fix(docker): address maintainer review on #377

Two real bugs the review caught, both verified live against a real
build on the Unraid host:

1. entrypoint.sh's chown fired on ANY ownership mismatch, not just a
   directory the daemon itself created root-owned. A host tree
   legitimately owned by some other account - an existing
   CODEMAN_CASES_PATH the README already allows pointing at a normal
   projects directory, or appdata under a different PUID/PGID
   convention than the one in use - got silently recursively re-owned
   with one log line to explain it. Now gated on the target actually
   being root-owned; anything else is a clean refusal naming the
   directory, its owner, and PUID/PGID. Start-Codeman.sh also now
   pre-creates CODEMAN_CASES_PATH the same way it already did
   CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH, so Compose never has to materialise a missing
   bind source as root in the first place - the in-container chown
   becomes a safety net, not the primary mechanism.

2. The CLI-update chown (chown -R .../node_modules /usr/local/bin)
   handed the runtime account write access to entrypoint.sh itself
   (root-owned, executed as root on every container start with
   CHOWN/DAC_OVERRIDE/SETUID/SETGID) and the node binary - owning the
   DIRECTORY is enough to rename it aside and drop a replacement, which
   would let a compromised session arrange for its own script to run
   as root at the next restart. The four CLIs now install into a
   dedicated /opt/codeman-cli prefix (NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX); only that
   directory is chowned, /usr/local stays root-owned throughout.

Smaller fixes from the same review:

- Start-Codeman.sh's volume-refresh label filter wasn't project-scoped:
  a second Compose stack on the same host sharing the `codeman-dist`
  volume KEY could have had ITS volume deleted. Added a
  com.docker.compose.project filter, resolved from this stack's own
  `compose config --format json`.
- Override-file precedence was backwards (checked .yaml before .yml;
  Compose actually prefers .yml) - swapped, plus a warning when both
  exist.
- entrypoint.sh's setpriv now also passes --bounding-set -all, so
  CapBnd actually clears post-drop rather than just CapPrm/CapEff.
- A comment on git_head_commit() noting it returns nothing for a
  worktree checkout (.git as a file), consistent with the script's
  existing -d .git convention elsewhere.
- Doc drift: CLAUDE.md's Docker Compose section still described the
  old pre-created-and-chowned-by-hand model and didn't mention the
  root-then-drop entrypoint; the state-files list was missing
  docker-build-source.json; docs/docker-compose.md and
  docker/.env.example still had the pre-rename `Coding/codeman` path
  in one place each.

Verified end to end against a real build on the Unraid host: a
root-owned bind source is corrected as before; a directory owned by
neither root nor PUID:PGID is refused rather than silently rewritten;
a correctly-owned directory is left alone entirely; the four CLIs
resolve via PATH from /opt/codeman-cli while /usr/local/bin,
/usr/local/lib/node_modules and entrypoint.sh itself stay root-owned;
CapBnd is fully cleared post-drop.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01R9ZSTEenc8soSu9bTi8Xru

CLAUDE.md

@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ Codeman is a Claude Code session manager with web interface and autonomous Ralph
 
