## User-visible bug
Canvas Files tab returns "0 files / No config files yet" for every
SaaS workspace, every root (/configs, /home, /workspace, /plugins).
Reported by user (canvas screenshot, hongming.moleculesai.app,
Hongming Personal Brand Agent — claude-code, T4, online).
## Root cause
`ListFiles` (templates.go) was missing the SSH-via-EIC branch that
ReadFile (PR #2785) and WriteFile (PR #1702) already have. On SaaS,
dockerCli is nil → findContainer returns "" → falls through to
host-side resolveTemplateDir which only matches baked-in template
names. For a user-named workspace it matches nothing, so the handler
silently returns []fileEntry{}.
DeleteFile had the same gap — right-click delete (introduced in PR-C
of this issue) would silently no-op once #1 was fixed.
## Fix
1. Extracted shared EIC plumbing into `withEICTunnel` (closure-based,
single SSOT for keypair → key push → tunnel → port-wait → cleanup).
Refactored writeFileViaEIC + readFileViaEIC to use it. Added
listFilesViaEIC + deleteFileViaEIC on the same scaffold. The
`LogLevel=ERROR` shim from PR #2822 now lives in one
`eicSSHSession.sshArgs()` helper instead of being duplicated per
helper — the next time we need to tweak ssh options, one place.
2. Factored remote shell strings into pure functions
(buildInstallShell / buildCatShell / buildRmShell / buildFindShell
+ parseFindOutput) so the wire shape can be pinned without booting
a real EIC tunnel.
3. Refactored `resolveWorkspaceFilePath(runtime, root, relPath)` to
honor `?root=`. New rule: `/configs` (or empty / unrecognized) →
runtime managed-config dir via workspaceFilePathPrefix (preserves
the v1 ReadFile/WriteFile behaviour where canvas's Config tab
GETs/PUTs config.yaml without specifying a root and lands in the
right per-runtime dir); `/home`, `/workspace`, `/plugins` →
literal absolute path on the EC2 host. List/Read/Write/Delete now
agree on what file a tree row points to — pre-fix List would say
"/home contents" but Read/Write would route to /configs.
4. ListFiles + DeleteFile dispatch on instance_id != "" → EIC helper.
Errors from the EIC path produce 500 (not silent fall-through to
local-Docker, which would mask the failure as "0 files" — the
exact user-visible symptom).
5. Added ?root= validation gate to WriteFile + DeleteFile so an
out-of-allowlist root is rejected before the resolver runs.
## Test coverage
- TestResolveWorkspaceFilePath_RuntimeIndirection — pins the
/configs → runtime prefix translation per-runtime (hermes,
claude-code, langgraph, external, unknown). Catches the regression
where a future edit accidentally drops the runtime indirection.
- TestResolveWorkspaceFilePath_LiteralRoots — pins /home,
/workspace, /plugins as literal pass-through regardless of
runtime. Catches the symmetric regression where the literal roots
start getting rewritten to the runtime prefix (which would mean
the FilesTab "/home" selector silently routes to /configs on
hermes).
- TestResolveWorkspaceRootPath — directory-only translation used
by listFilesViaEIC, same indirection rules.
- TestSSHArgs_HardenedFlags — pins the centralised ssh option set
(LogLevel=ERROR + hardening). Catches drift in the
one-place-where-ssh-flags-live.
- TestEicSSHSessionSingleSourceForSSHFlags — behaviour-based AST
gate (per memory). Counts s.sshArgs() callers (must be ≥4 —
list/read/write/delete) and asserts LogLevel=ERROR appears
exactly once in the source. Fires if anyone copy-pastes a raw
ssh args slice instead of going through the helper.
- TestBuildInstallShell / TestBuildCatShell / TestBuildRmShell /
TestBuildFindShell — pure-function tests pinning the remote
command shape. Catches regression like "rm -f silently becomes
rm -rf" or "find loses node_modules pruning" without needing a
real EC2.
- TestBuildFindShell_DepthForwarding — catches a regression where
the helper hard-codes a depth instead of using the caller's value.
- TestParseFindOutput / TestParseFindOutput_EmptyInput — pin the
TYPE|SIZE|REL parser. Empty-input case explicitly returns []
not nil so the JSON wire shape stays a list.
- TestListFiles_EICDispatch_Success / Error — sqlmock-driven
handler test. Verifies instance_id != "" routes to listFilesViaEIC
and surfaces errors as 500 (does NOT silently fall through to
local-Docker, which is the exact regression-mode of the original
bug).
- TestListFiles_EICBranch_NotTakenForSelfHosted — back-compat
guard: instance_id == "" must NOT enter the EIC branch (would
break self-hosted operators).
- TestDeleteFile_EICDispatch_Success / Error — same shape for
DeleteFile.
- TestListFiles_RootValidation / TestDeleteFile_RootValidation —
?root=/etc must 400 before any DB query or EIC call.
## Verification
- `go build ./...` clean
- `go test ./...` clean (full workspace-server suite)
- Will be live-verified against staging on hongming.moleculesai.app
after merge: open Files tab → expect populated /home + /configs +
/workspace listings (not "0 files"); right-click delete on
/configs/old.yaml → expect file removed on the EC2 host.
## Three weakest spots (hostile self-review)
1. The LogLevel=ERROR drift gate counts source occurrences. A
future refactor that intentionally moves the literal somewhere
else (e.g. into a constant) would trigger a false positive. The
gate's failure message points to the load-bearing constraint
(must appear in sshArgs); operator can adjust.
2. `eicFileWriteTimeout` constant kept as an alias for back-compat
with prior tests. Documented as intentional + safe to remove on
the next pass.
3. The resolver tests pin the runtime → prefix map values
(`/home/ubuntu/.hermes`, `/configs`, etc.). A future runtime
addition that ships a new prefix needs the test updated. This
is intentional — silent prefix changes orphan saved files, so a
test failure on map edit IS the right signal.
## Follow-up (RFC #2312 subtask 2)
Long-term the right fix is to drop EIC entirely and HTTP-forward to
the workspace's own URL (RFC #2312). That's a substantially larger
refactor across 5 surfaces (chat upload, files, templates, plugins,
terminal) and out of scope for this bug-fix PR. Tracked separately
under that RFC.
Refs #2999.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>