fix(ci): staging builds resolve to prod API URL — bake VITE vars into build.yml

[YellowSnnowmann]

Summary

Two fixes for staging builds resolving to prod API URL.

Fix 1 — build.yml (CI validation builds)

build.yml had no VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV or VITE_BACKEND_URL set. config.ts resolved APP_ENV as undefined and DEFAULT_BACKEND_URL fell through to https://api.tinyhumans.ai. Every PR CI build artifact baked in the prod URL.

Fix 2 — src/api/config.rs (the real bug — shipped DMG hitting prod)

The Rust core resolved API URL purely at runtime via std::env::var. When a user runs the installed DMG there is no shell environment, so OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV and BACKEND_URL are never set, and effective_api_url fell through to DEFAULT_API_BASE_URL (production) even for staging builds.

Added option_env! compile-time fallbacks to api_base_from_env() and app_env_from_env(). build-desktop.yml already sets OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV, VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV, BACKEND_URL, and VITE_BACKEND_URL as build env vars — option_env! captures them at cargo build time and bakes them into the binary. This mirrors the pattern the Tauri shell already uses for its Sentry environment tag.

Resolution order after fix:

1. config.api_url (user explicitly set it)
2. BACKEND_URL / VITE_BACKEND_URL runtime env var
3. BACKEND_URL / VITE_BACKEND_URL baked in at compile time ← new
4. OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV runtime → env-aware default URL
5. OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV baked in at compile time → env-aware default ← new
6. Hard fallback: api.tinyhumans.ai

Test plan

• N/A: cargo check passes clean
• api::config unit tests added for runtime var reads
• N/A: compile-time option_env! path is verified by the build workflow setting the vars — no unit test can cover option_env! since it is resolved at compile time, not runtime
• N/A: build.yml env var change is a one-line CI config addition

Closes #1370

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Build workflow now targets the staging backend so staged app builds connect to the staging API.
  • Runtime environment variables for app environment and backend URL are now prioritized, ensuring builds pick up staging settings when present.
• Tests
  • Added tests verifying environment-variable resolution and serialized environment mutation to prevent test interference.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 20c2b00f-f47d-4408-a147-d6f789248df1

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between c8fa236 and c75a92d.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/api/config.rs

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• src/api/config.rs

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Runtime resolvers for app environment and backend URL now prefer runtime env vars (including VITE_), fall back to compile-time option_env!, and have updated docs and unit tests; the CI Tauri build step now bakes staging VITE_ env vars (VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV and VITE_BACKEND_URL).

Changes

Staging Build Configuration

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Resolution order docs src/api/config.rs	Effective URL resolution doc updated: config override → runtime env vars → compile-time option_env! → environment-aware defaults.
API base resolver src/api/config.rs	api_base_from_env() checks runtime BACKEND_URL then VITE_BACKEND_URL, normalizes and strips trailing slashes, treats empty as unset, then falls back to compile-time option_env! values.
App env resolver src/api/config.rs	app_env_from_env() checks runtime OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV then VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV, trims/lowercases, treats empty as unset, then falls back to compile-time option_env!.
Tests src/api/config.rs (tests)	Adds unit tests that set/restore runtime env vars and assert normalized resolver outputs (e.g., trailing slash removal).
Tauri Build Environment Variables .github/workflows/build.yml	Build Tauri app (CEF default) step env now includes VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV: staging and VITE_BACKEND_URL: https://staging-api.tinyhumans.ai/ to bake staging backend into the build.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• tinyhumansai/openhuman#1042: Both PRs touch the same runtime env-var precedence for backend/app-env resolution (adding/recognizing VITE_BACKEND_URL and VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV as runtime fallbacks).
• tinyhumansai/openhuman#865: Prior CI workflow edits ensuring VITE_* vars are provided to the Tauri build step.
• tinyhumansai/openhuman#1044: Introduces test-time environment serialization and related CI workflow changes.

Poem

🐰 I hopped through envs to find the right key,

Trimmed slashes and lowercased what could be,
CI bakes staging where staging should play,
Tests lock the env so chaos stays away,
Hooray — builds now chat with staging today!

