findElectron() probed exactly one path, and got three things wrong at
once for anyone not on a hoisted POSIX install:
* It looked only under the REPO ROOT. This is an npm workspaces repo and
npm hoists a dependency only when nothing conflicts, so `electron`
installing into apps/desktop/node_modules is an ordinary outcome, not a
broken tree.
* It joined a bare `electron`. On Windows the dist file is
`electron.exe`, so the probe could never match there.
* Its PATH fallback spawned `which`, which is not a command on Windows,
so the fallback failed for a reason unrelated to whether electron is on
PATH.
The three combine into a misleading error: the suite refuses to start
with 'Run "npm install" from the repo root' on a tree that has electron
installed. Reproduced on Windows 11 against this repo, where
apps/desktop/node_modules/electron/dist/electron.exe exists and the old
body throws that message; the reporter on #88036 hit the same thing on
Linux and had to hand-symlink the package before the suite would run.
Resolution now asks the installed `electron` package for its own path
first (its main export IS the absolute executable, resolved from
path.txt and honouring ELECTRON_OVERRIDE_DIST_PATH), then falls back to
explicit dist probes for each root, then to PATH with the platform's
lookup command. The error message lists what was searched.
The rules live in e2e/electron-binary.ts so they can be unit-tested
without importing the Playwright runner, with the platform passed in
rather than read from process.platform: reading it would leave every
Windows rule untested on the Linux CI runner.
Wiring: the vitest `electron` project picks up e2e/**/*.unit.test.ts and
Playwright ignores the same pattern, so helper unit tests run in exactly
one runner and the specs are untouched.
Verified: 5 unit tests pass; mutation-checked one rule at a time
(hardcoding the binary name fails 2, reversing the probe order fails 1,
hardcoding `which` fails 1). tsc -p . and tsc -p tsconfig.e2e.json
clean.
This is the environment blocker called out in #88036, not its rendering
bug, so it is deliberately a subset.
Refs #88036
Blocking #1 — gateway-connecting-overlay.tsx reduced-motion regression:
the top `if (reduce) setPhase('gone')` fired unconditionally on mount
whenever reduce-motion was on, so every OS reduced-motion user lost the
CONNECTING overlay during cold boot entirely (jumped to 'gone' before the
gateway was even open). The intent was to skip the exit *choreography*,
not to skip showing the overlay. Removed the unconditional top block and
the redundant nested preview block; kept only the third branch
(`gatewayState === 'open' && shownRef.current` → `reduce ? 'gone' :
'text-out'`) which correctly gates the short-circuit on connect. Also
fixed `if(reduce)` missing-space, 6-space misindent, and the same 3-line
comment pasted three times.
Nit #1 — tsconfig excludes e2e, so specs were never typechecked in CI.
Added tsconfig.e2e.json (extends base, includes e2e/ + playwright.config.ts,
adds @playwright/test types) and wired it into the typecheck script. This
surfaced three latent type errors that are fixed in the same commit:
- fix-electron-tracing.ts: `app._context` and `electron._playwright` are
private APIs — added `as any` on the access before the existing cast.
- playwright.config.ts: `reducedMotion: 'reduce'` directly under `use:`
is not a valid UseOptions property in playwright 1.58; it's a
BrowserContextOption accessed via `contextOptions: { reducedMotion:
'reduce' }`. The old form was silently ignored at runtime, so
reduced-motion emulation wasn't actually active — screenshots could
catch overlays mid-fade (exactly what the comment warned about).
Nit #2 — fix-electron-tracing.ts reaches into Playwright internals
(_playwright, _allContexts, _context) with no public contract. Added a
header comment calling out the `@playwright/test` exact pin (=1.58.2) so a
future bump knows to re-verify the private symbols still exist.
Nit #3 — main.ts TEST_WORKER_INDEX block had stray 6-space indentation.
Verified: tsc -p . && tsconfig.electron && tsconfig.e2e → 0 errors;
vitest boot-failure-overlay (3/3) + boot-failure-reauth (21/21) pass;
npm run build clean; playwright e2e/boot-failure.spec.ts 2/2 pass.
Screenshots were catching the CONNECTING overlay and onboarding Preparing
loading bar mid-transition because the wait helpers fire on text content
while visual state lags behind. Fix at the source via reduced motion:
- playwright.config.ts: emulate prefers-reduced-motion: reduce
- styles.css: blanket reduced-motion rule kills all CSS animations/transitions
- gateway-connecting-overlay.tsx: skip JS setTimeout exit choreography
(text-out 360ms + hold 300ms + overlay fade 520ms) — jump straight to gone
- decode-text.tsx: skip scramble interval, render resolved text immediately
Adds a full desktop Playwright E2E suite that launches the Electron app
against a mock inference server, exercising the full boot chain:
electron -> hermes serve -> mock provider -> renderer
Includes:
- Mock OpenAI-compatible inference server (mock-server.ts)
- Shared fixtures with sandbox isolation (credentials, HERMES_HOME,
userData, fixed window-state.json for reproducible screenshots)
- Test specs: boot, boot-failure, onboarding, mock-backend-setup, chat,
and packaged-app launch
- Visual regression: expectVisualSnapshot() wraps toHaveScreenshot in
try/catch so diffs are reported without failing the test suite
- CI workflow: xvfb at 1280x1024, baseline cache from main
(--update-snapshots on main, compare on PRs), step summary table with
diff/actual/expected image links, dedicated visual-diffs artifact
- dev:mock script for local fake-provider development
- test:e2e:visual + test:e2e:update-snapshots scripts using cage
- .gitignore: *-snapshots/ (baselines cached in CI, not committed)
Jack Lau