msd-core/docs/contributing/cross-platform-portability-rules.md

Cross-platform portability lint rules

GSD must run on Windows as well as macOS/Linux. A family of AST-based ESLint rules (the local/* plugin) enforces the DEFECT.WINDOWS-* portability classes documented in CONTEXT.md at write-time (in your editor) and in CI, so a Windows-only defect is caught before it ships — not after it reaches the windows-latest CI lane. The architecture and rationale are in ADR-1703; this page is the practical reference + how-to.

These rules are hard-fail with zero escape hatches: there is no // windows-portability-ok: comment and no eslint-disable for them (a tests/portability-rule-disable-ban.test.cjs check, running outside ESLint, fails the build if you try). Legitimately platform-specific code must be structured so the rule recognizes it (see "Platform guards" below) — not annotated around.

Reference — the rules

Rule	Flags	Surface
local/no-path-literal-in-assert	An assert.equal/strictEqual/deepEqual/deepStrictEqual or expect(...).toBe/toEqual/toStrictEqual where one operand is a path-returning function call and the other is a hardcoded /-string literal not normalized to POSIX.	tests/**/*.test.cjs

(More rules land per the epic — see ADR-1703's catalog and epic #1702.)

The set of path-returning functions is single-sourced in eslint-rules/lib/portability-vocab.cjs as PATH_RETURNING_FNS (Node's path.*/os.homedir/os.tmpdir plus the project resolvers such as getGlobalConfigDir, resolveAgentDir, computePathPrefix, …). A drift-guard test (tests/portability-vocab-drift.test.cjs) parses src/runtime-homes.cts and fails CI if a new path resolver is added but not registered in that list.

How-to — fix a no-path-literal-in-assert violation

Why it fails on Windows: path.join('a','b') returns a/b on POSIX but a\b on Windows, so assert.equal(path.join('a','b'), '/a/b') passes on your Mac/Linux machine and the docker gate, then fails only on the windows-latest lane.

Fix: normalize the ACTUAL operand to POSIX before comparing — this is idempotent on POSIX (a no-op when there are no backslashes) and reveals a malformed return rather than masking it:

// ❌ flagged
assert.strictEqual(getGlobalConfigDir('claude'), '/custom/claude');

// ✅ compliant
assert.strictEqual(String(getGlobalConfigDir('claude')).replace(/\\/g, '/'), '/custom/claude');

Do not instead wrap the expected literal in path.join(...) to match the platform separator — that passes everywhere but masks a wrong backslash-on-POSIX return (both sides wrong together). Recognized normalizers: .replace(/\\/g,'/'), .replace(/[\\/]/g,'/'), .replaceAll('\\','/'), .replaceAll(path.sep,'/'), .split(path.sep).join('/'), toPosixPath(...).

Platform guards (the only "escape" — by structure, not annotation)

If an assertion is genuinely POSIX-only, gate it behind a Windows platform check the rule recognizes — it then won't flag the guarded code. Recognized shapes:

if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
  assert.equal(path.join(a, b), '/a/b');               // guarded → not flagged
}

if (process.platform === 'win32') return;              // early-return guard
assert.equal(path.join(a, b), '/a/b');                 // → not flagged

const isWindows = process.platform === 'win32';        // hoisted boolean (any name, binding-resolved)
if (!isWindows) assert.equal(path.join(a, b), '/a/b'); // → not flagged

The guard is recognized by control-dependence (it must actually dominate the assertion), is binding-aware (a reassigned or false-initialized variable is not trusted), and handles os.platform() and node:test skip returns. See eslint-rules/lib/platform-guard.cjs.

How-to — add a new path resolver

When you add a function that returns a filesystem path (e.g. in src/runtime-homes.cts), add its name to PATH_RETURNING_FNS in eslint-rules/lib/portability-vocab.cjs. The drift-guard test will fail until you do.

Known boundaries

The rule matches by spelling and inspects the direct operand (or a String(<pathcall>) wrapper):

• It assumes path/os are the standard modules and the resolver names are the project's — a local variable that shadows one of those names in a test file is out of scope.
• Deeper wrapping (e.g. realpathSync(path.join(...)), .toLowerCase() on a path) is not inspected; assert against the path call directly or its String(...) wrap.
• For a genuine explicit-dir pass-through assertion (a resolver that returns its input verbatim), the String(...).replace(/\\/g,'/') remedy is a harmless no-op.