Use $HOME instead of ~ in SKILL.md browse binary assignment

[bradleylab]

Problem

All SKILL.md files that reference the browse binary use this pattern:

[ -z "$B" ] && B=~/.claude/skills/gstack/browse/dist/browse

Claude Code's built-in bash safety checks flag this with a permission prompt:

Tilde in assignment value — bash may expand at assignment time

This fires on every browse command, which means frequent interruptions during any skill that uses the browser (browse, qa, design-review, etc.).

Fix

Replace ~ with $HOME in all 15+ SKILL.md files:

[ -z "$B" ] && B="$HOME/.claude/skills/gstack/browse/dist/browse"

This is functionally identical (both resolve to the user's home directory) but avoids the Claude Code heuristic warning.

Affected files

Every SKILL.md that sets B=~/.claude/skills/gstack/browse/dist/browse:

• browse/SKILL.md
• qa/SKILL.md
• qa-only/SKILL.md
• design-review/SKILL.md
• design-consultation/SKILL.md
• design-shotgun/SKILL.md
• design-html/SKILL.md
• canary/SKILL.md
• benchmark/SKILL.md
• land-and-deploy/SKILL.md
• office-hours/SKILL.md
• plan-design-review/SKILL.md
• setup-browser-cookies/SKILL.md
• connect-chrome/SKILL.md
• SKILL.md (root)

[vincent067]

Hey there! 👋

I'd love to help with this issue! I noticed the same annoying prompts while using Claude Code with gstack skills.

I've prepared a fix script that replaces all instances of ~ with $HOME in the SKILL.md files:

#!/bin/bash
# Fix for issue #785: Replace ~ with $HOME in SKILL.md files

find . -name "SKILL.md" -type f | while read -r file; do
    if grep -q 'B=~/.claude/skills/gstack/browse/dist/browse' "$file"; then
        echo "Fixing: $file"
        sed -i 's/B=~\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse/B="$HOME\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse"/g' "$file"
    fi
done

Alternatively, here's a one-liner that does the same:

find . -name "SKILL.md" -type f -exec sed -i 's/B=~\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse/B="$HOME\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse"/g' {} +

Affected files I found:

• browse/SKILL.md
• qa/SKILL.md
• qa-only/SKILL.md
• design-review/SKILL.md
• design-consultation/SKILL.md
• design-shotgun/SKILL.md
• design-html/SKILL.md
• canary/SKILL.md
• benchmark/SKILL.md
• land-and-deploy/SKILL.md
• office-hours/SKILL.md
• plan-design-review/SKILL.md
• setup-browser-cookies/SKILL.md
• connect-chrome/SKILL.md
• SKILL.md (root)

Happy to submit a PR if you'd prefer! Just let me know 😊

Testing note: The $HOME variable is guaranteed to be set in POSIX-compliant shells, so this should work reliably across macOS and Linux.

[vincent067]

Hey there! 👋

I'd love to help with this issue! I noticed the same annoying prompts while using Claude Code with gstack skills. The tilde warning is definitely disruptive to the flow.

I've prepared a fix script that replaces all instances of ~ with $HOME in the SKILL.md files:

#!/bin/bash
# Fix for issue #785: Replace ~ with $HOME in SKILL.md files

find . -name "SKILL.md" -type f | while read -r file; do
    if grep -q 'B=~/.claude/skills/gstack/browse/dist/browse' "$file"; then
        echo "Fixing: $file"
        sed -i 's/B=~\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse/B="$HOME\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse"/g' "$file"
    fi
done

Alternatively, here's a one-liner that does the same:

find . -name "SKILL.md" -type f -exec sed -i 's/B=~\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse/B="$HOME\/.claude\/skills\/gstack\/browse\/dist\/browse"/g' {} +

Testing note: The $HOME variable is guaranteed to be set in POSIX-compliant shells, so this should work reliably across macOS and Linux. 🙏

Happy to submit a PR if you'd prefer! Just let me know 😊

[mvanhorn]

Implemented in #843 - changes browseDir/designDir in buildHostPaths() to use $HOME instead of ~, then regenerates all SKILL.md files.