Waves Browser Functionality and Manual Audit

Status: active pre-alpha test guide

Audit baseline: origin/main at dfe2c4c9 on 2026-08-02

Purpose: make exploratory browser testing reproducible and turn each genuine oddity into a small, well-owned work item. This guide audits active product behavior only; archived plans and historical snapshots are not normative.

Know which build you are testing

Always record the exact commit and any stacked pull requests. The 2026-08-02 baseline and pending desktop work differ materially:

Surface	Current `main`	Pending change
Native shell, address bar, Local/Network modes, Welcome/Help, handset viewport	available	retained
Engine-owned frame, Canvas renderer, click regions	available	retained
Back/Reload/Go and request-shaped history	available, including typed POST replay	native replay evidence remains
Long-deck movement	deterministic viewport scrolling available	native scrolling evidence remains
Keyboard, buttons, pointer, and softkey routing	unified engine input routing available	native input-equivalence evidence remains
Loading and recovery	basic loading/error state	`#544` adds phase-aware presentation and recovery actions
Library, Favorites, Preferences	integrated surfaces and safe import/export/reset available	manual desktop-path evidence remains
Inspector, bounded timeline, safe capture export	available	retained
Crash marker and safe-session recovery offer	not implemented (`WBP-12`)	no pending PR
`.waves-session.json` import/replay and 1,000-step memory gate	not implemented (`WBP-13`)	no pending PR
Signed/notarized packaged build and packaged VoiceOver result	not available	no pending PR

An observation against a stacked or locally modified build must not be filed as a main regression.

Test record header

Start every session with this block. One header can cover several findings from the same run.

Build commit:
Additional PRs/changes:
Launch kind: Tauri dev | debug binary | packaged app | browser story
OS and version:
CPU architecture:
Display size/scaling:
Window size and app zoom:
State: clean | existing | deliberately corrupt
Run mode: Local | Network
Target URL or local example:
Transport profile and fallback:
Gateway/origin setup:
Developer mode/debug policy:

For network runs, note whether the route is the controlled local Kannel stack, a published first-party service, or another endpoint. Never describe a local fixture as a real-gateway result.

Recommended audit tour

Run the short core tour first. Continue into the focused sections when the core is stable. A result is pass, oddity, blocked, or not-applicable; blocked must name the prerequisite.

1. Startup and shell

Launch with clean state. The shell should paint before any network result and remain operable if gateway preflight fails.
Confirm native title/menu identity, minimum/default window usability, and absence of a second faux application frame.
Open and close Welcome/Help. Try Tour, Local examples, and Connect to a WAP server.
Switch Local/Network modes repeatedly. The visible source, route, profile, and available primary action must stay truthful.
Exercise address focus, Reload, Inspector, and Help through both visible controls and platform shortcuts. Focused host text fields must retain ordinary typing/editing shortcuts.

2. Local WML runtime

Load Your First Deck; traverse it with viewport focus, Up/Down/Enter, and visible handset buttons.
Load Basic; follow a fragment link, an external intent, and Back until history is empty.
Load F2-01 Deterministic Click Input; compare pointer activation with keyboard activation.
Load Wrap Stress; traverse all focusable content with wheel/trackpad and long jumps, and watch for clipping, stale focus, or content that cannot be brought into view.
Load text/select form examples. Test edit, cancel, commit, empty values, maxlength, password concealment, and submission intent.
Load timer and script examples. Confirm timers do not interleave visibly with an in-flight input action and recoverable script failures do not crash or silently navigate.

3. Controlled gateway path

Use the same local stack as make smoke-native-tauri-kannel-ui when practical.

Load wap://localhost/, enter the menu, and open the static example.
Load Pocket Portal and follow its fragment directory link.
Load Preferences and Interop examples; confirm content type, final address, route, and active card in Developer Tools.
Repeat one navigation and watch origin metrics for duplicate requests.
Exercise GET, form-urlencoded POST, and Back. Confirm Back replays the typed POST identity and never changes method/body semantics.
Return to a known-good deck after every injected failure.

Compare each action through physical keyboard, visible handset button, pointer hit region, and dynamic softkey where applicable. Outcomes should agree; input source must not change engine semantics.
Test focused host controls separately from the WML viewport. Arrow, Enter, Backspace, text, modifier, and composition input must reach the correct owner.
Test same-card duplicates, repeated fragments, cross-deck Back, failed Back loads, Reload, and Back at the beginning of history.
On current main, test wheel/trackpad, keyboard traversal, wrapped links, top/bottom clamping, stale frame clicks, empty-space clicks, and input/select controls at scrolled positions. Repeat activation through keyboard, buttons, and pointer to verify unified routing.

