fix: relative path fixes for home mode

[dmadisetti]

📝 Summary

Solves some ux issues with marimo edit subdir/

1. Starting a new notebook will default to cwd
2. You can still save to cwd (but refreshing caused an auth error)
3. Recent notebooks are shown in cwd
4. File tree shows cwd

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Project	Deployment	Review	Updated (UTC)
marimo-docs	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jan 8, 2026 1:41am

[mscolnick]

are you sure you want resolve here? should this just absolute path?

[dmadisetti]

Ran git bisect and found a regression in #7570 that broken "recent files" when verifying this. Will followup with a fix

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request fixes UX issues when using marimo edit subdir/ (home mode) by ensuring consistent use of relative paths throughout the application. The changes normalize how paths are handled when working with a specific directory context.

Key Changes:

• File router now stores directory as absolute path and returns relative paths for files
• Recent files are now filtered and displayed relative to the router's directory
• API endpoints resolve relative paths against the file router's directory before processing

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 11 out of 11 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
marimo/_server/session_manager.py	Moved RecentsTrackerListener subscription from per-session to session manager's event bus for proper recent files tracking
marimo/_server/recents.py	Added directory parameter to get_recents() to filter and return paths relative to a base directory
marimo/_server/file_router.py	Normalized directory to absolute path and changed filepath resolution to handle relative paths consistently
marimo/_server/files/directory_scanner.py	Modified file listing to return relative paths instead of absolute paths
marimo/_server/api/endpoints/home.py	Updated to pass file router's directory to recents manager for proper filtering
marimo/_server/api/endpoints/files.py	Added logic to resolve relative filenames against file router's directory in save, rename, and copy operations
marimo/_server/api/endpoints/file_explorer.py	Changed default root to use file router's directory instead of always using cwd
marimo/_server/api/endpoints/assets.py	Added logic to relativize filenames for display when possible
tests/_server/test_session_manager.py	Added tests for RecentsTrackerListener event bus subscription and integration
tests/_server/test_file_router.py	Updated assertions to match new relative path behavior
tests/_server/test_file_manager_absolute_path.py	Added comprehensive tests for relative path handling, path resolution, and security (path traversal protection)

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[Copilot]

The code assumes all stored file paths in recent files are absolute, but this assumption is not enforced. If a relative path is somehow stored (e.g., through manual config file editing or a future code change), the is_relative_to check on line 93 will incorrectly return False when comparing a relative file_path to an absolute base_dir, causing valid recent files to be filtered out. Consider converting file_path to absolute before the is_relative_to check to make this code more robust.

Suggested change

	base_dir = directory or pathlib.Path.cwd()
	limited_files = state.files[: self.MAX_FILES]
	for file in limited_files:
	file_path = pathlib.Path(file)
	base_dir = (directory or pathlib.Path.cwd()).resolve()
	limited_files = state.files[: self.MAX_FILES]
	for file in limited_files:
	file_path = pathlib.Path(file)
	# Normalize to an absolute path relative to base_dir, if needed
	if not file_path.is_absolute():
	file_path = (base_dir / file_path).resolve()
	else:
	file_path = file_path.resolve()

[Copilot]

The asyncio import should be at the top of the file with other imports, not inside the test function. This follows Python best practices for import organization and makes the dependency explicit.

[github-actions]

🚀 Development release published. You may be able to view the changes at https://marimo.app?v=0.18.5-dev176