Five PATH Myths That Break CI Agents and How to Fix Them

CI and automation agents frequently fail to inherit the same PATH environment as a developer's local machine, causing tool resolution errors on scratch or remote hosts. Common misconceptions include trusting the output of 'which', assuming version manager hooks like nvm are active, and believing a successful install persists across separate shell sessions. Each agent command may launch a cold shell, meaning PATH must be explicitly set and verified at the start of every step rather than assumed from prior context. Bash also caches binary locations in a hash table, which can cause stale lookups even after PATH is updated, making 'hash -r' a necessary step after any PATH mutation. The recommended approach involves printing PATH explicitly, using 'command -v' and 'type -a' for verification, exporting install directories in the same session, and confirming binary identity via checksum rather than relying on version output alone.