[Bug]: Server startup fails if CACHE_DB_PATH/AUDIT_LOG_PATH are empty in .env file

[fergoid]

Affected component

Core server (startup / connection)

What happened?

Server startup fails

What did you expect to happen?

Server should startup with default values for cache and audit

Steps to reproduce

1. CACHE_DB_PATH= /AUDIT_LOG_PATH=
2. start server

Relevant logs or error output

Python version

3.13.1

Operating system

macOS

MCP client

Claude Code 2.1.126

[mukul975]

Confirmed — this is a real startup-blocking bug for anyone who copies .env.example to .env verbatim (which is the documented setup flow).

Root cause: os.getenv("X", default) only returns the default when the variable is unset. When .env contains CACHE_DB_PATH= (empty value), python-dotenv sets the variable to "", which then crashes aiosqlite.connect("") and RotatingFileHandler("") before the MCP handshake can complete.

Fix is in PR #8 — merging that will close this issue.