Test UI

Test App UI

Visually test the BrowserOS app extension UI — both the new tab page (left sidebar) and the right side panel (chat) — by starting the dev environment and inspecting via CDP.

When to use

After making code changes to apps/app/ (the Chrome extension), use this skill to:

• Verify new UI components render correctly
• Check navigation between views works
• Confirm layout/styling changes look right
• Test interactive elements (buttons, inputs, forms)

Prerequisites

• Go must be installed (brew install go) — the dev tool is written in Go
• BrowserOS.app must be installed at /Applications/BrowserOS.app/
• The scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts utility must exist (CDP inspector script)

Step 1: Start the dev environment

bun run dev:watch -- --new

This single command handles everything:

• Builds the Go dev CLI tool
• Picks random available ports (avoids conflicts)
• Creates a fresh browser profile
• Builds controller-ext
• Runs GraphQL codegen if apps/app/generated/graphql/ doesn't exist
• Starts the agent extension with WXT HMR (hot module replacement)
• Waits for CDP to be ready
• Starts the MCP server

Run it in the background and read the output to find the CDP port:

[info] Ports: CDP=9552 Server=9065 Extension=9929

The CDP port is randomized. You MUST extract it from the output and set it for all subsequent commands:

export BROWSEROS_CDP_PORT=<port from output>

Wait for these messages before proceeding:

1. [server] CDP ready
2. [server] HTTP server listening

Step 2: Discover targets

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts targets

You will see targets like:

• [service_worker] — extension background scripts (not directly testable for UI)
• [page] chrome-extension://bflpfmnmnokmjhmgnolecpppdbdophmk/app.html#/... — New tab page (left sidebar)
• [page] sidepanel.html — Right side panel (chat)

The two main testable surfaces:

• app.html — the new tab page with left sidebar (Home, Connect Apps, Scheduled Tasks, Skills, Memory, Soul, Settings)
• sidepanel.html — the right side panel chat interface

Step 3: Navigate to the main UI

A fresh profile opens the onboarding page (app.html#/onboarding). Navigate to the home page first:

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval app.html "window.location.hash = '#/home'"

Verify with a snapshot (not screenshot — snapshot is faster and sufficient for structural checks):

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts snapshot app.html

Snapshot vs Screenshot

Prefer snapshot for most checks — it's fast, text-based, and tells you what elements exist, their text, and their IDs. Use it after every navigation or interaction to verify state.

Use screenshot only when you need visual verification — layout changes, CSS/styling, colors, images, or a final "does it look right" check. Screenshots are expensive (capture → save → read image).

Step 4: Test the new tab page (left sidebar)

Get element IDs

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts snapshot app.html

Output shows interactive elements with IDs:

[52] link "Home"
[57] link "Connect Apps"
[65] link "Scheduled Tasks"
[74] link "Skills"
[103] link "Settings"

Navigate via click or hash routing

Click-based (use element IDs from snapshot):

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts click app.html 65    # Click "Scheduled Tasks"

Hash routing (faster, no snapshot needed):

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval app.html "window.location.hash = '#/settings'"
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval app.html "window.location.hash = '#/scheduled-tasks'"
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval app.html "window.location.hash = '#/home'"

Verify navigation

# Snapshot to confirm the page changed (fast, preferred)
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts snapshot app.html

# Screenshot only if you need to check visual layout
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts screenshot app.html /tmp/settings.png

CRITICAL: Re-snapshot after every navigation

React re-renders change element IDs. Always run snapshot again before clicking/filling after navigating to a new view. Using stale IDs will fail.

Step 5: Open and test the right side panel

The side panel starts disabled in a fresh profile. Open it using BrowserOS-specific APIs:

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts open-sidepanel

Wait 2 seconds for it to appear as a target, then:

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts screenshot sidepanel /tmp/panel.png
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts snapshot sidepanel

Interact with the side panel

# Get element IDs
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts snapshot sidepanel
# Output: [37] textbox "What should I do?"
#         [124] button "Send"
#         [60] link "Chat history"
#         [99] button "Agent Mode ON"

# Fill the chat input and press Enter to send
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts fill sidepanel 37 "Hello world"
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts press_key sidepanel Enter

# Or click the Send button
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts click sidepanel 124

# Wait for a response to appear
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts wait_for sidepanel text "response text"

# Scroll down to see more content
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts scroll sidepanel down 3

# Hover over an element to test hover states
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts hover sidepanel 99

# Snapshot to verify state changed (fast, preferred)
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts snapshot sidepanel

# Screenshot only for visual/layout verification
bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts screenshot sidepanel /tmp/result.png

Step 6: Verify and iterate

The core loop

snapshot → identify element IDs → click/fill/press_key → snapshot → verify

Use screenshot only when visual layout verification is needed (CSS changes, final check).

After making code changes

1. Fix the code in apps/app/
2. WXT HMR will hot-reload the extension automatically (watch mode)
3. Wait 2-3 seconds for the reload to complete
4. Re-snapshot — element IDs WILL change after HMR reload
5. Verify the fix with snapshot (or screenshot if visual)

Check server logs

The dev server output (running in background) contains useful diagnostics:

• [agent] — WXT build/HMR status, compilation errors
• [server] — MCP server logs, tool execution, errors
• [build] — Extension build output

If the UI isn't rendering, check for build errors in the [agent] output.

Check for JavaScript errors

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval sidepanel "JSON.stringify(window.__errors || 'no errors')"

Or check the console for React errors:

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval app.html "document.querySelector('#root')?.innerHTML?.substring(0, 200)"

Verify API connectivity

The extension talks to the MCP server. Verify the server is reachable:

bun scripts/dev/inspect-ui.ts eval sidepanel "fetch('http://127.0.0.1:<serverPort>/health').then(r => r.ok).catch(() => false)"

Common issues

Available commands reference

<target> is a URL substring (e.g., sidepanel, app.html) or numeric index from targets output.

Known app.html routes

These can be used with eval app.html "window.location.hash = '#/<route>'":

Gotchas learned from real testing

1. Ports are randomized with --new — always extract from dev server output
2. Fresh profile = onboarding page — navigate to #/home to see the main UI
3. Element IDs change after navigation — always re-snapshot before clicking
4. Side panel starts disabled — open-sidepanel handles the BrowserOS-specific enable + toggle API
5. Input.enable does not exist — the CDP Input domain has no enable method (already handled in the script)
6. DOM.getDocument required — must be called before DOM operations like pushNodesByBackendIdsToFrontend (already handled in the script)
7. Settings sub-navigation — the settings page has its own left sidebar (BrowserOS AI, Chat & Council Provider, Search Provider, Customize BrowserOS, BrowserOS as MCP, Workflows) — use snapshot + click to navigate within settings