octopus-workflow/core/skills/browser-debug/SKILL.md

name, description, triggers, role

name	description	triggers	role
browser-debug	Use ONLY when an agent needs to interact with a live browser to debug, verify, or iterate on Web UI work in packages/app — navigate to the dev server, snapshot the DOM/accessibility tree, capture console and network errors, screenshot component states, and exercise user flows end-to-end. Triggers on UI bugs, visual regressions, layout/positioning issues, keyboard-focus problems, console-error reports, and any "open the page and check X" task. Loads the Playwright MCP toolset (browser_navigate, browser_snapshot, browser_take_screenshot, browser_console_messages, browser_evaluate, etc.). Use ONLY for interactive browser work; for writing Playwright *test files* use the existing e2e/ suites under packages/app, not this skill.	browser debug open the page check the page screenshot the inspect element console error visual bug visual regression layout broken alignment off focus ring tab order 浏览器调试 打开页面 截图 视觉 布局错乱 对齐 焦点 控制台报错	Producer

Core 中立版（Increment 6a 改写，原 deferHard verbatimDir）。机制、结构与 frontmatter 保持；实例术语（工具名、路径、工单号）按 core/adapters/TERMINOLOGY.md 绑定到具体实例。

Browser Debug

Interactive browser automation for Web UI work in packages/app. This skill teaches the recipe for driving the Playwright MCP toolset — when to reach for it, which tool for which job, and how to capture evidence a reviewer can trust.

When this skill applies

Reach for browser-debug when a task requires observing the live application, not just reasoning about code:

• Reproducing a UI bug (focus lost, dropdown won't close, scroll jumps).
• Verifying a visual change actually landed (computed style, layout box, dark-mode token).
• Capturing console errors or failed network requests during a user flow.
• Recording a screenshot / trace as evidence for a review or DoD entry.
• Exercising a keyboard / screen-reader flow end-to-end.

Do not reach for it when:

• You are writing Playwright test files — those live in packages/app/e2e/... and run via cd packages/app && bun run test:e2e (variant suites: test:e2e:perf, test:e2e:a11y, test:e2e:smoke, test:e2e:visual). This skill is for ad-hoc, agent-driven sessions, not for adding tests.
• The question can be answered by reading code or running a unit test. Browser time is expensive; spend it only when the live DOM is the oracle.

Preconditions

1. Playwright MCP is configured. The project octopus.jsonc carries a mcp.playwright block launching @playwright/mcp. If the MCP tools are not visible, run /kickoff or follow the codegraph-setup skill's recipe (the closest analog for debugging missing MCP servers).
2. Dev server is running. The app under test must be reachable. For packages/app, run bash script/dev-fresh.sh --full for the dev server (Windows workstations: bash script/dev-fresh-windows.sh — dev-fresh.sh's stop path depends on setsid/ss, silently ineffective under Git Bash; see local-workstation-quirks.md §5); frontend is at http://localhost:4444 and backend at http://localhost:4096 (see AGENTS.md Dev services section).
3. Chromium is installed. First run of @playwright/mcp downloads it automatically; if the tool reports a missing browser, run bunx playwright install chromium once in any shell.

Tool selection recipe

The Playwright MCP exposes many tools. Pick by what you need to observe, not by familiarity:

Need	Tool	Why
Open a URL	browser_navigate	Always the first call.
See the page structure (roles, names)	browser_snapshot	Returns the accessibility tree — stable across CSS refactors. Prefer this over browser_take_screenshot when asserting "does element X exist / is it labelled Y?".
See the page visually	browser_take_screenshot	For layout, spacing, color, overflow. Attach the PNG to your report.
Read console errors / warnings	browser_console_messages	Filter by level (error, warn). The first stop for any "page is blank" bug.
Read failed network calls	browser_network_requests	Locate 4xx/5xx, CORS failures, hanging fetches.
Click, type, hover, select	browser_click, browser_type, browser_hover, browser_select_option	Drive the flow. Always browser_snapshot first to get the ref for the target element.
Assert computed style / DOM state	browser_evaluate	Last resort. Snapshots cover 90%; reach for evaluate only when you need getComputedStyle, scroll positions, or arbitrary JS state.
Keyboard navigation	browser_press_key	For tab order, focus rings, escape-to-close.
Record a video / trace	browser_start_tracing, browser_stop_tracing	Heavy; use only when a bug is timing-sensitive and console+snapshot can't catch it.

Standard recipe — reproduce a UI bug

Follow these steps in order. Do not skip the snapshot step: the ref it returns is the stable handle every subsequent tool needs.