 **Docker cases**: a case can point at a **container**, with any of the CLI run modes running inside it. Like remote-SSH this is a **LOCATION OVERLAY on cases, never a `SessionMode` of its own**. Exactly one long-lived container **per case**, shared by all its sessions, so killing a session kills only that session's in-container tmux and **never** `docker stop` while siblings remain. The workspace is a real host dir bind-mounted at the **same absolute path**, which is what keeps file-routes/watchers on real host bytes and makes the in-container transcript projHash match the host. Credentials are **seeded** (RO mount, copied into the container once) rather than shared RW, so in-container CLIs never write refreshed tokens back to the host, and bind mounts are excluded from `docker commit` so exports stay secret-free. **NEVER a create-time `-e` for secrets, NEVER `--privileged`, NEVER the docker socket.** Config drift is detected via a label hash and a drifted launch is REFUSED rather than silently launched with stale config. ⚠️ A case may instead **ADOPT** a container the user already runs (`DockerCase.owned === false`, mirror of remote-SSH's `owned:false`): Codeman only `exec`s into it and never creates, starts, stops, restarts or removes it, so a missing or stopped container FAILS CLOSED with an actionable message instead of being fixed. Absent = owned, so existing cases are byte-identical. The guarantee is enforced at four independent layers because it cannot be observed by using the feature: `buildDockerStopCommand`/`buildDockerRemoveCommand` throw during pure STRING CONSTRUCTION, `removeDockerContainer` refuses again, drift reports "none" (an adopted container carries no `codeman.confighash` label, so a real comparison would 409 the launch forever), and the boot reaper skips it. ⚠️ Two lifecycle touches the original design missed and that are easy to re-introduce: the full-image export `docker commit`s the container (refused for an adopted case) and the workspace export `docker pause`s it first (skipped — it freezes the owner's processes for the length of the tar). ⚠️ `owned` is applied AFTER `dockerConfigHash`, which takes an explicit field list, or every pre-existing case would trip the drift gate at once. ⚠️ Run modes for a container case come from the CONTAINER (`availableModes`, live-probed): gating the run menu on HOST CLIs (#201) is right for local sessions and wrong here, since a host with no `claude` may run a container that ships one. ⚠️ **A failed probe means opposite things per ownership** — for an ADOPTED case it is a fault worth reporting, for an OWNED one it is the NORMAL state before the first session (the launch chain creates the container), so treating it as a fault hid every agent mode on every freshly linked Docker case behind "start it yourself first". That is why `CaseInfo.docker.owned` is on the wire. ⚠️ Claude is launched WITHOUT `--dangerously-skip-permissions` when the container's exec user is root (Claude Code refuses the flag as root and the refusal is visible only inside the container); which flag to drop is a per-CLI fact, so it is the registry's `overlays.docker.rootCommand`, never a branch. ⚠️ Adoption is **admin-only in multi-user mode**, unlike `docker-link`: linking creates OUR container, whose one bind mount `isWorkingDirAllowed` has already confined, while an adopted container's mounts belong to its owner and one mounting `/` hands the adopter the host. The same reasoning admin-gates the container listing and the in-container directory browser; the preflight instead admits a non-admin for a container already linked to a case they own, because the run menu probes it for every docker case. ⚠️ On the loopback-only prod bind a container cannot reach 127.0.0.1, so in-container hooks need `CODEMAN_DOCKER_BRIDGE_HOOKS=1`; otherwise idle detection falls back to output-based. → [architecture-invariants#docker-cases](docs/architecture-invariants.md#docker-cases), `docs/docker-cases.md` (user guide), `docs/docker-cases-plan.md` (design)
 
