Linux: support installing the Studio CLI

[ivan-ottinger]

Related issues

• Fixes RSM-1316
• Fixes RSM-1309

How AI was used in this PR

Used Claude Code to scope the work, write the new LinuxCliInstallationManager (mirroring the macOS one), patch the path bug in studio-cli.sh, and run lint/typecheck/tests. Each change was reviewed before committing.

Proposed Changes

• Add LinuxCliInstallationManager (apps/studio/src/modules/cli/lib/linux-installation-manager.ts) that symlinks ~/.local/bin/studio → the bundled studio-cli.sh and appends export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" to .bashrc / .zshrc. Mirrors the macOS manager (no /usr/local/bin legacy cleanup needed — no prior Linux release shipped there).
• Wire the new manager into getCliInstallationManager() so the Preferences toggle and IPC handlers work on Linux. Drop the now-redundant isPlatformSupported() guard — every Electron-supported platform now has a manager, so the explicit throw in getCliInstallationManager() is the single source of truth.
• Call autoInstallLinuxCliIfNeeded() from apps/studio/src/index.ts so the CLI auto-installs on first launch (production builds only, matching the existing macOS/Windows behavior).
• Fix apps/studio/bin/studio-cli.sh: derive CLI_SCRIPT from BIN_DIR directly so it works on both macOS (Resources/) and Linux (resources/). The previous CONTENTS_DIR/Resources/cli/main.mjs path was mac-specific and would have broken on Linux even with a working installer.
• Add a vitest mock for the new module in apps/studio/src/tests/index.test.ts.
• Update apps/studio/installers/desktop.ejs to use an absolute path in Exec= (/usr/bin/<%= name %> instead of bare <%= name %>). Without this, clicking the dock icon would invoke the CLI symlink (~/.local/bin/studio) instead of the GUI launcher (/usr/bin/studio), because Ubuntu's ~/.profile puts ~/.local/bin ahead of /usr/bin on PATH for the desktop session. Same pattern VS Code uses (Exec=/usr/share/code/code %F).

Testing Instructions

1. Build the DEB: npm run make.
2. Install it: sudo apt install ./out/make/deb/<arch>/studio_*.deb.
3. Reset state so the next launch counts as "first launch": sudo rm -f ~/.local/bin/studio ~/.studio/app.json. Then launch Studio from your distro's application launcher.
4. The first launch should create ~/.local/bin/studio (a symlink to /usr/lib/studio/resources/bin/studio-cli.sh). We can check this with ls -la ~/.local/bin/studio.
5. We can also check if export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" is in ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc if zsh is your shell): grep -n '\.local/bin' ~/.bashrc.
6. Open a fresh terminal so the new PATH export gets sourced, then run studio --help. The CLI help should print.
7. Run studio preview list (or any other CLI subcommand) to verify the bundled Node runtime and CLI bundle resolve correctly.
8. In Preferences, toggle the CLI off and Save. Verify the symlink was removed with ls -l ~/.local/bin/studio — it should report "No such file or directory". (Note: which studio may still resolve to /usr/bin/studio, which is the DEB-installed GUI launcher — that's expected and unrelated to the CLI.)
9. In Preferences, toggle the CLI back on and Save. In a fresh terminal (or after hash -r in the current one, since bash caches command paths), confirm studio --help works again.
10. Verify the dock/launcher icon still opens the GUI (not the CLI) while the CLI symlink is present at ~/.local/bin/studio.

Pre-merge Checklist

• Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?
• Manually validated the install / uninstall / auto-install flow on a Linux machine (DEB build).

[ivan-ottinger]

Since we support all three platforms now, this is not necessary anymore.

[gavande1]

Nice! Makes sense.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds Linux support for installing and auto-installing the bundled Studio CLI, aligning Linux behavior with existing macOS/Windows flows and fixing Linux pathing issues in the CLI launcher script.

Changes:

• Introduce LinuxCliInstallationManager and wire it into CLI IPC install/uninstall/status flows.
• Auto-install the CLI on first production launch on Linux (matching other platforms).
• Fix Linux desktop launcher Exec= resolution and make studio-cli.sh resource-path agnostic (macOS vs Linux).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
apps/studio/src/modules/cli/lib/linux-installation-manager.ts	Adds Linux CLI install/uninstall/auto-install implementation (symlink + shell profile PATH export).
apps/studio/src/modules/cli/lib/ipc-handlers.ts	Adds Linux manager to platform switch; removes previous platform guard.
apps/studio/src/index.ts	Calls Linux CLI auto-install during app boot in production.
apps/studio/bin/studio-cli.sh	Fixes CLI bundle path resolution to work under Linux resources/ and macOS Resources/.
apps/studio/installers/desktop.ejs	Uses absolute Exec=/usr/bin/<name> to ensure launcher opens GUI, not CLI symlink.
apps/studio/src/tests/index.test.ts	Mocks the new Linux auto-install module for initialization tests.

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[wpmobilebot]

📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing 30b79f2 vs trunk

app-size

Metric	trunk	30b79f2	Diff	Change
App Size (Mac)	1454.55 MB	1454.51 MB	0.04 MB	⚪ 0.0%

site-editor

Metric	trunk	30b79f2	Diff	Change
load	1775 ms	1815 ms	+40 ms	⚪ 0.0%

site-startup

Metric	trunk	30b79f2	Diff	Change
siteCreation	8085 ms	8081 ms	4 ms	⚪ 0.0%
siteStartup	4941 ms	4946 ms	+5 ms	⚪ 0.0%

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Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change (<50ms diff)

[gavande1]

Thanks for fixing this. I tested it, and it works as expected. The CLI was installed and removed according to the preferences.

CLI installation

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