2026-07-26 — Shell environment refresh

Documented why PATH and other env vars go stale in shells and IDE hosts, why Chocolatey refreshenv is unreliable, and how Dev-Centr / OpenShellOrg will fix it.

Why

Installers update stored Machine/User environment; long-lived hosts keep a snapshot. VS Code historically closed or dismissed PATH-reload requests; Chocolatey refreshenv only patches one session when it works at all. Dev-Centr already has a thin inject stub; OpenShellOrg needs a durable CLI and shell-host product plan.

What landed

  • Explanation: Shell Environment Refresh

  • Navigation under Explanation → Infrastructure

  • Cross-links: Dev-Centr/OpenShellOrg alignment, Nushell explanation + setup, toolchain management/control plane, Flutter setup

  • OpenShellOrg sibling: shell-host-and-env-refresh plan in shell-architecture