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Skills hardcode `~/.plannotator`: `plannotator-compound` ignores `$XDG_DATA_HOME` and can silently switch the data directory

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
53/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
typescript
Domain
developer-experience

Research direction

Start with packages/shared/data-dir.ts to confirm the directory resolution order, then read the listed plannotator-compound skill files and apps/skills/core/plannotator/SKILL.md. Check how skill commands are exposed before assessing the proposed plannotator data-dir approach. Done means the skills use the resolved directory consistently, including XDG-only installs, and document the behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Problem
getPlannotatorDataDir() (packages/shared/data-dir.ts) resolves the data directory as:

  1. PLANNOTATOR_DATA_DIR
  2. an existing ~/.plannotator
  3. $XDG_DATA_HOME/plannotator (absolute path)
  4. ~/.plannotator

The skills still describe and use the pre-XDG default:

  • apps/skills/extra/plannotator-compound/SKILL.md lines 25, 58 and 522 (v0.28.30 and main):
    ${PLANNOTATOR_DATA_DIR:-~/.plannotator}, to read plans/ and to create
    hooks/compound/enterplanmode-improve-hook.txt;
  • apps/skills/extra/plannotator-compound/references/claude-code-fallback.md;
  • apps/skills/core/plannotator/SKILL.md: the variable table says "default ~/.plannotator".

Impact (derived from reading the code at v0.28.30 and main; I have not run the skill end to end)
On an XDG-only install (no ~/.plannotator):

  • the skill does not find the plan archive and falls back to the Claude Code mode or asks the user;
  • if the improvement hook is enabled, the skill creates ~/.plannotator/hooks/compound/;
    that makes ~/.plannotator exist, so rank 2 of the resolution wins and the binary silently
    switches to it, leaving plans, history, feedback and drafts under $XDG_DATA_HOME/plannotator
    unreachable.

Proposal
Add a command that prints the resolved directory (for example plannotator data-dir) and have the
skills call it instead of re-implementing the resolution. At minimum, document the four-step order
in the skills.

Related: #1051.

Dominant language
TypeScript
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