Desktop sessions land in wrong project with remote gateway

[Tyrix59490]

Describe the bug

When using Hermes Desktop Windows connected to a remote Ubuntu gateway, new sessions (Cmd+N or global "New Session" when not scoped into a project) land in the wrong project's workspace directory.

Example: A configuration discussion thread lands in the TradingView project because the session's CWD resolves to the tradingview directory instead of being detached or using the configured default.

In local mode (gateway on Windows), this does not happen — sessions are correctly detached when no explicit default is set.

Root Cause

workspaceCwdForNewSession() in apps/desktop/src/store/session.ts:341-353 special-cases remote mode:

export const workspaceCwdForNewSession = (): string => {
  if ($connection.get()?.mode === "remote") {
    return getRememberedWorkspaceCwd()  // ← stale localStorage value
  }
  return getConfiguredDefaultProjectDir()
}

In remote mode, the function completely ignores the configured default project directory and uses only the remembered workspace CWD from localStorage. This CWD can be from a completely different project (e.g., tradingview).

Flow

1. User presses Cmd+N or clicks global "New Session" without being scoped into a project
2. resolveNewSessionCwd() → $projectScope === ALL_PROJECTS → falls through
3. workspaceCwdForNewSession() → remote mode → returns stale getRememberedWorkspaceCwd()
4. session.create is called with this wrong CWD
5. Server maps the CWD to a different project via project_tree.py

Expected behavior

workspaceCwdForNewSession() should behave identically in local and remote mode — new sessions should be detached when no explicit default project directory is configured, matching the local mode behavior.

Proposed Fix

Remove the remote-mode special case. The getRememberedWorkspaceCwd() is already scoped by connection (baseUrl + profile via workspaceCwdKey), so it remains safely available for resume/restore flows (ensureDefaultWorkspaceCwd). A bare new chat should always be detached when no explicit default is set:

export const workspaceCwdForNewSession = (): string => {
  return getConfiguredDefaultProjectDir()
}

Environment

• Hermes version: v0.18.0 (2026.7.1)
• Desktop: Windows 11 (Tauri)
• Gateway: Ubuntu 24.04 (remote via Tailscale)
• Connection mode: remote

[Ahmett101]

Claim: I'm working on this.

Verified:

• workspaceCwdForNewSession lives at apps/desktop/src/store/session.ts:341-353, exactly the special-case shown in the report.
• getConfiguredDefaultProjectDir() (L46) and getRememberedWorkspaceCwd() (L44) are already remote-aware via workspaceCwdKey() (L33-42), so removing the remote branch in workspaceCwdForNewSession does not regress ensureDefaultWorkspaceCwd's remote seed (L84-88) — that flow still gets the remembered cwd on resume, which the reporter's plan also preserves.
• Existing test session.test.ts:220-240 only sets the local key while set as remote, which never exercises the regression — it returns empty either way. Will add a remote-key repro inside the same describe block so the fix is actually guarded.

Branch: https://github.com/Ahmett101/hermes-agent/tree/fix/57911-remote-new-session-detached-workspace

Plan: drop the if (mode === 'remote') branch in workspaceCwdForNewSession (matches the proposed fix), then rewrite the L220-240 test to seed the remote key so it would fail under the buggy code and pass under the fix. No other call site reads workspaceCwdForNewSession.

[Ahmett101]

PR submitted: #57926

Branch: Ahmett101/fix/57911-remote-new-session-detached-workspace

Fix: drops the if (mode === 'remote') early return in workspaceCwdForNewSession() so local and remote mode behave identically — bare-new-session routes through getConfiguredDefaultProjectDir() (detached when none is set), and the resume/restore path (ensureDefaultWorkspaceCwd) is intentionally untouched.

Tests: existing 4 keep their semantics; added 2 inside the same describe — the remote-key repro for the reported bug and a symmetric explicit-default guard.

[GottZ]

This was generated by AI during triage.

Summary

One PR addresses issue #57911. #57926 removes the remote-only remembered-CWD branch that causes bare sessions to reopen in a stale project, while preserving remembered CWD usage for resume/restore and adding regression coverage for detached and explicitly configured defaults.

Related pull requests

• fix(desktop): make workspaceCwdForNewSession behave identically in local and remote mode #57926 best fix — (+47/-6) — partial fix / best candidate: The production diff directly removes the reported cause by making workspaceCwdForNewSession() return only the configured default in both local and remote modes. Despite the contributor keep_open review on fix(desktop): make workspaceCwdForNewSession behave identically in local and remote mode #57926, the supplied full diff already changes the existing remote-memory assertions from remembered paths to '' and adds remote stale-CWD and explicit-default guards, matching the review's requested test semantics; CI or renewed review should confirm the exact head.

Suggested consolidation

Merge #57926 after exact-head CI or renewed contributor review confirms the corrected tests pass — it is the sole PR, closes #57911, and its production change matches the reported root cause. No duplicate PRs need closing.

Complex graph

flowchart LR
    classDef open fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,color:#1e3a8a
    classDef merged fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#15803d,color:#14532d
    classDef closed fill:#e5e7eb,stroke:#6b7280,color:#1f2937
    classDef unverified fill:#f3f4f6,stroke:#9ca3af,color:#374151
    classDef best stroke-width:3px,stroke:#b45309
    classDef target stroke-width:3px,stroke:#4338ca
    I57911(["issue #57911 (open)"])
    P57926["PR #57926 (open)"]
    P57926 -->|best fix| I57911
    class I57911 open
    class I57911 target
    class P57926 open
    class P57926 best
    click I57911 "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/issues/57911"
    click P57926 "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/57926"

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Graph: solid arrow = fixes / best fix, dashed arrow = partial or unverified (see edge label); boxed group = PRs duplicating each other; amber border = best fix; indigo border = target; gray node = closed (state tag in the node label).

Cross-PR triage: Reviewed 1 pull request and 1 issue in this complex. Each diff was read against this issue; Assessment working set: 5 kB of PR diffs, 6 kB of issue/PR text, 3 kB of discussion (3 comments), 2 verify verdicts. verdicts reflect diff content, not PR titles. Part of an automated triage batch.