Add ~/.local/bin to PATH for user-installed binaries

[davidkreps]

Summary

• Adds $HOME/.local/bin to PATH in .zshrc, alongside the other PATH additions
• Guarded with [ -d ... ] so it's silently skipped on machines where the directory doesn't exist
• Fixes the Claude CLI "native installation exists but ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH" warning

Test plan

• ./test.sh passes (36/36)
• Verify claude is accessible after sourcing .zshrc on a machine with ~/.local/bin populated

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[claude]

Claude finished @davidkreps's task in 2m 18s —— View job

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PR Review: Add ~/.local/bin to PATH for user-installed binaries

• Gather context and read changed files
• Review against CLAUDE.md conventions
• Check shell portability (macOS + Linux)
• Check idempotency of install.sh
• Check OS/tool guards
• Check stdout cleanliness
• Check trailing newlines
• Check test coverage
• Post final review

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Summary

The core ~/.local/bin PATH addition is well-implemented, but the PR is considerably larger than its description suggests. The "Fix safety, security, and portability issues" commit introduces sweeping changes across 6 files that aren't described in the PR body.

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Issues

1. git/ignore silently lost 54 lines — no mention in PR description

git/ignore went from ~80 lines to 26 lines (+0/-54). The current file only covers OS-generated files, editor files, and .env variants. It's unclear what patterns were dropped. If any relevant patterns were removed (build artifacts, IDE-specific files, language-specific output), this could unintentionally expose previously-ignored files.

The PR body should document this change, or the deletion should be reversed unless it was intentional.

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2. ~/.npm-global/bin is not directory-guarded — inconsistency with the new pattern (zsh/.zshrc:78)

# New entry (correct — guarded):
[ -d "$HOME/.local/bin" ] && export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

# Existing entry (unguarded — inconsistent):
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"

The ~/.npm-global/bin addition unconditionally adds a directory to PATH regardless of whether it exists. This violates the same principle the ~/.local/bin entry correctly applies. Worth fixing for consistency (and to satisfy the CLAUDE.md principle of graceful degradation). Fix this →

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3. Claude alias may shadow ~/.local/bin/claude (zsh/aliases.zsh:89)

[ -x "$HOME/.claude/local/claude" ] && alias claude="$HOME/.claude/local/claude"

The PR adds ~/.local/bin to PATH to fix the "native installation exists but ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH" warning. The native installer places claude in ~/.local/bin. However, if both ~/.claude/local/claude and ~/.local/bin/claude exist, the alias takes precedence and always uses the former. This is probably fine for single-install machines, but worth being aware of.

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4. PR scope exceeds description

The PR description says it "Adds $HOME/.local/bin to PATH." But the diff touches 6 files with 96 deletions beyond the PATH change. The commit "Fix safety, security, and portability issues" makes substantial undescribed changes. Reviewers can't effectively audit changes they aren't aware of.

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What's correct

• ~/.local/bin PATH guard ([ -d "$HOME/.local/bin" ]) is correctly implemented using POSIX single brackets — portable across macOS and Linux ✓
• $HOME used throughout, no hardcoded paths ✓
• Interactive guards ([[ -o interactive ]]) protect cursor shape echo -ne from running during non-interactive init ✓
• install.sh is idempotent: safe_link backs up before overwriting, local.zsh and git/local skip creation if already present ✓
• No credentials or secrets committed ✓
• All files end with trailing newlines ✓
• Tests pass (36/36) ✓

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Minor

• zsh/.zshrc has two trailing blank lines after the VS Code block (lines 84–85). One is sufficient.

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Recommendation

Before merging:

1. Explain or restore the 54 removed lines from git/ignore
2. Guard ~/.npm-global/bin the same way as ~/.local/bin
3. Optionally: add a test that verifies ~/.local/bin appears in PATH when the directory exists (CLAUDE.md mandates tests for new symlinks/config files; this is a PATH entry so not strictly required, but would be good practice)

[davidkreps]

Closing — branched off wrong base. Will resubmit off main.