fix(config): strip leading/trailing separators in normalize_wing_name

mempalace/config.py

@@ -37,8 +37,13 @@ def normalize_wing_name(name: str) -> str:
     The same rule is applied by ``init`` when persisting `topics_by_wing`
     and when writing `mempalace.yaml`, so the miner's lookup matches at
     mine time regardless of the source dirname.
+
+    Leading/trailing separators are stripped so a path-encoded dirname like
+    ``-home-user-proj`` yields ``home_user_proj`` rather than a leading-
+    underscore slug that ``sanitize_name`` (and thus the MCP write tools)
+    would reject.
     """
-    return name.lower().replace(" ", "_").replace("-", "_")
+    return name.lower().replace(" ", "_").replace("-", "_").strip("_")
 
 
 def sanitize_name(value: str, field_name: str = "name") -> str:

tests/test_config.py

@@ -196,6 +196,16 @@ def test_normalize_wing_name_mixed():
     assert normalize_wing_name("My-Cool App") == "my_cool_app"
 
 
+def test_normalize_wing_name_strips_leading_separator():
+    # Claude Code path-encoded project dirs begin with a separator; the slug
+    # must not start with "_" or sanitize_name / MCP writes would reject it.
+    assert normalize_wing_name("-home-user-linux-book") == "home_user_linux_book"
+
+
+def test_normalize_wing_name_strips_trailing_separator():
+    assert normalize_wing_name("project-") == "project"
+
+
 # --- sanitize_name ---
 
 

tests/test_miner.py

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import pytest
 import yaml
 
+from mempalace.config import normalize_wing_name
 from mempalace.miner import detect_room, load_config, mine, scan_project, status
 from mempalace.palace import NORMALIZE_VERSION, file_already_mined, prefetch_mined_set
 
@@ -257,7 +258,12 @@ def test_load_config_uses_defaults_when_yaml_missing():
         assert isinstance(config, dict)
         assert "wing" in config
         assert "rooms" in config
-        assert config["wing"] == project_root.name
+        # The default wing is the normalized dirname, not the raw name: temp
+        # dir names can contain leading/trailing '_' (tempfile's alphabet
+        # includes it), which normalize_wing_name strips. Comparing to the raw
+        # name was flaky across platforms (it only passed when the random name
+        # had no separators).
+        assert config["wing"] == normalize_wing_name(project_root.name)
     finally:
         shutil.rmtree(tmpdir)