⚡ Bolt: Optimize path resolution for shell arguments

.jules/bolt.md

@@ -60,3 +60,7 @@
 ## 2026-06-25 - [Optimize Path.exists() when paired with stat()]
 **Learning:** Checking `Path.exists()` before `Path.stat()` introduces a redundant system call because `exists()` internally uses `stat()`.
 **Action:** Rely on catching the `OSError` from `Path.stat()` to simultaneously check for existence and retrieve file attributes, saving measurable I/O overhead on large filesystems.
+
+## 2024-05-24 - [Avoid excessive .resolve() for subprocess arguments]
+**Learning:** `pathlib.Path.resolve()` performs heavy disk I/O to check for symlinks and build a canonical path. When passing paths to external binaries (like `ffmpeg`, `setfile`, `brctl`) via `subprocess.run`, strict canonicalization is generally unnecessary because OS APIs and external tools handle relative paths, `..`, and symlinks natively.
+**Action:** Prefer `pathlib.Path.absolute()` over `pathlib.Path.resolve()` when building command-line arguments for external tools to save fractions of a millisecond, though recognize this is a micro-optimization and focus on larger architectural bottlenecks first.

media_shrinker.py

@@ -132,9 +132,9 @@ def command(
                 raise MediaShrinkerError(
                     "ffmpeg argument template is missing '-i'"
                 ) from exc
-            args[input_index] = str(input_path.resolve())
+            args[input_index] = str(input_path.absolute())
         if output_path is not None:
-            args[-1] = str(output_path.resolve())
+            args[-1] = str(output_path.absolute())
 
         if overwrite:
             args = ["-y" if arg == "-n" else arg for arg in args]
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ def build_icloud_download_command(
 ) -> list[str]:
     """Build a safe iCloud download command for source_path."""
 
-    return [brctl_path, "download", str(source_path.resolve())]
+    return [brctl_path, "download", str(source_path.absolute())]
 
 
 def download_from_icloud(source_path: Path, *, brctl_path: str = "brctl") -> None:
@@ -1630,7 +1630,7 @@ def _copy_macos_creation_time(
         "%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S"
     )
     subprocess.run(
-        [setfile_path, "-d", creation_date, str(dest.resolve())],
+        [setfile_path, "-d", creation_date, str(dest.absolute())],
         check=False,
         capture_output=True,
         text=True,

tests/test_media_shrinker.py

@@ -280,9 +280,9 @@ def test_conversion_command_resolves_input_and_output_overrides(self) -> None:
 
         self.assertEqual(
             command[command.index("-i") + 1],
-            str(Path("-input.wav").resolve()),
+            str(Path("-input.wav").absolute()),
         )
-        self.assertEqual(command[-1], str(Path("-output.flac").resolve()))
+        self.assertEqual(command[-1], str(Path("-output.flac").absolute()))
 
     def test_lossy_audio_uses_highest_opus_bitrate_that_fits_target_with_safety_margin(
         self,
@@ -1042,7 +1042,7 @@ def test_build_icloud_download_command_uses_argument_list_for_paths_with_spaces(
 
         self.assertEqual(
             command,
-            ["brctl", "download", str(Path("folder/file with spaces.m4a").resolve())],
+            ["brctl", "download", str(Path("folder/file with spaces.m4a").absolute())],
         )