shell has a lot of fans!

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Copilot · 2025-11-18T18:09:59Z

crates/goose-cli/src/cli.rs

+        Some(Command::Mcp { server }) => match server {
+            McpCommand::AutoVisualiser => serve(AutoVisualiserRouter::new()).await?,
+            McpCommand::ComputerController => serve(ComputerControllerServer::new()).await?,
+            McpCommand::Memory => serve(MemoryServer::new()).await?,
+            McpCommand::Tutorial => serve(TutorialServer::new()).await?,
+            McpCommand::Developer => serve(DeveloperServer::new()).await?,


Logging setup was removed for MCP commands. This means MCP servers started via goose-cli won't have logging configured. Consider adding crate::logging::setup_logging(Some(&format!("mcp-{}", server.name())), None)?; before the match statement.

Suggested change

Some(Command::Mcp { server }) => match server {

McpCommand::AutoVisualiser => serve(AutoVisualiserRouter::new()).await?,

McpCommand::ComputerController => serve(ComputerControllerServer::new()).await?,

McpCommand::Memory => serve(MemoryServer::new()).await?,

McpCommand::Tutorial => serve(TutorialServer::new()).await?,

McpCommand::Developer => serve(DeveloperServer::new()).await?,

Some(Command::Mcp { server }) => {

crate::logging::setup_logging(Some(&format!("mcp-{}", server.name())), None)?;

match server {

McpCommand::AutoVisualiser => serve(AutoVisualiserRouter::new()).await?,

McpCommand::ComputerController => serve(ComputerControllerServer::new()).await?,

McpCommand::Memory => serve(MemoryServer::new()).await?,

McpCommand::Tutorial => serve(TutorialServer::new()).await?,

McpCommand::Developer => serve(DeveloperServer::new()).await?,

}

Copilot · 2025-11-18T18:10:00Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/paths.rs

+    let output = Command::new(shell)
+        .args(["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"])


The -i flag is not supported by fish shell, which will cause this command to fail for fish users. Consider conditionally using ["-l", "-c", "echo $PATH"] for fish and ["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"] for bash/zsh.

Suggested change

let output = Command::new(shell)

.args(["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"])

// Use different args for fish shell, which does not support -i

let shell_name = std::path::Path::new(shell)

.file_stem()

.and_then(|s| s.to_str())

.unwrap_or("");

let args: [&str; 4] = if shell_name == "fish" {

["-l", "", "-c", "echo $PATH"]

} else {

["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"]

};

// Remove empty string from args for fish

let args: Vec<&str> = args.iter().filter(|&&a| !a.is_empty()).copied().collect();

let output = Command::new(shell)

.args(&args)

Copilot

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Copilot

Pull Request Overview

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Copilot · 2025-11-18T23:02:57Z

crates/goose-cli/src/cli.rs

+                McpCommand::ComputerController => serve(ComputerControllerServer::new()).await?,
+                McpCommand::Memory => serve(MemoryServer::new()).await?,
+                McpCommand::Tutorial => serve(TutorialServer::new()).await?,
+                McpCommand::Developer => serve(DeveloperServer::new()).await?,


The goose-cli Developer server doesn't enable shell PATH extension like goose-server does. This creates inconsistent behavior - users will get different PATH environments depending on which binary they use. Either add .extend_path_with_shell(true).bash_env_file(Some(Paths::config_dir().join(\".bash_env\"))) here to match goose-server, or document why the CLI version intentionally has different behavior.

yes that is the idea!

Copilot · 2025-11-18T23:02:58Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/analyze/formatter.rs

+fn safe_truncate(s: &str, max_chars: usize) -> String {
+    if s.chars().count() <= max_chars {
+        s.to_string()
+    } else {
+        let truncated: String = s.chars().take(max_chars.saturating_sub(3)).collect();
+        format!("{}...", truncated)
+    }
+}


Duplicating safe_truncate creates a maintenance burden - changes to the original won't propagate here. Consider creating a shared utility crate that both goose and goose-mcp can depend on, or re-evaluate whether breaking the goose dependency is worth this duplication.

