diff --git a/apps/x/packages/core/src/filesystem/files.ts b/apps/x/packages/core/src/filesystem/files.ts
index facb697b..85c634c9 100644
--- a/apps/x/packages/core/src/filesystem/files.ts
+++ b/apps/x/packages/core/src/filesystem/files.ts
@@ -73,7 +73,10 @@ function isPathInside(parent: string, child: string): boolean {
   return relative === '' || (!!relative && !relative.startsWith('..') && !path.isAbsolute(relative));
 }
 
-function expandHomePath(inputPath: string): string {
+// Exported for tool inputs that take user/model-supplied paths (code cwd,
+// bg-task projectDir): the blank guard matters there because callers feed
+// the result to path.resolve, and resolve('') silently becomes process.cwd().
+export function expandHomePath(inputPath: string): string {
   const trimmed = inputPath.trim();
   if (!trimmed) {
     throw new Error('Path is required');
diff --git a/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/background-tasks.ts b/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/background-tasks.ts
index 2fbe53a3..8eb7fa50 100644
--- a/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/background-tasks.ts
+++ b/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/background-tasks.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import container from "../../../di/container.js";
 import { BackgroundTaskSchema, TriggersSchema } from "@x/shared/dist/background-task.js";
 import * as gitService from "../../../code-mode/git/service.js";
 import type { ICodeProjectsRepo } from "../../../code-mode/projects/repo.js";
-import { expandHome } from "../paths.js";
+import { expandHomePath } from "../../../filesystem/files.js";
 
 // Inputs for the bg-task builtin tools. Reuse the canonical schema field
 // descriptions; only `triggers` gets a tighter contextual override (the
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ export const PatchBackgroundTaskInput = BackgroundTaskSchema.pick({
 export async function resolveCodeProject(dirPath: string): Promise<
     { ok: true; projectId: string; path: string; warning?: string } | { ok: false; error: string }
 > {
-    const abs = path.resolve(expandHome(dirPath));
+    const abs = path.resolve(expandHomePath(dirPath));
     const projectsRepo = container.resolve<ICodeProjectsRepo>('codeProjectsRepo');
     let project: Awaited<ReturnType<ICodeProjectsRepo['add']>>;
     try {
diff --git a/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/code.ts b/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/code.ts
index d220b1ae..4a34a2ca 100644
--- a/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/code.ts
+++ b/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/domains/code.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import { ICodeModeConfigRepo } from "../../../code-mode/repo.js";
 import type { ApprovalPolicy, CodeRunEvent as CodeRunEventType } from "@x/shared/dist/code-mode.js";
 import type { CodeRunFeed } from "../../../code-mode/feed.js";
 import type { ToolContext } from "../exec-tool.js";
-import { expandHome } from "../paths.js";
+import { expandHomePath } from "../../../filesystem/files.js";
 import { BuiltinToolsSchema } from "../types.js";
 
 
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ export const codeAgentRunTools: z.infer<typeof BuiltinToolsSchema> = {
             // cwd argument over the session's. Expand `~` and resolve to an absolute path:
             // the engine is spawned with this as the child's cwd, and `child_process.spawn`
             // does NO shell tilde expansion.
-            const effectiveCwd = path.resolve(expandHome(ctx.codeCwd ?? cwd));
+            const effectiveCwd = path.resolve(expandHomePath(ctx.codeCwd ?? cwd));
             // Fail loudly if the directory is missing. Otherwise the spawn below fails with
             // Node's misleading "spawn <command> ENOENT" (it blames the executable, not the
             // bad cwd), which reads as "the coding engine isn't installed" — see the enriched
diff --git a/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/paths.ts b/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/paths.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 80fc0528..00000000
--- a/apps/x/packages/core/src/runtime/tools/paths.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-// Lenient ~-expansion for user-supplied paths in tool inputs. Distinct from
-// filesystem/files.ts' private expandHomePath, which throws on empty input —
-// tool entries want pass-through semantics for their own validation.
-
-import * as path from "path";
-import * as os from "os";
-
-// Turn a user-supplied directory into a registered code project id. Reuses the
-// same idempotent registry the Code-section picker writes to (add() validates the
-// dir exists & is a directory, and dedupes by resolved path). Returns a soft
-// `warning` — not an error — when the repo isn't yet worktree-ready, so the task
-// still gets created and the copilot can tell the user what to fix.
-export function expandHome(p: string): string {
-    const t = p.trim();
-    if (t === '~') return os.homedir();
-    if (t.startsWith('~/') || t.startsWith(`~${path.sep}`)) return path.join(os.homedir(), t.slice(2));
-    return t;
-}