-**Docker Compose deployment** (`docker/`, contributed): Codeman itself runs in a container and spawns Docker cases as **SIBLING** containers through the mounted host socket (Docker-outside-of-Docker), never nested. That inverts one assumption the bare-host path takes for granted: the daemon no longer shares Codeman's filesystem, so a bind source valid *inside* Codeman means nothing to it. `resolveDockerDaemonMountSource()` translates sources under HOME into the daemon's namespace via `CODEMAN_DOCKER_HOST_HOME`, and `CODEMAN_CASES_PATH` points the cases dir at a host-absolute bind mount so a workspace resolves to the SAME absolute path on both sides (which is what keeps the transcript projHash matching, per Docker cases above). ⚠️ **`CODEMAN_CASES_PATH` must move every consumer or none**: it is resolved once in `config/cases-dir.ts` because `src/cli.ts` resolves case paths too, and when only the server's `CASES_DIR` learned the override, `codeman skill install --case <name>` reported "Case not found" on exactly the deployment the override exists for. ⚠️ **`.dockerignore` patterns match the WHOLE context-relative path**, so a bare `.env` line excludes only the ROOT file: `docker/.env` (which holds `CODEMAN_PASSWORD` and any provider keys) rode `COPY . .` into the image until `**/.env` was added — verified in both directions with a real build context. ⚠️ A Compose LONG-form bind (`type: bind`) **creates a missing host source directory ROOT-OWNED** rather than refusing, so any bind source the runtime user must write to has to be pre-created and chowned. `CODEMAN_DOCKER_DISABLE_SWAP_LIMIT=1` drops `--memory-swap` (and filters only that one kernel warning) for hosts without swap accounting; `--memory` still applies. ⚠️ The deployment ALSO self-updates in place (the repo bind mount at `/opt/codeman` + a restart-by-exiting supervisor) — see Self-update below and `docs/docker-self-update.md` before touching `server.Dockerfile`, the compose file or `.env.example`, since each is an input to the updater's environment gate. `docs/docker-compose.md` + `docker/README.md` (user guides)
+**Docker Compose deployment** (`docker/`, contributed): Codeman itself runs in a container and spawns Docker cases as **SIBLING** containers through the mounted host socket (Docker-outside-of-Docker), never nested. That inverts one assumption the bare-host path takes for granted: the daemon no longer shares Codeman's filesystem, so a bind source valid *inside* Codeman means nothing to it. `resolveDockerDaemonMountSource()` translates sources under HOME into the daemon's namespace via `CODEMAN_DOCKER_HOST_HOME`, and `CODEMAN_CASES_PATH` points the cases dir at a host-absolute bind mount so a workspace resolves to the SAME absolute path on both sides (which is what keeps the transcript projHash matching, per Docker cases above). ⚠️ **`CODEMAN_CASES_PATH` must move every consumer or none**: it is resolved once in `config/cases-dir.ts` because `src/cli.ts` resolves case paths too, and when only the server's `CASES_DIR` learned the override, `codeman skill install --case <name>` reported "Case not found" on exactly the deployment the override exists for. ⚠️ **`.dockerignore` patterns match the WHOLE context-relative path**, so a bare `.env` line excludes only the ROOT file: `docker/.env` (which holds `CODEMAN_PASSWORD` and any provider keys) rode `COPY . .` into the image until `**/.env` was added — verified in both directions with a real build context. ⚠️ A Compose LONG-form bind (`type: bind`) **creates a missing host source directory ROOT-OWNED** rather than refusing. `Start-Codeman.sh` pre-creates both `CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH` and `CODEMAN_CASES_PATH` on the host before `up`, which is what keeps the daemon from ever having to materialise either as root in the first place; the container ALSO starts as root (`cap_add: [CHOWN, DAC_OVERRIDE, SETGID, SETUID]` against the base `cap_drop: ALL`) so `docker/entrypoint.sh` can correct a bind source that turns up root-owned anyway (a restored backup, a cleared directory, plain `docker compose up` run without the script) before dropping to `PUID:PGID` via `setpriv` — it refuses instead of chowning a directory owned by neither root nor `PUID:PGID`, since that ownership is not this container's to reassign. `CODEMAN_DOCKER_DISABLE_SWAP_LIMIT=1` drops `--memory-swap` (and filters only that one kernel warning) for hosts without swap accounting; `--memory` still applies. ⚠️ The deployment ALSO self-updates in place (the repo bind mount at `/opt/codeman` + a restart-by-exiting supervisor) — see Self-update below and `docs/docker-self-update.md` before touching `server.Dockerfile`, the compose file or `.env.example`, since each is an input to the updater's environment gate. `docs/docker-compose.md` + `docker/README.md` (user guides)
 