Suggested change

fn safe_truncate(s: &str, max_chars: usize) -> String {

if s.chars().count() <= max_chars {

s.to_string()

} else {

let truncated: String = s.chars().take(max_chars.saturating_sub(3)).collect();

format!("{}...", truncated)

}

}

use goose_util::safe_truncate;

…xt-test * 'main' of github.com:block/goose: chore: Add Adrian Cole to Maintainers (#5815) [MCP-UI] Proxy and Better Message Handling (#5487) Release 1.15.0 Document New Window menu in macOS dock (#5811) Catch cron errors (#5707) feat/fix Re-enabled WAL with commit transaction management (Linux Verification Requested) (#5793) chore: remove autopilot experimental feature (#5781) Read paths from an interactive & login shell (#5774) docs: acp clients (#5800)

* main: feat/fix Re-enabled WAL with commit transaction management (Linux Verification Requested) (#5793) chore: remove autopilot experimental feature (#5781) Read paths from an interactive & login shell (#5774) docs: acp clients (#5800) Provider error proxy for simulating various types of errors (#5091) chore: Add links to maintainer profiles (#5788) Quick fix for community all stars script (#5798) Document Mistral AI provider (#5799) docs: Add Community Stars recipe script and txt file (#5776)

* main: (33 commits) fix: support Gemini 3's thought signatures (#5806) chore: Add Adrian Cole to Maintainers (#5815) [MCP-UI] Proxy and Better Message Handling (#5487) Release 1.15.0 Document New Window menu in macOS dock (#5811) Catch cron errors (#5707) feat/fix Re-enabled WAL with commit transaction management (Linux Verification Requested) (#5793) chore: remove autopilot experimental feature (#5781) Read paths from an interactive & login shell (#5774) docs: acp clients (#5800) Provider error proxy for simulating various types of errors (#5091) chore: Add links to maintainer profiles (#5788) Quick fix for community all stars script (#5798) Document Mistral AI provider (#5799) docs: Add Community Stars recipe script and txt file (#5776) chore: incorporate LF feedback (#5787) docs: quick launcher (#5779) Bump auto scroll threshold (#5738) fix: add one-time cleanup for linux hermit locking issues (#5742) Don't show update tray icon if GOOSE_VERSION is set (#5750) ...

Signed-off-by: Blair Allan <[email protected]>

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings November 17, 2025 20:31

Read paths from an interacive & login shell

07981df

jamadeo force-pushed the jackamadeo/all-the-paths branch from 6136df0 to 07981df Compare November 17, 2025 20:32

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jamadeo requested a review from DOsinga November 17, 2025 20:42

copilot had good feedback

3a0938b

michaelneale reviewed Nov 17, 2025

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DOsinga approved these changes Nov 18, 2025

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Do it for the server, not for the CLI

6d670a3

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jamadeo added 3 commits November 18, 2025 13:12

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into jackamadeo/all-the-paths

67e7796

apparently we need this

9393073

default because clippy

bcaffbc

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings November 18, 2025 18:44

Copilot AI reviewed Nov 18, 2025

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jamadeo added 2 commits November 18, 2025 17:47

Put logging back

645af80

Prefer runtime

1e64341

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jamadeo merged commit 5ba636f into main Nov 19, 2025
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jamadeo added a commit that referenced this pull request Nov 19, 2025

Read paths from an interactive & login shell (#5774)

e9b9dcc

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Nov 19, 2025

chore(release): release version 1.15.0 (minor) #5780

Merged

jamadeo changed the title ~~Read paths from an interacive & login shell~~ Read paths from an interactive & login shell Nov 19, 2025

This was referenced Nov 19, 2025

Run the developer mcp in a login shell #5617

Closed

Goose Desktop unable to find Homebrew, pip, Node, and other non-system commands #5680

Closed

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Nov 25, 2025

chore(release): release version 1.16.0 (minor) #5867

Closed

BlairAllan pushed a commit to BlairAllan/goose that referenced this pull request Nov 29, 2025

Read paths from an interactive & login shell (block#5774)

cc9e339

Signed-off-by: Blair Allan <[email protected]>

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Dec 4, 2025

chore(release): release version 1.16.0 (minor) #5985

Merged

		let output = Command::new(shell)
		.args(["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"])

-    let output = Command::new(shell)
-        .args(["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"])
+    // Use different args for fish shell, which does not support -i
+    let shell_name = std::path::Path::new(shell)
+        .file_stem()
+        .and_then(|s| s.to_str())
+        .unwrap_or("");
+    let args: [&str; 4] = if shell_name == "fish" {
+        ["-l", "", "-c", "echo $PATH"]
+    } else {
+        ["-l", "-i", "-c", "echo $PATH"]
+    };
+    // Remove empty string from args for fish
+    let args: Vec<&str> = args.iter().filter(|&&a| !a.is_empty()).copied().collect();
+    let output = Command::new(shell)
+        .args(&args)

Read paths from an interactive & login shell #5774

Read paths from an interactive & login shell #5774

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