diff --git a/agent/src/index.ts b/agent/src/index.ts
index c4d058b0a5..72a666500c 100644
--- a/agent/src/index.ts
+++ b/agent/src/index.ts
@@ -58,16 +58,9 @@ export async function loadCharacters(
         ?.split(",")
         .map((path) => path.trim())
         .map((path) => {
-            if (path.startsWith("../characters")) {
-                return `../${path}`;
-            }
-            if (path.startsWith("characters")) {
-                return `../../${path}`;
-            }
-            if (path.startsWith("./characters")) {
-                return `../.${path}`;
-            }
-            return path;
+          if (path[0] === '/') return path; // handle absolute paths
+          // assume relative to the project root where pnpm is ran
+          return `../${path}`;
         });
     const loadedCharacters = [];