galaxy/specs/andy/CODE-1779/PRODUCT.md

PRODUCT.md — CODE-1779: Drag-and-drop file paths in WSL (and Git Bash)

Linear: https://linear.app/warpdotdev/issue/CODE-1779/windows-drag-and-drop-file-paths-in-wsl Upstream: https://github.com/warpdotdev/warp/issues/6191

Figma: none provided (no visual design — the change is purely in which string lands in the input buffer)

Summary

When a Warp tab is attached to a Unix-like shell on Windows — WSL, or MSYS2 / Git Bash — dragging a file or folder from Windows Explorer onto Warp should insert a path in that shell's native form, not a Windows-native path. For WSL that's /mnt/c/Users/andy/Downloads; for Git Bash that's /c/Users/andy/Downloads. WSL already works correctly on the terminal grid when a long-running command is active; this spec covers the input editor (broken for both WSL and Git Bash today) and adds matching behavior for Git Bash.

Behavior

1. Dropping one or more files or folders from Windows Explorer onto the Warp input editor inserts each path in the active session's native form:

   • WSL session — drive-letter paths are mapped under /mnt/<drive>/… with forward slashes.
   • MSYS2 / Git Bash session — drive-letter paths are mapped under /<drive>/… with forward slashes (MSYS2's POSIX-style path convention, which Git Bash and the MSYS2 runtime translate automatically when invoking native Windows binaries).
   • All other sessions — paths are inserted exactly as dropped (see invariant 5).

2. Conversion rules for a single dropped path:

   • WSL session:
     • C:\Users\andy\file.txt → /mnt/c/Users/andy/file.txt.
     • D:\Pictures\Screenshot 2025-05-14 155816.png → /mnt/d/Pictures/Screenshot 2025-05-14 155816.png (spaces preserved; shell escaping then applies on top).
     • C:\ and C: both → /mnt/c.
     • Uppercase drive letters are lowercased (E:\foo → /mnt/e/foo).
     • UNC-style paths with no drive letter (\\server\share\file) have backslashes converted to forward slashes (//server/share/file); no further remapping is attempted.
   • MSYS2 / Git Bash session:
     • C:\Users\andy\file.txt → /c/Users/andy/file.txt.
     • D:\Pictures\Screenshot 2025-05-14 155816.png → /d/Pictures/Screenshot 2025-05-14 155816.png.
     • C:\ and C: both → /c.
     • Uppercase drive letters are lowercased (E:\foo → /e/foo).
     • UNC-style paths with no drive letter (\\server\share\file) have backslashes converted to forward slashes (//server/share/file); no further remapping is attempted.

3. Dropping multiple paths in a single drop inserts each one individually, separated by a single space, with each path transformed per (2). A trailing space is appended to the inserted text so back-to-back drops don't concatenate tokens (unchanged from today).

4. Shell-specific escaping (quoting spaces, special characters) applies on top of the transformed path using the active session's shell family — identical to the non-WSL/non-MSYS2 behavior today.

5. When the active session is neither WSL nor MSYS2/Git Bash (local PowerShell, cmd, SSH into a remote host, Wormholed remote, etc.), dropped paths are inserted exactly as they are today. No transformation happens.

6. Image auto-attachment (dragging an image file into Agent Mode / an empty buffer, which attaches it as AI image context) continues to use the original Windows-native path for filesystem reads, regardless of WSL / MSYS2 state. Transformed paths would not be readable from the Windows host.

7. If an image auto-attach fails (e.g. per-query or per-conversation image limit is exceeded) and the path is inserted as text as a fallback, that inserted text is the transformed path (per invariant 2) when the session is WSL or MSYS2 — matching invariant (1).

8. Parity with the terminal grid:

   • WSL: dropping onto the grid already inserts WSL-style paths during a long-running command. The input editor must match, so the user sees the same text regardless of whether the drop target was the grid or the input editor.
   • MSYS2 / Git Bash: the grid's long-running behavior (drop a path, get the Windows-native path written to the PTY without shell escaping, so native Windows executables receive the form they expect) is intentional and unchanged by this ticket. The input editor is a different context — the shell itself processes the text next, so MSYS2-style paths are the right default there. Grid and input-editor behavior therefore differ on MSYS2 by design; this is noted so it isn't flagged as a bug in review.

9. The transformation is driven by the currently active block's session. Switching blocks (and therefore sessions) between drops updates which rule applies on the next drop.

10. Non-regressions:

    • Dropping into any non-terminal editor (notebooks, settings, themes, etc.) is unchanged — no path transformation is applied.
    • Dropping into a non-WSL, non-MSYS2 terminal session (PowerShell, cmd, SSH, remote Wormholed) is unchanged.
    • The terminal-grid long-running-command code paths for both WSL and MSYS2 are unchanged.
    • Dropping image-only content into the input in Agent Mode still attaches the images; nothing about attachment behavior changes.
    • Pasting paths via clipboard is out of scope for this ticket and remains unchanged.