Windows: Project path normalization mismatch with Claude Code

[theflysurfer]

Description

On Windows, Happy CLI generates a different project folder name than Claude Code, causing session sync to fail.

Environment

• Happy CLI Version: 0.13.0
• Platform: Windows 11 (win32 x64)
• Node.js: v22.21.1
• Claude Code: v2.1.9

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a project with spaces and special characters in path, e.g.:
   C:\Users\julien\OneDrive\Coding\_Projets de code\2026.01 Planotator (Claude Code annotation)

2. Start a session with happy

3. Check logs - Happy cannot find the session file

Expected Behavior

Happy should normalize the project path the same way Claude Code does.

Actual Behavior

Claude Code creates:

C--Users-julien-OneDrive-Coding--Projets-de-code-2026-01-Planotator--Claude-Code-annotation-

Happy searches for:

C--Users-julien-OneDrive-Coding-_Projets de code-2026-01 Planotator (Claude Code annotation)

Log Evidence

[FILE_WATCHER] Watch error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, watch 'C:\Users\julien\.claude\projects\C--Users-julien-OneDrive-Coding-_Projets de code-2026-01 Planotator (Claude Code annotation)\24da6915-01c7-4b7c-b86c-2eb40de2e3de.jsonl'

The session file exists but at a different path with different normalization.

Suspected Cause

The path normalization function in Happy doesn't match Claude Code's implementation. Claude appears to:

• Replace \ with -
• Replace : with -
• Replace spaces with -
• Replace _ with -
• Replace ( and ) with -
• Collapse multiple - into single -

Happy seems to only replace \ and : with -, keeping other special characters.

Workaround

None currently - users must avoid special characters in project paths.

[bra1nDump]

this has been fixed on main. have not cut a new version yet

[theflysurfer]

Additional finding

The bug exists in two files:

1. dist/index-jN3TrweZ.cjs (line 195)
2. dist/index-B3gQr6vs.mjs (line 173)

Both need to be patched. The .mjs file is the one actually used when running happy.

Complete fix

// Before (in both files):
const projectId = resolve(workingDirectory).replace(/[\\/\.\:]/g, "-");

// After:
const projectId = resolve(workingDirectory).replace(/[\\/\.\:_ ()]/g, "-");

This ensures spaces, underscores, and parentheses are also replaced with dashes, matching Claude Code's behavior.