 **CLI registry** (`src/config/cli-registry/`): every run mode is a `CliEntry` — discovery (search dirs, version + identity probes), the launch argv template, env handling, the `capabilities` flags that replace per-CLI branching, and the `overlays` that back the remote/docker pane commands. **No code outside `stock.ts` may branch on a CLI id**; behaviour that genuinely differs is either a capability field or a NAMED PROFILE selected by one (`profiles.ts`), and `test/cli-registry-no-id-branching.test.ts` fails the build if an id check reappears — it matches `===`, `!==`, `case '<id>':` and `[...].includes(mode)`, because an earlier `===`-only version let 36 negated branches survive the conversion (including a seven-mode Ralph chain whose own comment asked the next person to keep it in step with `isExternalCliMode()` by hand). ⚠️ Config contains no shell text: an entry declares typed argv tokens, literals are validated against a safe-word pattern at LOAD time (a bad literal rejects the whole entry — a silently dropped `--no-approve` is not cosmetic), and values resolve through patterns NAMED in code, so a user `clis.json` cannot widen its own validation. ⚠️ `external`, `hooks` and `altScreen` are three INDEPENDENT capabilities on purpose; deriving one from another shipped the `until=stop`-hangs-on-shell bug. ⚠️ Two capability fields carry a REGEX from config (`discovery.version.regex` and `capabilities.workDetect.workingLine`) and both must compile through `compileVersionRegex()`, which caps length and refuses nested quantifiers; `workingLine` is the one that runs on the PTY hot path. ⚠️ **`param` is TWO namespaces.** `launch.params` keys, `env.configSetenv[].fromParam` and `capabilities.privilegedParams[].param` all name a LAUNCH PARAM; the legacy `<Mode>Config` wire field is a separate namespace, bridged only by `launch.legacyConfigAliases`. Getting `privilegedParams[].param` wrong is SILENT — it is the multi-user bypass clamp's only handle on a CLI's privilege switch, and a wrong name clamps nothing with no load error and no failing test — so `schema.ts` rejects an entry naming a param it never declared. Codex is the entry where the two names differ (`bypassApprovals` vs `dangerouslyBypassApprovals`) and therefore the one that catches a regression. ⚠️ Six fields are DECLARED-FOR-LATER and read by nothing (`shortBadge`, `accent`, `capabilities.echo`/`wheelForward`/`keyboardAccessory`/`maxFrameBytes`): all frontend behaviour, transcribed rather than measured, so re-measure before wiring one up; the list is pinned so it cannot quietly grow. Spawn commands are pinned as literal strings in `test/cli-registry-spawn-golden.test.ts`, remote/docker pane commands in `test/location-overlay-commands.test.ts`. ⚠️ That second golden no longer covers **remote claude or remote omp**: both now have their own arm in `buildRemoteLaunchCommand` (a `--session-id || --resume` pair, and `--continue`, so a respawn continues the same conversation) and never reach `defaultRemoteCommandForMode`, which is what that test asserts. Their real pins are `toContain` substrings in `test/tmux-manager.test.ts` and `test/remote-shared-sessions.test.ts`; changing either arm will NOT fail the golden. ⚠️ Anything reading the registry resolves it AT CALL TIME (`sessionModeSchema()`, `allowedEnvPrefixes()`, `dependencyRegistry()`, the resolvers' `searchDirs` thunks) — a module-level const freezes at first import, so a CLI enabled while the server ran moved the run menu but not that surface. `~/.codeman/clis.json` overrides any entry (read-only in this release; nothing writes it, so importing the registry has no filesystem side effects). → `docs/cli-registry.md`
 
@@ -388,7 +388,7 @@ Frontend JS modules have `@fileoverview` with `@dependency`/`@loadorder` tags. L
 
