fix: respect BASIC_MEMORY_HOME environment variable in Docker containers (#174)

Signed-off-by: Drew Cain <groksrc@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: claude[bot] <209825114+claude[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: groksrc

src/basic_memory/config.py

@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@ class BasicMemoryConfig(BaseSettings):
     env: Environment = Field(default="dev", description="Environment name")
 
     projects: Dict[str, str] = Field(
-        default_factory=lambda: {"main": str(Path.home() / "basic-memory")},
+        default_factory=lambda: {
+            "main": str(Path(os.getenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", Path.home() / "basic-memory")))
+        },
         description="Mapping of project names to their filesystem paths",
     )
     default_project: str = Field(
@@ -92,7 +94,7 @@ def model_post_init(self, __context: Any) -> None:
         """Ensure configuration is valid after initialization."""
         # Ensure main project exists
         if "main" not in self.projects:  # pragma: no cover
-            self.projects["main"] = str(Path.home() / "basic-memory")
+            self.projects["main"] = str(Path(os.getenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", Path.home() / "basic-memory")))
 
         # Ensure default project is valid
         if self.default_project not in self.projects:  # pragma: no cover

tests/test_config.py

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+"""Test configuration management."""
+
+import os
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+from basic_memory.config import BasicMemoryConfig
+
+
+class TestBasicMemoryConfig:
+    """Test BasicMemoryConfig behavior with BASIC_MEMORY_HOME environment variable."""
+
+    def test_default_behavior_without_basic_memory_home(self, config_home, monkeypatch):
+        """Test that config uses default path when BASIC_MEMORY_HOME is not set."""
+        # Ensure BASIC_MEMORY_HOME is not set
+        monkeypatch.delenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", raising=False)
+
+        config = BasicMemoryConfig()
+
+        # Should use the default path (home/basic-memory)
+        expected_path = str(config_home / "basic-memory")
+        assert config.projects["main"] == expected_path
+
+    def test_respects_basic_memory_home_environment_variable(self, config_home, monkeypatch):
+        """Test that config respects BASIC_MEMORY_HOME environment variable."""
+        custom_path = str(config_home / "app" / "data")
+        monkeypatch.setenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", custom_path)
+
+        config = BasicMemoryConfig()
+
+        # Should use the custom path from environment variable
+        assert config.projects["main"] == custom_path
+
+    def test_model_post_init_respects_basic_memory_home(self, config_home, monkeypatch):
+        """Test that model_post_init creates main project with BASIC_MEMORY_HOME when missing."""
+        custom_path = str(config_home / "custom" / "memory" / "path")
+        monkeypatch.setenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", custom_path)
+
+        # Create config without main project
+        other_path = str(config_home / "some" / "path")
+        config = BasicMemoryConfig(projects={"other": other_path})
+
+        # model_post_init should have added main project with BASIC_MEMORY_HOME
+        assert "main" in config.projects
+        assert config.projects["main"] == custom_path
+
+    def test_model_post_init_fallback_without_basic_memory_home(self, config_home, monkeypatch):
+        """Test that model_post_init falls back to default when BASIC_MEMORY_HOME is not set."""
+        # Ensure BASIC_MEMORY_HOME is not set
+        monkeypatch.delenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", raising=False)
+
+        # Create config without main project
+        other_path = str(config_home / "some" / "path")
+        config = BasicMemoryConfig(projects={"other": other_path})
+
+        # model_post_init should have added main project with default path
+        expected_path = str(config_home / "basic-memory")
+        assert "main" in config.projects
+        assert config.projects["main"] == expected_path
+
+    def test_basic_memory_home_with_relative_path(self, config_home, monkeypatch):
+        """Test that BASIC_MEMORY_HOME works with relative paths."""
+        relative_path = "relative/memory/path"
+        monkeypatch.setenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", relative_path)
+
+        config = BasicMemoryConfig()
+
+        # Should use the exact value from environment variable
+        assert config.projects["main"] == relative_path
+
+    def test_basic_memory_home_overrides_existing_main_project(self, config_home, monkeypatch):
+        """Test that BASIC_MEMORY_HOME is not used when a map is passed in the constructor."""
+        custom_path = str(config_home / "override" / "memory" / "path")
+        monkeypatch.setenv("BASIC_MEMORY_HOME", custom_path)
+
+        # Try to create config with a different main project path
+        original_path = str(config_home / "original" / "path")
+        config = BasicMemoryConfig(projects={"main": original_path})
+
+        # The default_factory should override with BASIC_MEMORY_HOME value
+        # Note: This tests the current behavior where default_factory takes precedence
+        assert config.projects["main"] == original_path