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title directly addresses the main fix: staging builds incorrectly resolving to prod API URL, with the solution of baking VITE env vars into build.yml.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR fully addresses all coding requirements from #1370: sets VITE_BACKEND_URL and VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV in CI, implements option_env! for compile-time baking, and adds tests for env resolution.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are directly scoped to fixing staging API URL resolution: CI workflow updates and config.rs env resolution logic with supporting tests.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 3

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

src/api/config.rs (1)

35-41: ⚡ Quick win

Add branch-level debug/trace diagnostics for env resolution paths.

These new resolver branches (runtime vs compile-time vs default fallback) are operationally important but currently silent, which will make future staging/prod misrouting incidents harder to triage. Prefer stable prefixes and avoid logging raw URL values or secrets.

As per coding guidelines "Default to verbose diagnostics on new/changed flows with entry/exit logging, branches, external calls, retries/timeouts, state transitions, and errors; use stable grep-friendly prefixes and correlation fields; never log secrets or full PII".

Also applies to: 64-70

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

In `@src/api/config.rs` around lines 35 - 41, Add branch-level, non-sensitive
diagnostics to the API resolver: in api_base_from_env (and the related resolver
around lines 64-70) add entry and exit trace/debug calls and a short,
stable-prefix branch log for each resolution path (runtime env branch,
compile-time option_env! branch, and the final default) using a tracing macro
(e.g., trace!/debug!) with messages like "CONFIG:API_BASE:BRANCH=runtime",
"CONFIG:API_BASE:BRANCH=compile_time", "CONFIG:API_BASE:BRANCH=default" and
include a boolean or masked indicator (e.g., value_present=true/false or
"<masked>") rather than the raw URL; ensure logs are emitted on both success and
fallback paths and use the same prefix for easy grepping.

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@src/api/config.rs`:
- Around line 72-80: This file has rustfmt/prettier formatting drift around the
environment-var parsing block (references: APP_ENV_VAR, VITE_APP_ENV_VAR,
option_env!("OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV"), option_env!("VITE_OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV")) and
later at lines near 146–152; run the project's formatter (cargo fmt) and any
JS/Prettier checks, then stage the formatted changes so the CI formatting checks
pass; ensure you do not change logic in functions using those symbols—only
reformat whitespace/line breaks to match rustfmt output and re-run the CI
locally before pushing.
- Around line 125-137: Wrap the tests app_env_from_env_reads_runtime_var and
api_base_from_env_reads_runtime_var with a shared test-wide Mutex to prevent
concurrent env mutations; follow the pattern used in
tests/webview_apis_bridge.rs by creating or reusing a static lazy Mutex guard
(e.g., TEST_ENV_LOCK) and acquiring it at the start of each test before
setting/restoring OPENHUMAN_APP_ENV or API_BASE env vars so the existing
save-restore logic remains but runs under the lock to avoid race conditions.
- Around line 43-47: The runtime and compile-time env selection currently uses
chaining (std::env::var(...).or_else(...) and option_env!(...).or(...)) which
treats an empty string as a valid value and thus blocks fallback keys; update
both places to iterate over the candidate keys
(["BACKEND_URL","VITE_BACKEND_URL"] for the API URL and the app env pair used in
app_env_from_env) and return the first key whose value exists and is non-empty
(for runtime, call std::env::var for each key and normalize_api_base_url on the
candidate before filtering out empty; for compile-time, check option_env! for
each key in order and pick the first Some that is non-empty) so empty values
don’t prevent checking the next candidate.

---

Nitpick comments:
In `@src/api/config.rs`:
- Around line 35-41: Add branch-level, non-sensitive diagnostics to the API
resolver: in api_base_from_env (and the related resolver around lines 64-70) add
entry and exit trace/debug calls and a short, stable-prefix branch log for each
resolution path (runtime env branch, compile-time option_env! branch, and the
final default) using a tracing macro (e.g., trace!/debug!) with messages like
"CONFIG:API_BASE:BRANCH=runtime", "CONFIG:API_BASE:BRANCH=compile_time",
"CONFIG:API_BASE:BRANCH=default" and include a boolean or masked indicator
(e.g., value_present=true/false or "<masked>") rather than the raw URL; ensure
logs are emitted on both success and fallback paths and use the same prefix for
easy grepping.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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ℹ️ Review info

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Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 4c0ca1a7-d37f-4d45-beac-baec5e766691

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 1bea9e3 and 8b5ed1b.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/api/config.rs