 ## State Files
 
-All in `~/.codeman/`: `state.json` (sessions, settings, respawn, orchestrator, cron jobs/runs, owner tab layouts), `mux-sessions.json` (tmux recovery), `settings.json` (user prefs), `push-keys.json` + `push-subscriptions.json`, `session-lifecycle.jsonl` (audit log), `update-status.json` (self-updater progress, polled across the service restart), `docker-env-applied.json` (Compose deployment only: sha256 of the Dockerfile + compose file the running container was built from, written by `Start-Codeman.sh`, read by the self-updater's environment gate), `linked-cases.json`, `webviews.json` (saved web-tab dashboard URLs), `remote-hosts.json` + `remote-cases.json`, `docker-hosts.json` + `docker-cases.json` + `docker-exports/`, `subagent-window-states.json` + `subagent-parents.json` (subagent window layout, GET/PUT `/api/subagent-window-states`/`-parents`), `hook-secret` (per-instance), `users.json` (multi-user, mode 0600) + `admin-audit.jsonl`, `intents.json` (Read My Mind intent profiles, mode 0600), `certs/` (self-signed TLS for `--https`), `.env` (CODEMAN_USERNAME/PASSWORD fallback for the `codeman attach` CLI). Transient: `self-update-runner.sh`. Multi-user case spaces live OUTSIDE the data dir at `~/codeman-users/<username>/cases` (shared across instances like `~/codeman-cases`, override `CODEMAN_USER_SPACES_DIR`).
+All in `~/.codeman/`: `state.json` (sessions, settings, respawn, orchestrator, cron jobs/runs, owner tab layouts), `mux-sessions.json` (tmux recovery), `settings.json` (user prefs), `push-keys.json` + `push-subscriptions.json`, `session-lifecycle.jsonl` (audit log), `update-status.json` (self-updater progress, polled across the service restart), `docker-env-applied.json` (Compose deployment only: sha256 of the Dockerfile + compose file the running container was built from, written by `Start-Codeman.sh`, read by the self-updater's environment gate), `docker-build-source.json` (Compose deployment only: the checkout's HEAD commit and `package-lock.json` hash the `codeman-node-modules`/`codeman-dist` volumes currently reflect, written by both `Start-Codeman.sh` and a successful in-place self-update, compared to detect and refresh a volume left stale by an externally-triggered rebuild), `linked-cases.json`, `webviews.json` (saved web-tab dashboard URLs), `remote-hosts.json` + `remote-cases.json`, `docker-hosts.json` + `docker-cases.json` + `docker-exports/`, `subagent-window-states.json` + `subagent-parents.json` (subagent window layout, GET/PUT `/api/subagent-window-states`/`-parents`), `hook-secret` (per-instance), `users.json` (multi-user, mode 0600) + `admin-audit.jsonl`, `intents.json` (Read My Mind intent profiles, mode 0600), `certs/` (self-signed TLS for `--https`), `.env` (CODEMAN_USERNAME/PASSWORD fallback for the `codeman attach` CLI). Transient: `self-update-runner.sh`. Multi-user case spaces live OUTSIDE the data dir at `~/codeman-users/<username>/cases` (shared across instances like `~/codeman-cases`, override `CODEMAN_USER_SPACES_DIR`).
 
 **Generated top-level dirs** (all gitignored — don't edit or commit): `dist/` (esbuild output), `out/`, `coverage/`, `test-results/`, `tmp/`, `screenshots-echo-diag/`. The committed gesture bundle (`src/web/public/gesture/gesture-codeman.js`) IS tracked, but its runtime wasm/model assets (`src/web/public/gesture/wasm/`, `*.task`) are fetched and gitignored.
 

docker/.env.example

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH=/mnt/user/appdata/codeman
 # start script detects it from the compose file's own location, so it only needs
 # setting for direct `docker compose` use or a checkout kept elsewhere. Point it
 # at a directory that is not a git checkout and in-app updates are unavailable.
-# CODEMAN_REPO_PATH=/mnt/user/appdata/Coding/codeman/app
+# CODEMAN_REPO_PATH=/mnt/user/appdata/codeman/app
 
 # Required for Docker cases. This must be an absolute path on the Docker host.
 # Codeman and each isolated case use this same path, so it cannot be a

