Windows: broken wiki links due to path separator in parseSections/extractRefs

[sgeier]

Environment

• lat.md version: 0.11.0
• OS: Windows 10
• Shell: bash (Git Bash / WSL)

Problem

On Windows, all [[wiki-links]] resolve as broken when running lat check. The lat locate command also returns no results.

Root cause

In dist/src/lattice.js, parseSections and extractRefs use Node's path.relative() which returns backslash-separated paths on Windows (e.g. lat.md\architecture). The buildFileIndex function splits on /, so it produces an empty index on Windows — causing all wiki links to fail resolution.

Reproduction

1. Install lat.md on Windows: npm install lat.md
2. Create a lat.md/ directory with two pages that cross-link via [[page-name]]
3. Run lat check — all wiki links report as broken
4. Run lat locate "Section Name" — returns no results

Fix

Normalize paths to forward slashes after path.relative() calls in parseSections and extractRefs:

const relativePath = relative(basePath, filePath).replace(/\/g, '/');

Workaround

Running on Linux/macOS (e.g. CI) is not affected. Local Windows development shows false positives.

[jt-spk]

Confirming this is still broken in lat.md@0.11.0.

Environment: Windows 11, Node v24.11.1, Git-Bash (MINGW64).

Slight refinement to the repro — lat locate is not returning empty in this version, it's returning matches with backslashes leaking into the section IDs. Example from a real repo:

$ npx lat.md@latest locate "Integrations"
## Sections matching "Integrations":

* Section: [[lat.md\integrations#Integrations]] (exact match)
  Defined in lat.md\integrations.md:1-6

So the index is being populated, just with OS-separator paths. That's why cross-platform-correct wiki-links written with / (e.g. [[lat.md/integrations]]) fail resolution on Windows — they're matched as exact strings against \-separated index entries.

Same root cause your issue describes, just confirming the fix would also address this user-visible symptom (backslashes in lat locate output).

Real-world impact: this just bit us cross-platform. Mac contributor rewrote all wiki-links from \ to / (a correct fix per the docs treating wiki-links as logical IDs), which fixed lat check on Mac and broke it everywhere on Windows. We're stuck choosing between the platforms until this lands.

[KWONSEOK02]

Confirming the same root cause on Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200, Node.js 22.x, lat.md 0.11.0 (single test machine; verification on additional Windows configurations pending).

Closing #66 as a duplicate of this issue.

---

Additional finding: checkMd and checkIndex become mutually exclusive on Windows

Beyond the broken short-stem lookup, there is a secondary consequence that makes the bug harder to work around. Switching to full-path syntax (e.g. [[lat.md\backend]]) passes lat check md but immediately breaks lat check index:

- lat.md/: "lat.md" is missing entries -- add:
  - [[backend]] -- <describe>

- lat.md/: "lat.md" lists "[[lat.md\backend]]" but it does not exist

2 errors found

This means there is no link syntax that satisfies both checkers simultaneously on Windows until the separator is normalized -- not just a cosmetic issue.

---

Precise 3-line fix (source file, not compiled output)

The fix needs to land in two places in src/lattice.ts:

parseSections (~line 70):

-    const file = projectRoot
-        ? relative(projectRoot, filePath).replace(/\.md$/, '')
-        : basename(filePath, '.md');
-    const sectionFilePath = projectRoot
-        ? relative(projectRoot, filePath)
-        : basename(filePath);
+    const file = (projectRoot
+        ? relative(projectRoot, filePath).replace(/\.md$/, '')
+        : basename(filePath, '.md')).replace(/\\/g, '/');
+    const sectionFilePath = (projectRoot
+        ? relative(projectRoot, filePath)
+        : basename(filePath)).replace(/\\/g, '/');

extractRefs (~line 523):

-    const file = projectRoot
-        ? relative(projectRoot, filePath).replace(/\.md$/, '')
-        : basename(filePath, '.md');
+    const file = (projectRoot
+        ? relative(projectRoot, filePath).replace(/\.md$/, '')
+        : basename(filePath, '.md')).replace(/\\/g, '/');

Scope: 3-line change in src/lattice.ts.
Impact on Linux/macOS: None -- backslashes are not path separators on POSIX, so .replace(/\\/g, '/') is a no-op for any standard file path.