Wire auth and locale to shared.json, AI settings to cli.json by bcotrim · Pull Request #2821 · Automattic/studio

bcotrim · 2026-03-16T19:47:20Z

Related issues

Related to STU-1350

How AI was used in this PR

All code was generated via Claude Code (Opus + Haiku). Changes were reviewed and validated by the author through iterative conversation — verifying architecture decisions, confirming read/write boundaries, and running the full test suite at each step.

Proposed Changes

Create tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts — new shared config infrastructure at ~/.studio/shared.json for data shared between Desktop and CLI (auth token + locale)
Wire Desktop auth reads/writes to shared-config instead of appdata
Wire Desktop locale reads/writes to shared-config instead of appdata
Wire CLI auth reads/writes to shared-config instead of appdata
Move CLI-only AI settings (aiProvider, anthropicApiKey) from appdata to cli.json
Move CLI telemetry (lastBumpStats) from appdata to cli.json
Remove authToken, locale, AI fields, and lastBumpStats from appdata types and schemas
Add 20 tests for shared-config and update all affected test files

After these changes the write boundaries are:

Desktop → appdata-v1.json (sites, snapshots, preferences) + shared.json (auth, locale)
CLI → cli.json (sites, AI settings, telemetry) + shared.json (auth) + appdata-v1.json (snapshots only)

Testing Instructions

Run npm run typecheck — should pass with no errors
Run npm test — all 1292 tests should pass
Manual: launch Desktop app, log in via WordPress.com — verify ~/.studio/shared.json contains the auth token
Manual: change language in Preferences — verify ~/.studio/shared.json contains the locale
Manual: run studio auth login from CLI — verify shared.json is updated
Manual: run studio ai and switch provider/enter API key — verify ~/.studio/cli.json contains aiProvider and anthropicApiKey

Pre-merge Checklist

Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

Move auth token reads/writes from appdata to shared-config for Desktop+CLI. Move locale reads/writes to shared-config (Desktop saves, CLI reads). Move aiProvider and anthropicApiKey from shared-config to cli-config (CLI-only). Remove auth and locale fields from appdata schema and types since they're now in separate files. Update all imports and tests accordingly. Co-Authored-By: Claude Haiku 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fredrikekelund

Left some comments. Shared config error handling and using _events instead of a shared config file watcher are the big things we need to address, IMO.

Haven't tested yet but will do that now 👍

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:25:48Z

tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts

+		if ( error instanceof z.ZodError || error instanceof SyntaxError ) {
+			return structuredClone( DEFAULT_SHARED_CONFIG );
+		}
+		throw new Error( 'Failed to read shared config file.' );


Same as in apps/cli/lib/cli-config/core.ts, we should look for differing version props here and say something like "A newer version of Studio or the Studio CLI is installed on your system" if the version differs.

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:28:24Z

tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts

+	} catch {
+		return null;
+	}


This relates to the error handling I suggested in readSharedConfig. I'm not sure what the best approach is here…

If the user is running an old version of the CLI but have a newer version of Studio installed (that uses a new schema for the shared config file), then we should prompt them to upgrade.

However, we still need both programs to recover from errors well enough to at least report the right thing to the user. This is especially true for Studio, which needs to be able to auto-update as usual.

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:29:49Z

tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts

+
+const sharedConfigSchema = z
+	.object( {
+		version: z.number().default( 1 ),


Let's put the version in a constant and add a comment explaining that any schema update must maintain backwards compatibility. If the change is breaking, the version should be updated and a data migration function should be added.

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:31:53Z

tools/common/lib/tests/shared-config.test.ts

The important thing to test here, IMO, is how we recover from schema-related errors. We have some of that in the readSharedConfig tests, but I think we can expand on that (along with updating the logic in the actual source code)

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:33:56Z

apps/cli/lib/cli-config/core.ts

 	await unlockFileAsync( LOCKFILE_PATH );
 }
+
+export async function updateCliConfig(


Suggested change

export async function updateCliConfig(

export async function updateCliConfigWithPartial(

Just a suggestion

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:43:23Z

tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts

+	}
+}
+
+export async function readAuthToken(): Promise< StoredToken | null > {


Exporting functions that return just parts of the config is clearly great for reducing the amount of test mocks. Nice 👍

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:44:18Z

tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts

+	displayName: z.string().default( '' ),
+} );
+
+export type StoredToken = z.infer< typeof authTokenSchema >;


Suggested change

export type StoredToken = z.infer< typeof authTokenSchema >;

export type StoredAuthToken = z.infer< typeof authTokenSchema >;

I'd include "auth" in the name somehow

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:48:14Z

apps/cli/lib/certificate-manager.ts

Ouff… I didn't consider the HTTPS certificates. We should put these in ~/.studio, too, IMO. Let's do that in a separate PR, though.

I created STU-1416 to track this

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:49:40Z

apps/cli/lib/certificate-manager.ts

+function getAppdataDirectory(): string {
+	if ( process.env.E2E && process.env.E2E_APP_DATA_PATH ) {
+		return path.join( process.env.E2E_APP_DATA_PATH, 'Studio' );
+	}
+
+	if ( process.platform === 'win32' ) {
+		if ( ! process.env.APPDATA ) {
+			throw new LoggerError( __( 'Studio config file path not found.' ) );
+		}
+
+		return path.join( process.env.APPDATA, 'Studio' );
+	}
+
+	return path.join( os.homedir(), 'Library', 'Application Support', 'Studio' );
+}


Could we use getAppdataDirectory from apps/cli/lib/server-files.ts here?