docker/Start-Codeman.sh

@@ -15,11 +15,16 @@ fi
 # Naming a Compose file explicitly disables Compose's automatic discovery of
 # the override file, so it has to be added back by hand. Without this, local
 # customisation in docker-compose.override.yml is silently ignored. The
-# candidates are checked in Compose's own precedence order.
+# candidates are checked in Compose's own precedence order - measured on
+# Compose v5.5.0 with both present: it uses `.yml` and ignores `.yaml`.
+override_yml="$script_dir/docker-compose.override.yml"
+override_yaml="$script_dir/docker-compose.override.yaml"
+if [[ -f "$override_yml" && -f "$override_yaml" ]]; then
+  printf 'Warning: both %s and %s exist; Compose uses .yml and ignores .yaml.\n' \
+    "$override_yml" "$override_yaml" >&2
+fi
 compose_files=(-f "$compose_file")
-for override_file in \
-  "$script_dir/docker-compose.override.yaml" \
-  "$script_dir/docker-compose.override.yml"; do
+for override_file in "$override_yml" "$override_yaml"; do
   if [[ -f "$override_file" ]]; then
     compose_files+=(-f "$override_file")
     printf 'Using Compose override file: %s\n' "$override_file"
@@ -31,6 +36,10 @@ appdata_path=$(
   "${compose_command[@]}" config --environment |
     awk -F= '$1 == "CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH" { sub(/^[^=]*=/, ""); print; exit }'
 )
+cases_path=$(
+  "${compose_command[@]}" config --environment |
+    awk -F= '$1 == "CODEMAN_CASES_PATH" { sub(/^[^=]*=/, ""); print; exit }'
+)
 docker_socket=$(
   "${compose_command[@]}" config --environment |
     awk -F= '$1 == "DOCKER_SOCKET" { sub(/^[^=]*=/, ""); print; exit }'
@@ -50,6 +59,26 @@ if [[ ! -d "$appdata_path" ]]; then
   mkdir -p -- "$appdata_path"
 fi
 
+if [[ -z "$cases_path" ]]; then
+  printf 'Error: CODEMAN_CASES_PATH is not set in %s\n' "$env_file" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Pre-creating this here, exactly like CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH above, means Compose
+# never has to materialise a missing bind source itself - which it does as
+# root:root - so the in-container entrypoint's chown never has to run for this
+# path at all. Unlike appdata, an EXISTING cases directory is left exactly as
+# it is: the README explicitly allows pointing this at a normal projects
+# directory the host account already owns, so no ownership check happens here.
+if [[ ! -d "$cases_path" ]]; then
+  if [[ "$EUID" == '0' ]]; then
+    printf 'Error: Refusing to create CODEMAN_CASES_PATH as root: %s\n' "$cases_path" >&2
+    printf 'Create it as the unprivileged account that should run Codeman, then retry.\n' >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  mkdir -p -- "$cases_path"
+fi
+
 if owner_ids=$(stat -c '%u:%g' -- "$appdata_path" 2>/dev/null); then
   :
 elif owner_ids=$(stat -f '%u:%g' "$appdata_path" 2>/dev/null); then
@@ -109,6 +138,11 @@ fi
 # Reads HEAD without requiring a `git` binary on the host — this script
 # otherwise checks the checkout only by testing for `.git` as a directory, and
 # resolving refs by hand keeps that the same "no host git needed" guarantee.
+# ⚠️ A worktree checkout has `.git` as a FILE (`gitdir: <path>`), not a
+# directory, so this returns nothing there and the volume-refresh check below
+# silently no-ops — consistent with the `-d .git` test used everywhere else in
+# this script, not a special case, but worth knowing if a worktree checkout
+# stops picking up a stale-volume refresh it should have caught.
 git_head_commit() {
   local git_dir="$1/.git" head_ref ref_path
   [[ -d "$git_dir" ]] || return 1
@@ -192,8 +226,23 @@ if [[ -n "$dockerfile_sha" ]]; then
     # no-op, so there is no fresh-install case this needs to avoid.
     printf 'Source changed since the last start; refreshing: %s\n' "${volumes_to_refresh[*]}"
     "${compose_command[@]}" down
+    # `com.docker.compose.volume` is the volume KEY, not a project-qualified
+    # name - a second stack on the same host (a beta instance started with a
+    # different COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME, say) that also declares a volume keyed
+    # `codeman-dist` shares that label, and `head -n1` would pick whichever
+    # the daemon happens to list first. Scope the lookup to THIS stack's own
+    # resolved project name so it can only ever match this stack's volume.
+    project_name=$(
+      "${compose_command[@]}" config --format json 2>/dev/null |
+        sed -n 's/^  "name": "\(.*\)",\{0,1\}$/\1/p' | head -n1
+    )
     for key in "${volumes_to_refresh[@]}"; do
-      volume_name=$(docker volume ls -q --filter "label=com.docker.compose.volume=$key" | head -n1)
+      volume_name=$(
+        docker volume ls -q \
+          --filter "label=com.docker.compose.volume=$key" \
+          --filter "label=com.docker.compose.project=$project_name" |
+          head -n1
+      )
       [[ -n "$volume_name" ]] && docker volume rm -- "$volume_name"
     done
   fi