1. browser_navigate to the page where the bug lives.
2. browser_console_messages — record any errors before touching anything. Many "interaction bugs" are actually load-time errors.
3. browser_snapshot — locate the target element; capture its ref and accessible name.
4. Drive the interaction with browser_click / browser_type / browser_press_key until the bug reproduces.
5. Re-read browser_console_messages and browser_network_requests — capture the delta introduced by the interaction.
6. browser_take_screenshot (or a second browser_snapshot) to freeze the broken state.
7. Report: URL, the minimal interaction sequence, console delta, network delta, screenshot, and the suspected component path in packages/app/src/....

Standard recipe — verify a UI fix

1. browser_navigate to the affected page.
2. browser_snapshot — confirm the fixed element is present with the expected accessible name.
3. browser_take_screenshot — full page and element-cropped if the fix is local.
4. If the fix touched layout, browser_evaluate a getBoundingClientRect() or getComputedStyle() on the key node and paste the value into your report. Numbers beat adjectives.
5. If the fix touched interaction, replay the original bug reproduction steps and assert the previous failure no longer fires.

Standard recipe — capture evidence for verify / DoD

When a verify work item has an E2E or UI DoD entry:

1. Run the recipe above for each DoD line.
2. Save each screenshot as .playwright-mcp/dod-{item-id}-{state}.png — the worktree's gitignored output dir. See "Screenshot output paths" below.
3. In the verification report, cite the file names and tell the reviewer where to look: open the worktree as an octopus project → session side panel "Screenshots" tab (or the standalone screenshots page). Verify with GET /screenshots?directory={worktree} before citing. A screenshot the reviewer can open beats a paragraph of "I checked it".
4. When the DoD row will cite the evidence as a BROWSER:{pack-ref} reference (UI-touching PRs, verify skill Phase 2.7 / contract browser-evidence-4486/shared/evidence-ref-v1), promote the captures into an evidence pack first — feed COPIES through writeEvidencePack (<harness-package>/src/browser/evidence-pack.ts, the single mandatory sanitize boundary; the .playwright-mcp/ layer keeps its current semantics, additive not replaced) and cite the pack directory. Evidence ladder: raw capture → .playwright-mcp/ working layer (gitignored) → sanitized Tier-1 pack → BROWSER: reference the verifier validates mechanically.

Rationalizations to refuse

Excuse	Reality
"The unit test already covers it."	Unit tests assert component logic, not what Chromium actually renders. Visual and focus bugs live in the gap.
"I can tell from the JSX that it's aligned."	Computed layout depends on parent containers, fonts, and viewport. Screenshot the real page.
"Browser automation is overkill for a small change."	A browser_navigate + browser_take_screenshot pair is ~2 seconds. The cost is in not looking.
"I'll just run the whole e2e suite."	The suite answers "did anything break?" — it does not answer "does this specific change look right?".
"Snapshot is enough, skip the screenshot."	Accessibility trees hide overflow, clipping, and z-index bugs. Take both for visual changes.

Boundaries

• Read-only by default. This skill never writes files under packages/app/src/ — it observes. Edits flow through implement (bugfix/refactor/port mode).
• One page at a time. Close tabs (browser_close) between scenarios so state doesn't leak.
• Evidence lives in the worktree's .playwright-mcp/ dir. Any screenshot or trace you reference in a PR comment, verification report, or DoD entry must be copied into the workflow worktree's .playwright-mcp/ directory (gitignored) — never left in /tmp/, playwright-report/, or any machine-local path the reviewer cannot reach through octopus. Cite file names + the worktree project path; the reviewer opens the octopus screenshots UI (session panel tab or screenshots page) to view them.

Session cleanup (mandatory)

A Playwright MCP browser is a real Chrome with a /tmp user-data-dir — its mode follows mcp.playwright.headless (headless-field-v1, [org-internal #4393]): the repo default auto spawns headed on desktop (win32/darwin; linux only with DISPLAY/WAYLAND_DISPLAY set) and headless otherwise; an explicit true/false or OCTOPUS_MCP_HEADLESS=1|0 pins it. The mode is fixed per new session — switching the config does not hot-switch a running browser. It stays alive as long as its MCP server runs, and the MCP server stays alive as long as its parent octopus backend runs. When a browser-debug session ends without an explicit browser_close, OR the octopus session times out mid-task, the Chrome + its MCP server are orphaned and accumulate across sessions — burning CPU and leaving dead profile dirs (issue [org-internal #1315]); in headed mode the orphan is a visible stray window.

Iron rule: every browser-debug session MUST close its browser before ending.

1. Always close when done. The last action of any browser-debug task is browser_close. Treat it like a return — if you opened a browser, you close it. Do not rely on session teardown to do it for you; it doesn't.
2. Close on error too. If the task aborts (bug not reproduced, tool error, user redirect), still call browser_close before moving on. An abandoned debugging session is the most common orphan source.
3. If a browser was already orphaned (you spot a stale Chrome in ps, or a /tmp/playwright_chromiumdev_profile-* dir with no live session), do not leave it. bash script/dev-fresh.sh --full (Windows workstations: dev-fresh-windows.sh, same stop-path caveat as Preconditions §2) reaps orphan dev sessions and init-adopted browsers before restarting; run it to clean up. For a targeted clean without restarting the dev server, kill the Chrome by its profile: pkill -f 'playwright_chromiumdev_profile' (and any agent-browser harness reparented to init).

