fix: expand ${env:VAR} placeholders in beads.userId and beads.pathToBd settings (#72)

Settings like beads.userId were used verbatim without expanding VS Code-style
${env:VAR} placeholders. Adds a resolveEnvVariables utility that matches
VS Code's variable syntax and applies it when reading string settings.

Resolves: #60
Related: vsbeads-owi

Co-authored-by: Jason Dillon <jdillon@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: jdillon

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+
+- `beads.userId` and `beads.pathToBd` now expand `${env:VAR}` placeholders (#60)
+
 ## [0.13.0] - 2026-03-20
 
 ### Added

jest.config.js

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+/** @type {import('jest').Config} */
+module.exports = {
+  preset: "ts-jest",
+  testEnvironment: "node",
+  testMatch: ["<rootDir>/src/**/__tests__/**/*.test.ts"],
+  transform: {
+    "^.+\\.ts$": ["ts-jest", { diagnostics: false }],
+  },
+};

package.json

@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@
         "beads.pathToBd": {
           "type": "string",
           "default": "bd",
-          "description": "Path to the bd CLI executable"
+          "description": "Path to the bd CLI executable. Supports ${env:VAR} placeholders."
         },
         "beads.refreshInterval": {
           "type": "number",
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@
         "beads.userId": {
           "type": "string",
           "default": "",
-          "description": "Your user ID for 'Assign to me'. Defaults to $USER if not set."
+          "description": "Your user ID for 'Assign to me'. Supports ${env:VAR} placeholders (e.g., ${env:USER}). Defaults to $USER if not set."
         },
         "beads.tooltipHoverDelay": {
           "type": "number",

src/backend/BeadsProjectManager.ts

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import * as path from "path";
 import * as util from "util";
 import * as vscode from "vscode";
 import { Logger } from "../utils/logger";
+import { resolveEnvVariables } from "../utils/resolve-env-variables";
 import { BeadsBackend } from "./BeadsBackend";
 import { BeadsDoltBackend } from "./BeadsDoltBackend";
 import { BeadsProject } from "./types";
@@ -437,7 +438,7 @@ export class BeadsProjectManager implements vscode.Disposable {
   private getBdPath(): string {
     const config = vscode.workspace.getConfiguration("beads");
     const configuredBdPath = config.get<string>("pathToBd", "bd") ?? "bd";
-    return this.resolveBdPath(configuredBdPath.trim());
+    return this.resolveBdPath(resolveEnvVariables(configuredBdPath).trim());
   }
 
   private isNotInitializedError(error: unknown): boolean {

src/providers/BaseViewProvider.ts

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import {
   WebviewToExtensionMessage,
 } from "../backend/types";
 import { Logger } from "../utils/logger";
+import { resolveEnvVariables } from "../utils/resolve-env-variables";
 
 export abstract class BaseViewProvider implements vscode.WebviewViewProvider {
   protected _view?: vscode.WebviewView;
@@ -89,7 +90,8 @@ export abstract class BaseViewProvider implements vscode.WebviewViewProvider {
     // Send settings
     const config = vscode.workspace.getConfiguration("beads");
     // User ID: prefer setting, fallback to $USER, then "unknown"
-    const userId = config.get<string>("userId", "") || process.env.USER || process.env.USERNAME || "unknown";
+    const rawUserId = config.get<string>("userId", "");
+    const userId = resolveEnvVariables(rawUserId || "") || process.env.USER || process.env.USERNAME || "unknown";
     this.postMessage({
       type: "setSettings",
       settings: {

src/utils/__tests__/resolve-env-variables.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+import { resolveEnvVariables } from "../resolve-env-variables";
+
+describe("resolveEnvVariables", () => {
+  it("returns empty string unchanged", () => {
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("")).toBe("");
+  });
+
+  it("returns string without placeholders unchanged", () => {
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("jdillon")).toBe("jdillon");
+  });
+
+  it("expands a single ${env:VAR} placeholder", () => {
+    process.env.TEST_BEADS_USER = "alice";
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("${env:TEST_BEADS_USER}")).toBe("alice");
+    delete process.env.TEST_BEADS_USER;
+  });
+
+  it("expands multiple placeholders", () => {
+    process.env.TEST_FIRST = "hello";
+    process.env.TEST_SECOND = "world";
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("${env:TEST_FIRST}-${env:TEST_SECOND}")).toBe("hello-world");
+    delete process.env.TEST_FIRST;
+    delete process.env.TEST_SECOND;
+  });
+
+  it("replaces missing env var with empty string", () => {
+    delete process.env.TEST_NONEXISTENT_VAR;
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("${env:TEST_NONEXISTENT_VAR}")).toBe("");
+  });
+
+  it("preserves surrounding text around placeholder", () => {
+    process.env.TEST_NAME = "bob";
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("user-${env:TEST_NAME}-admin")).toBe("user-bob-admin");
+    delete process.env.TEST_NAME;
+  });
+
+  it("does not expand ${VAR} without env: prefix", () => {
+    process.env.TEST_RAW = "raw";
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("${TEST_RAW}")).toBe("${TEST_RAW}");
+    delete process.env.TEST_RAW;
+  });
+
+  it("does not expand malformed patterns", () => {
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("${env:}")).toBe("${env:}");
+    expect(resolveEnvVariables("${env:UNCLOSED")).toBe("${env:UNCLOSED");
+  });
+});

src/utils/resolve-env-variables.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+/**
+ * Expands ${env:VAR} placeholders in a string using process.env.
+ * Matches VS Code's variable syntax used in launch.json and tasks.json.
+ * Missing env vars are replaced with empty string.
+ */
+export function resolveEnvVariables(value: string): string {
+  return value.replace(/\$\{env:([^}]+)\}/g, (_, varName) => {
+    return process.env[varName] ?? "";
+  });
+}