Fix test-suite portability (paths with spaces, git security defaults) and person-link bugs

[davekilleen]

What this is

Four fixes reported by power user Michelle, who found them by reconciling her fork against upstream and actually running everything — full credit to her for the careful, run-it-don't-read-it verification. All four were confirmed by reproducing them here before changing any code.

1. Tests broke for anyone whose Dex folder path contains a space

About 60 tests failed for Michelle because her vault lives under iCloud's "Mobile Documents" folder — a path with a space in it. The test files passed a helper-file location to Node through a setting that splits on spaces, so the path got cut off mid-way and the tests couldn't find their own helper.

Fix: the path is now wrapped in quotes everywhere it's passed (10 places across 7 test files). Verified the quoting form Node actually accepts by testing it directly, not assuming.

Proof: ran the affected suites from a copy of the repo placed at a folder path containing a space:

• connections-contract suite before: 2 of 4 tests fail with "Cannot find module '/tmp/dex'" (the path cut off at the space). After: 4/4 pass.
• adapter-runner suite with a temp folder containing a space before: 1 fail. After: 7/7 pass.
• Full connection-manager suite from the spaced path after the fix: 224 pass, 0 fail.

2. Distribution builds could sweep up personal files from forks

Five kinds of personal or machine-local files that real forks track (.codex/, .obsidianignore, _import/, bun.lock, memory/ — including Claude Code's own memory folder) were missing from the distribution exclusion list, so a release built from such a fork would have shipped them. Added to .distignore and its .gitattributes mirror. All 35 distribution/quarantine tests still pass.

3. One test couldn't run under a common git security setting

A test creates its own throwaway "remote" repository to prove the autocommit hook never pushes. Under the increasingly common git security default safe.bareRepository=explicit, the test's own helper couldn't operate on that throwaway repository. Reproduced exactly (test 5 fails with "cannot use bare repository"), then fixed with an override scoped to that one test helper — nobody's real git configuration is touched. Suite passes under the security default now (7/7).

4. Person auto-linking: two real bugs, both verified by running it

Michelle caught these by running the script against a test file, so we did the same before touching code. Both reproduced on main:

• Links carried the full file path ([[05-Areas/People/External/Jane_Smith|Jane Smith]]) instead of the bare page name ([[Jane_Smith|Jane Smith]]). Bare names read cleaner and keep working when a person's page moves between the Internal and External folders.
• Only the first mention of a person got linked. A note mentioning Jane twice linked her once. Now every eligible mention links to her page.

Note for review: the old behavior was encoded in the existing tests (it was deliberate at the time), so this is a behavior change, not just a bug fix — the tests now encode the new behavior, and the one prose line in CLAUDE.md and the System Guide describing path-based links was updated to match. The meeting-notes participants line (a separate code path) still uses path links and was left untouched.

Test results

• Hooks suite: 171/171 pass
• Connection-manager/integrations suite: 224 pass, 0 fail (1 skip) — normal path and space-containing path
• Scripts suite: 163/163 pass (with DEX_PYTHON set; the 11 parity tests that need it fail identically on main without it — pre-existing, environment-only)
• Distribution artifact tests (distignore/quarantine): 35/35 pass
• Portable-contract gate and tau-removal gate: pass

Proposed changelog entry (not committed — for the release that includes this)

Fixed

Dex's own test suite now passes wherever your vault lives. If your Dex folder sat inside iCloud Drive (a folder path with a space in it) or your computer used a newer git security setting, running Dex's tests produced dozens of confusing failures that had nothing to do with your setup being broken. Thanks to Michelle for catching all of these by running everything against a real fork.

What this fixes for you:

• Folder paths with spaces no longer break the tests. Around 60 tests failed purely because of a space in the folder name. They now pass.
• A stricter git security setting no longer blocks one test. The test now carries its own narrowly-scoped exception and never changes your settings.
• Release builds from personal copies stay clean. Five kinds of personal, machine-local files can no longer be swept into a distribution build.
• Person links in your notes got better. Names now link by page name instead of the full folder path (so links survive a page moving folders), and every mention of a person is linked — not just the first one in a note.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

What this pull request touches

• session hooks — feeds starting sessions and carrying useful context into the next interaction.

Gates that will judge this change

• Personal-data gate: added lines must not expose real identities or personal vault content.
• Change-aware gates: source changes are checked for tests, path-contract use, documentation drift, and touched-file coverage.
• Tests and coverage: the Python, MCP, migration, hook, and script suites must remain healthy.
• Safety and quality: security, lint, distribution, path consistency, and large-vault checks still apply.

Based on 15 changed files.