Problem

The Edit tool (used for precise file edits) does not expand ~ in file_path/path parameters. This causes File not found errors when targeting files like ~/.codex/config.toml.

Other tools handle this fine:

• exec — shell expands ~ naturally
• Read — resolves ~ to $HOME

The Edit tool bypasses shell expansion, so ~ is treated as a literal character.

Impact

• Agents have a SOUL.md rule saying "never use ~ in tool calls" but it's not sticky across sessions — the error recurs regularly
• LLMs naturally generate ~ paths since it's standard Unix convention
• Every occurrence wastes a tool call (Edit fails → fallback to sed or retry with absolute path)

Expected behavior

Edit should resolve ~ to $HOME (or the agent's home directory) before attempting the file operation, consistent with Read and other file-access tools.

Reproduction

Edit(file_path="~/.codex/config.toml", old_string="foo", new_string="bar")
→ Error: File not found: ~/.codex/config.toml

Works fine with absolute path:

Edit(file_path="/home/user/.codex/config.toml", old_string="foo", new_string="bar")
→ Success

Environment

• OpenClaw v2026.2.19-2
• Ubuntu 24.04 (WSL2)