Best possible solution:

Close this branch and continue with one canonical fix for #94434, preferably the OS-home expansion candidate at #94449 if maintainers choose expansion semantics.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes. Source inspection shows local exec with workdir: "~/..." reaches resolveWorkdir(), which currently stats the literal value and falls back before command execution.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

No. Expanding before statSync() is the right layer, but this PR uses the OpenClaw-home helper; #94449 is the cleaner expansion candidate with OS-home coverage.

Security review:

Security review needs attention: The diff touches host command cwd resolution and can route ~/... exec workdirs into the OpenClaw home/state tree when OPENCLAW_HOME is set.

• [medium] Host exec may run from OpenClaw home instead of shell home — src/agents/bash-tools.shared.ts:186
  Using resolveUserPath() for exec workdir expansion makes ~ honor OPENCLAW_HOME, which can place a host command in OpenClaw-managed state rather than the user's OS home path.
  Confidence: 0.78

AGENTS.md: found and applied where relevant.

What I checked:

• PR patch uses OpenClaw-home resolver: At the PR head, resolveWorkdir() expands the requested exec workdir with resolveUserPath(workdir) before statSync() and returns that resolved path. (src/agents/bash-tools.shared.ts:186, c559ad43ca3f)
• Helper contract mismatch: Current tests document that resolveUserPath() prefers OPENCLAW_HOME over HOME, so it is not the shell/OS-home resolver for host command workdirs. (src/utils.test.ts:152, f18ff7551edc)
• Existing host path pattern: Host file tooling expands leading tilde through resolveOsHomeDir() before resolving host-visible paths, matching OS-home semantics rather than OpenClaw-home semantics. (src/agents/agent-tools.read.ts:968, f18ff7551edc)
• Superseding expansion candidate: PR fix(exec): expand leading ~ in workdir to home directory #94449 expands with expandHomePrefix(... resolveRequiredOsHomeDir()) and adds coverage proving HOME is used instead of OPENCLAW_HOME. (src/agents/bash-tools.shared.test.ts:158, 710e0eff9d98)
• Local exec caller path: Current main routes non-sandbox, non-node local exec calls through resolveWorkdir(rawWorkdir, warnings) before command execution. (src/agents/bash-tools.exec.ts:1567, f18ff7551edc)
• Codex cwd contract checked: OpenAI Codex converts exec cwd from a PathUri to an absolute native path and errors on invalid cwd rather than expanding a model-provided ~ through an app-home override. (../codex/codex-rs/core/src/exec.rs:462, d1209bddfce7)

Likely related people:

• Peter Steinberger: Commit e2f89099829c added src/agents/bash-tools.exec.ts and src/agents/bash-tools.shared.ts during the agent tools split. (role: introduced behavior and exec area contributor; confidence: high; commits: e2f89099829c; files: src/agents/bash-tools.exec.ts, src/agents/bash-tools.shared.ts)
• vincentkoc: Commit 710e0eff9d98 in the superseding candidate implements OS-home tilde expansion and matching regression coverage for this resolver. (role: recent candidate-fix owner; confidence: medium; commits: 710e0eff9d98; files: src/agents/bash-tools.shared.ts, src/agents/bash-tools.shared.test.ts)
• openperf: Commit 323bc9d8c764 changed remote-node workdir routing on the same exec workdir surface. (role: adjacent exec workdir contributor; confidence: medium; commits: 323bc9d8c764; files: src/agents/bash-tools.exec.ts)

Codex review notes: model internal, reasoning high; reviewed against f18ff7551edc.