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T08:52:39Z

apps/studio/src/lib/shared-config-watcher.ts

Could we use _events for listening to auth changes, too, instead of watching the shared config file?

fredrikekelund

This works as expected in testing 👍 Error handling for the shared config is really key to get right. I'll still approve now to keep up momentum, since we aren't landing straight to trunk

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T09:11:54Z

apps/studio/src/components/auth-provider.tsx

+		if ( ! token ) {
+			setIsAuthenticated( false );
+			setClient( undefined );
+			setWpcomClient( undefined );
+			setUser( undefined );
+			return;
+		}
+


The auth logout command didn't trigger a change in authentication status in the app for me when I tested it the first time. Probably because the shared config file didn't exist when I started Studio. I guess this would be solved by moving to an _events architecture for auth events instead.

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T09:20:43Z

apps/cli/ai/providers.ts

Let's update this file to import aiProviderSchema from apps/cli/lib/cli-config/core.ts. We should have a single definition for that

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T09:23:47Z

apps/cli/ai/providers.ts

+		isReady: async () => {
+			const { anthropicApiKey } = await readCliConfig();
+			return Boolean( anthropicApiKey );
+		},


We need to remember to ping the Architecture team before landing this to trunk, to let them know that they need to manually migrate AI-related props from the appdata file to the CLI config file.

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T09:25:51Z

apps/cli/lib/certificate-manager.ts

I created STU-1416 to track this

…ate schemas

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T12:22:41Z

apps/cli/commands/preview/tests/create.test.ts

+vi.mock( '@studio/common/lib/shared-config', async ( importOriginal ) => ( {
+	...( await importOriginal< typeof import('@studio/common/lib/shared-config') >() ),
+	readAuthToken: vi.fn(),
 } ) );


Suggested change

vi.mock( '@studio/common/lib/shared-config', async ( importOriginal ) => ( {

...( await importOriginal< typeof import('@studio/common/lib/shared-config') >() ),

readAuthToken: vi.fn(),

} ) );

vi.mock( import( '@studio/common/lib/shared-config' ), async ( importOriginal ) => ( {

...( await importOriginal() ),

readAuthToken: vi.fn(),

} ) );

Tip: I stumbled upon this recently, that the first argument to vi.mock can be an import() call, which makes Vitest aware of the module types.

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T12:23:45Z

apps/cli/ai/providers.ts

 export type AiProviderId = keyof typeof AI_PROVIDERS;

-export const aiProviderSchema = z.enum( [ 'wpcom', 'anthropic-claude', 'anthropic-api-key' ] );
+export { aiProviderSchema };


Do we really need to re-export this definition?

fredrikekelund · 2026-03-18T12:29:42Z

tools/common/lib/shared-config.ts

+
+const sharedConfigSchema = z
+	.object( {
+		version: z.number().default( SHARED_CONFIG_VERSION ),


Suggested change

version: z.number().default( SHARED_CONFIG_VERSION ),

version: z.literal( SHARED_CONFIG_VERSION ),

I should have called this out in apps/cli/lib/cli-config/core.ts, too, but this is an important distinction: I think the zod schema parsing should fail unless the version field matches what we expect.

If we don't do this, then the schema parsing might fail for other reasons, but it's not as easy for us to see why it's happening.

We can't just change this line to z.literal instead, we also need a base schema containing just the version field to try with. I'm basically imagining the logic we have in apps/cli/lib/cli-config/core.ts, just with z.literal instead of z.number().default()

bcotrim self-assigned this Mar 16, 2026

bcotrim added 7 commits March 16, 2026 19:55

Move CLI telemetry stats from appdata to cli-config

e8b1aec

Merge stu-1350-decoupled-config-dev and resolve conflicts

92b5b37

Fix import order lint errors

9ce554d

Remove CLI appdata dependency and move infrastructure paths to ~/.studio

8728579

Revert server-files and certificate paths to appdata directory

b102535

Watch shared config for auth changes from CLI

91861e5

Align shared config watcher with user-data watcher pattern

158bc82

bcotrim marked this pull request as ready for review March 17, 2026 18:24

trigger ci

6e6a576

bcotrim requested review from a team and fredrikekelund March 17, 2026 18:25

fredrikekelund reviewed Mar 18, 2026

View reviewed changes

fredrikekelund approved these changes Mar 18, 2026

View reviewed changes

bcotrim added 3 commits March 18, 2026 10:24

Address PR review feedback: events-based auth, rename types, deduplic…

c23f822

…ate schemas

Fix prettier formatting in auth test

8fc1a15

Fix shared-config mock in tests to export authTokenSchema

c965524

fredrikekelund reviewed Mar 18, 2026

View reviewed changes

	export async function updateCliConfig(
	export async function updateCliConfigWithPartial(

	export type StoredToken = z.infer< typeof authTokenSchema >;
	export type StoredAuthToken = z.infer< typeof authTokenSchema >;

	version: z.number().default( SHARED_CONFIG_VERSION ),
	version: z.literal( SHARED_CONFIG_VERSION ),

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bcotrim commented Mar 16, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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How AI was used in this PR

Proposed Changes

Testing Instructions

Pre-merge Checklist

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bcotrim commented Mar 16, 2026 •

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