Why this matters: a single forgotten browser_close leaves a Chrome subtree (8+ processes) running indefinitely. Over days this is hundreds of orphaned processes and wasted CPU. The MCP server does not auto-close its browser on disconnect — only an explicit browser_close (or process reaping) releases it.

Screenshot output paths

The Playwright MCP server is launched WITHOUT --output-dir (see octopus.jsonc → mcp.playwright.command): its default output location is .playwright-mcp/ in the process cwd (the worktree root), gitignored and auto-evicted at 100 MB via --output-max-size. Auto-named output (no filename) lands there — but an explicit filename can resolve against the cwd and drop the PNG into the repo root, where the /*.png gitignore backstop hides it from git status and nothing ever cleans it up.

Iron rule: 截图文件名必须写进 .playwright-mcp/。 Every filename passed to browser_take_screenshot (or any tool that writes a file) MUST resolve into .playwright-mcp/ — write it as .playwright-mcp/<name>.png, or use an absolute path under /tmp/octopus/. NEVER a bare relative name like 2202-after-models.png: it leaks a root-level PNG that gitignore masks but nobody deletes (the 2026-08 repo-root buildup — 40+ orphan PNGs — came from exactly this).

Two valid destinations for screenshots, by purpose:

Purpose	Destination	Why
Ad-hoc / throwaway (debug a layout, confirm a fix landed, never cited in any report)	.playwright-mcp/<name>.png, or omit filename to auto-save into the same dir	Survives across the session, auto-evicted at 100 MB, never pollutes the repo.
Evidence cited in a PR / report / DoD entry	.playwright-mcp/<name>.png — the cwd is the worktree root, so no copy step is needed	Zero repo bloat (gitignored, never committed); viewable by the reviewer through octopus's own screenshots UI (session panel "Screenshots" tab / standalone screenshots page, served by GET /screenshots?directory={worktree}); lifecycle bounded to the worktree = the review window.

Evidence publishing ladder (verified 2026-08-14 on this Gitea version):

1. Copy into the workflow worktree's .playwright-mcp/ — primary path. Cite file names + worktree project path; reviewer views via the octopus screenshots UI. Verify reachability with GET /screenshots?directory={worktree} before citing. Never commit evidence binaries to git — screenshots accumulate per PR and git history is unreclaimable (measured ~80KB/PR today, unbounded growth). Do not put routine debug screenshots on the wiki either — base64-in-page bloats the wiki git repo equivalently; the wiki evidence namespace is reserved for the durable verify-stage evidence channel (rung 3).
2. Issue attachments API (POST /api/v1/repos/{o}/{r}/issues/{n}/assets) — alternative when the reviewer cannot reach the worktree through the octopus UI. The endpoint exists but has returned 500 on this instance; verify before relying on it.
3. Publish to the wiki evidence namespace {slug}/verify/evidence/{name} via wiki 读写 API（见 TERMINOLOGY） — last resort only, when no other channel works AND the evidence must outlive the worktree (this is the same durable channel verify mandates for DoD evidence entries — see core/skills/verify/SKILL.md References). Keep it small: ≤5 images per PR, each ≤200KB (compress/downscale, prefer element crops over full-page).

Iron rule: never cite a machine-local path (/tmp/..., ~, project root) as evidence in a Tier-2 output (PR comment, issue comment, verification report). The reviewer must be able to open the evidence through octopus (.playwright-mcp/ + screenshots UI) or a repo/wiki URL (worktree files, or the {slug}/verify/evidence/{name} wiki pages). A citation they cannot reach is a fabricated citation.

Never write screenshots to the project root. The .gitignore rejects /*.png, /.playwright-mcp/, and /playwright-report/ only as a backstop — an ignored file is still an orphan on disk. The .playwright-mcp/ filename prefix is the real fix; rely on that, not on the backstop.

References

• core/skills/frontend/SKILL.md — where UI changes are planned; invoke this skill during Phase 3 / Phase 4 to verify each state visually.
• core/skills/implement/SKILL.md — Frontend Mode; pair with browser-debug when the work item touches rendering.
• core/skills/implement/SKILL.md (Mode: bugfix) — Phase 1 reproduction; use this skill to capture the failing state before isolating root cause.
• core/skills/verify/SKILL.md — Phase 2 / DoD matrix; use this skill to generate screenshot evidence for UI-tagged DoD entries.
• packages/app/e2e/ — permanent Playwright test suites; this skill is the ad-hoc complement, not a replacement.
• rules/dev-server on the wiki — how to run the dev server for TUI work; consult packages/app/README.md for the web equivalent.