diff --git a/scripts/podx-tools.sh b/scripts/podx-tools.sh
index 47e624e..5381d86 100755
--- a/scripts/podx-tools.sh
+++ b/scripts/podx-tools.sh
@@ -3,8 +3,12 @@
 # Usage: ./scripts/podx-tools.sh <command> [args...]
 # Run without args to see help.
 
+
 set -euo pipefail
 
+# Determine repo root early (used by temp dir and .env loader)
+ROOT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
+
 # Writable temp dir (override with PODX_TMP or TMPDIR); default to repo tmp/
 : "${PODX_TMP:=${TMPDIR:-$ROOT_DIR/tmp}}"
 mkdir -p "$PODX_TMP"
@@ -29,7 +33,6 @@ ppjson() {
 }
 
 # ---------- Load .env from repo root (robust, handles spaces & ${VAR}) ----------
-ROOT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
 ENV_FILE="$ROOT_DIR/.env"
 if [ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]; then
   # Minimal .env parser: