diff --git a/packages/agoric-cli/src/publish.js b/packages/agoric-cli/src/publish.js
index 73df8bb1bb3..1c169b20643 100644
--- a/packages/agoric-cli/src/publish.js
+++ b/packages/agoric-cli/src/publish.js
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ export const makeHttpBundlePublisher = ({ jsonHttpCall, getAccessToken }) => {
 };
 
 /**
- * @param {string} address - a host or URL
+ * @param {string} address - a domain name, IPv4 address, or URL
  */
 const urlForRpcAddress = address => {
   if (address.includes('://')) {
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ const urlForRpcAddress = address => {
  * @param {typeof import('path').resolve} args.pathResolve
  * @param {typeof import('fs').promises.writeFile} args.writeFile
  * @param {typeof import('tmp').dirSync} args.tmpDirSync
- * @param {() => number} args.random
+ * @param {() => number} args.random - a random number in the interval [0, 1)
  */
 export const makeCosmosBundlePublisher = ({
   pspawn,
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ export const makeCosmosBundlePublisher = ({
         '--gas-adjustment',
         '1.2',
         '--home',
-        homeDirectory,
+        pathResolve(homeDirectory, 'ag-cosmos-helper-statedir'),
         '--node',
         urlForRpcAddress(rpcAddress),
         '--keyring-backend',
diff --git a/packages/solo/src/start.js b/packages/solo/src/start.js
index cd6a90bd14a..e31fa4b8dfb 100644
--- a/packages/solo/src/start.js
+++ b/packages/solo/src/start.js
@@ -427,10 +427,7 @@ const start = async (basedir, argv) => {
     Array.isArray(rawConnections),
     `Invalid connections.json: must be a JSON array, at ${rawConnectionsPath}`,
   );
-  const homeDirectory = path.resolve(
-    process.cwd(),
-    'ag-cosmos-helper-statedir',
-  );
+  const homeDirectory = process.cwd();
   const connections = rawConnections.map(connection => {
     if (['chain-cosmos-sdk', 'fake-chain'].includes(connection.type)) {
       return { ...connection, homeDirectory };