Vercel: remove import-time mkdir

[gitgrahamdunn]

Motivation

• Eliminate filesystem writes during module import to avoid crashes on serverless platforms (Vercel) where the filesystem is read-only except for /tmp.
• Preserve existing behavior for determining the default data directory using the DATA_DIR environment variable or falling back to /tmp/gitplant-data.

Description

• Replace import-time _default_data_dir() with a pure resolver get_data_dir() and add ensure_data_dir() to perform mkdir() only at runtime. (backend/app/config.py)
• Stop creating DEFAULT_DATA_DIR at import time by assigning it to get_data_dir() instead of invoking a mkdir helper. (backend/app/config.py)
• Add ensure_exists option to get_document_storage_path() and get_plant_storage_path() so callers can resolve paths without causing writes, and make these helpers create directories only when requested. (backend/app/config.py)
• Move SQLite parent-directory creation out of module import and into init_db() so importing app.db no longer writes to disk. (backend/app/db.py)
• Remove import-time mkdir() in projects router and introduce ensure_working_storage_dir() that is called only at upload time. (backend/app/routers/projects.py)
• Update documents router to avoid import-time directory creation by using get_document_storage_path(ensure_exists=False) at module level and calling get_document_storage_path() at write time. (backend/app/routers/documents.py)

Testing

• Ran unit tests with cd backend && pytest -q, which completed successfully with 18 passed.
• Verified that modules import cleanly in a read-only environment with cd backend && python -c "import app.config, app.db, app.routers.documents, app.routers.projects; print('import-ok')", which printed import-ok.

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Codex Task

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
gitplant	Ready	Preview, Comment	Feb 18, 2026 10:20pm
gitplant-backend	Ready	Preview, Comment	Feb 18, 2026 10:20pm
gitplant-oggy	Ready	Preview, Comment	Feb 18, 2026 10:20pm

[chatgpt-codex-connector]

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[chatgpt-codex-connector]

Keep writable fallback when deriving DEFAULT_DATABASE_URL

Assigning DEFAULT_DATA_DIR = get_data_dir() removes the previous writability fallback at config load, so when DATA_DIR points to a read-only or non-creatable path (e.g. serverless filesystems outside /tmp), settings.database_url is built with that unwritable location and startup now fails in init_db() when creating the SQLite parent directory. This is a regression from the prior behavior that transparently fell back to /tmp/gitplant-data; the default DB path should still be derived from a writable directory.

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