docker/entrypoint.sh

@@ -25,12 +25,30 @@ fi
 
 for target in "${HOME:-}" "${CODEMAN_CASES_PATH:-}"; do
   [ -n "$target" ] && [ -d "$target" ] || continue
-  [ "$(stat -c '%u:%g' "$target")" = "${PUID}:${PGID}" ] && continue
+  owner=$(stat -c '%u:%g' "$target")
+  [ "$owner" = "${PUID}:${PGID}" ] && continue
 
-  # Deliberately not fatal. A bind mount backed by NFS, CIFS or a rootless
-  # daemon can refuse chown while still being perfectly writable, and those
-  # deployments must keep working. A warning is more useful than a container
-  # that will not start.
+  # Only ever correct a directory the DAEMON created (root-owned, because
+  # neither PUID nor PGID existed yet when it materialised the missing bind
+  # source). Anything else - a host tree that legitimately belongs to some
+  # OTHER account, such as an existing CODEMAN_CASES_PATH the README already
+  # allows pointing at a normal project directory - is not this container's
+  # to reassign; recursively chowning it on every mismatch silently rewrote
+  # a credentials tree or a projects directory to PUID:PGID with one log
+  # line to explain it. Refuse instead, the same way Start-Codeman.sh already
+  # refuses to touch a root-owned appdata directory it did not expect.
+  if [ "${owner%%:*}" != '0' ]; then
+    printf 'entrypoint: %s is owned by %s, which is neither root nor PUID:PGID (%s:%s).\n' \
+      "$target" "$owner" "$PUID" "$PGID" >&2
+    printf 'entrypoint: refusing to change ownership of a directory this container did not create.\n' >&2
+    printf 'entrypoint: either chown it on the host, or set PUID/PGID to match its current owner.\n' >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  # Deliberately not fatal for a root-owned directory. A bind mount backed by
+  # NFS, CIFS or a rootless daemon can refuse chown while still being
+  # perfectly writable, and those deployments must keep working. A warning is
+  # more useful than a container that will not start.
   if chown -R "${PUID}:${PGID}" "$target" 2>/dev/null; then
     printf 'entrypoint: corrected ownership of %s to %s:%s\n' "$target" "$PUID" "$PGID"
   else
@@ -45,4 +63,10 @@ done
 supplementary=$(id -G | tr ' ' '\n' | grep -vx 0 | paste -sd, -)
 [ -n "$supplementary" ] || supplementary="$PGID"
 
-exec setpriv --reuid "$PUID" --regid "$PGID" --groups "$supplementary" "$@"
+# --bounding-set -all: with the reuid/regid drop above, CapPrm/CapEff are
+# already empty, but the bounding set otherwise still lists everything
+# cap_add granted (visible as a nonzero CapBnd even post-drop). no-new-privileges
+# already makes that moot - nothing can regain a capability outside the
+# bounding set - but clearing it too is free and matches what "drops to
+# PUID:PGID" actually promises.
+exec setpriv --reuid "$PUID" --regid "$PGID" --groups "$supplementary" --bounding-set -all "$@"

