`orb` repeatedly restarts `OrbStack` when installed with Home Manager

[iniw]

Describe the bug

Description

I install the nixpkgs OrbStack package through Home Manager.

The package adds commands from /nix/store/orbstack-.../OrbStack.app/Contents/MacOS/{bin,xbin} to PATH (see the package definition).

Home Manager then copies the app to ~/Applications/Home Manager Apps/OrbStack.app so that it gets indexed by Spotlight and treated as a normal GUI app. See targets.darwin.copyApps.enable.

The mismatch seems to be that the GUI runs from that copy, but orb runs from the original app in the Nix store.

When I run orb, OrbStack seems to treat these as two separate installations. It stops the helper started by the GUI and starts another one. This restarts my VMs.

Symptoms

Running terminal commands through orb (for example orb ls) often fails with a variety of different errors:

• Prints nothing.
• Returns exit code 0 without output.
• Prints start VM: VM exited unexpectedly; logs:.
• Prints ssh: handshake failed: EOF.
• Panics with an error mentioning sconrpc.

Direct SSH and the terminal in the GUI may still work between restarts.

I confirmed that the VM manager PID and the VM boot ID changed when I used orb from the Nix store.

Workaround

OrbStack creates ~/.orbstack/bin/orb, which points to the copied app. Adding ~/.orbstack/bin before the Nix profile in PATH fixes the problem.

I ran 15 commands with this version. They all succeeded, and the VM manager PID and VM boot ID stayed unchanged.

To Reproduce

1. Install the app through nix-darwin/home-manager (it just needs the copyApps behavior);
2. Start the GUI;
3. Try running stuff with orb

Expected behavior

The orb CLI should be totally indifferent to where it's being executed from. It shouldn't affect its behavior at all.

Diagnostic report (REQUIRED)

https://orbstack.dev/_admin/diag/orbstack-diagreport_2026-07-28T18-44-28.572295Z.zip

Screenshots and additional context (optional)

No response