docker/server.Dockerfile

@@ -71,6 +71,24 @@ COPY --from=docker:29-cli \
 # Keep credentials out of the image. Users authenticate these CLIs at runtime
 # through Codeman sessions, and the configured host bind mount retains state.
 #
+# Installed into a DEDICATED prefix, /opt/codeman-cli, not the base image's
+# default /usr/local. A session needs write access to wherever these CLIs live
+# so it can self-update one in place (observed via Codex's own
+# `npm install -g @openai/codex`, which renames the old package directory
+# aside before installing the new one — a rename needs write access to the
+# PARENT directory, not just the target, so the runtime account needs that
+# access at the directory level). Chowning /usr/local/bin and
+# /usr/local/lib/node_modules directly to get it would ALSO hand away
+# entrypoint.sh (COPY'd to /usr/local/bin below, root-owned, executed as root
+# on every container start with CHOWN/DAC_OVERRIDE/SETUID/SETGID) and the node
+# binary: owning the DIRECTORY is enough to rename it aside and drop a
+# replacement, even though the file itself stays root-owned, which would let a
+# compromised session arrange for its own script to run as root at the next
+# restart — undoing the "the server itself never runs privileged" guarantee
+# the entrypoint exists to provide. /opt/codeman-cli holds nothing else to
+# escalate through, so owning it is exactly the CLI-update access it needs and
+# no more.
+#
 # ⚠️ PINNED ON PURPOSE. Unpinned, the agent CLI versions a user ends up with are
 # a function of WHEN their image was built, not of any commit — so a Codeman
 # release that depends on newer CLI behaviour (the trust-dialog handling is
@@ -82,6 +100,8 @@ COPY --from=docker:29-cli \
 #
 # Bump these deliberately, in a release. `--no-cache` is still needed to rebuild
 # this layer when only the pins change upstream.
+ENV NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/opt/codeman-cli
+ENV PATH=/opt/codeman-cli/bin:$PATH
 RUN npm install --global \
       @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.258 \
       @google/gemini-cli@0.58.0 \
@@ -94,14 +114,10 @@ RUN npm install --global \
 # requested GID may not exist in the base image, and a host UID such as 1000 may
 # already belong to the baked `node` account, so handle both cases explicitly.
 #
-# The trailing chown hands the globally-installed CLIs to that same account.
-# They were `npm install --global`-ed above while still root, so
-# /usr/local/lib/node_modules (and the /usr/local/bin symlinks pointing into it)
-# start out root-owned; a session running as the unprivileged runtime user then
-# hits EACCES the moment it tries to self-update one in place (observed via
-# Codex's own `npm install -g @openai/codex`, which renames the old package dir
-# aside before installing the new one — a rename needs write access to the
-# PARENT directory, not just the target, so this must chown the whole tree).
+# The trailing chown hands the CLI prefix (/opt/codeman-cli, populated above)
+# to that same account, so a session can self-update one of the CLIs in place.
+# /usr/local stays root-owned throughout — see the comment on the npm install
+# above for why that boundary matters.
 RUN set -eux; \
     case "${PUID}" in ''|*[!0-9]*) echo "PUID must be numeric" >&2; exit 1;; esac; \
     case "${PGID}" in ''|*[!0-9]*) echo "PGID must be numeric" >&2; exit 1;; esac; \
@@ -130,7 +146,7 @@ RUN set -eux; \
         --shell /bin/bash \
         "${CODEMAN_RUNTIME_USER}"; \
     fi; \
-    chown -R "${PUID}:${PGID}" /usr/local/lib/node_modules /usr/local/bin
+    chown -R "${PUID}:${PGID}" /opt/codeman-cli
 
 WORKDIR /opt/codeman
 

docs/docker-compose.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ The application container mounts the Docker daemon socket so Codeman can create
 
 ## Start
 
-Copy the environment template, set a strong password, and confirm `CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH`. The example maps `/mnt/user/appdata/Coding/codeman` on the host to `/home/${CODEMAN_RUNTIME_USER}` in the container, preserving Codeman state and CLI credentials outside Docker-managed volumes.
+Copy the environment template, set a strong password, and confirm `CODEMAN_APPDATA_PATH`. The example maps `/mnt/user/appdata/codeman` on the host to `/home/${CODEMAN_RUNTIME_USER}` in the container, preserving Codeman state and CLI credentials outside Docker-managed volumes.
 
 ```sh
 cp docker/.env.example docker/.env