5. Loading, cancellation, and recovery

This section is partial until #544 merges and the controlled fault routes exist.

Start a slow request. The previous committed frame should remain visible and feedback should be immediate; delayed phase presentation should not flicker on fast loads.
Confirm Go changes to Stop only while cancellation is real. Cancel and verify no late response mutates frame, history, status, or persisted state.
Exercise invalid address, timeout, transport failure, decode failure, invalid deck, script trap, and a successful retry. Record the visible phase/category, correlation ID, offered recovery actions, and whether the last good frame survived.
Try a second navigation while one is active. Only the current generation may commit.

6. Library and Preferences

This section applies to current main.

Open Library from menu and shortcut. Load a bundled example and add/open/remove a Favorite.
Import valid, duplicate, malformed, sensitive, and over-limit favorite sets. Unsafe entries must be quarantined or rejected without replacing safe data. Exported data must contain no secrets.
Confirm unpublished Services are visibly disabled and explain why.
Change launch behavior, display scale, high contrast, reduced motion, developer mode, timeline retention, and safe restore policy. Relaunch and confirm only the documented safe values persist.
Exercise component clears and the two-step full reset. Cancel once, then confirm; the current committed deck should remain visible and unsafe sessions must not replay.

Do not file missing safe-session crash recovery as an APP-SHELL regression; it remains WBP-12.

7. Developer Tools and diagnostics

Toggle the docked Inspector and open its separate window. Opening, closing, or changing tabs must not change runtime ordering, focus, navigation, or timer behavior.
Exercise Overview, Transport, Runtime, Inspector, Timeline, and Source panels. Arrow/Home/End tab navigation and focus return should be predictable.
Run Health, Render, Snapshot, clear intent, clear/export timeline, raw WML load, and the default-disabled engine debug session boundary.
Export a safe capture after a seeded failure. Inspect it before attaching: credentials, cookies, sensitive query values, POST bodies, password values, and raw secrets must be absent.
Record cursor gaps, retention behavior, window/docked synchronization, and any mismatch between visible state and diagnostic state.

8. Accessibility and resilience

Traverse the whole shell with Tab/Shift+Tab at default and minimum windows. Every enabled control must be reachable, visible, and have an obvious focus indicator.
Repeat at effective 200 percent zoom, high contrast, and reduced motion. Check horizontal overflow, clipped controls, target size, and whether the LCD remains usable by vertical scroll.
Confirm loading, failure, and toast-only events use one announcement channel and do not duplicate spoken/status output.
Resize aggressively during navigation and while Developer Tools are open. No panic, blank shell, lost current frame, or unbounded layout loop is acceptable.
Packaged VoiceOver behavior remains blocked, not pass, until packaging exists and the manual procedure in WAVES_BROWSER_ACCESSIBILITY_EVIDENCE.md is recorded.

Capture an oddity

Prefer one observable problem per report. Combine symptoms only when the same short reproduction proves they are one failure.

Title: [Browser] <specific observed failure>

Build/environment:
Starting state:
Target deck/URL:

Steps:
1.
2.
3.

Expected:
Actual:
Reproduction: always | intermittent (<rate>) | once
Regression: yes (<known-good>) | no | unknown

Visible phase/category/correlation ID:
Last good frame preserved: yes | no | not applicable
Likely layer: shell | browser state | engine/runtime | transport/gateway | evidence harness | unknown

Attachments:
Privacy check completed: yes | no

Use the repository’s Browser oddity issue form when filing directly in GitHub.

Severity guide

Priority	Use when
`P0`	crash/data loss, secret exposure, unsafe automatic replay, or a release-blocking security failure
`P1`	core load/navigation/input path is blocked, content/history is silently wrong, cancellation commits stale state, or recovery is impossible
`P2`	important behavior is degraded but a reliable workaround exists, including accessibility failures on a supported path
`P3`	localized polish, wording, discoverability, or low-impact visual inconsistency

Ownership hints

Shell/menu/Library/Preferences/accessibility presentation: browser/frontend or Tauri shell.
WML navigation, focus, input, script, timer, frame, or render semantics: engine-wasm.
WBXML, request serialization, timeout, retry, destination policy, or protocol behavior: transport-rust/gateway.
Only assign a layer when evidence distinguishes it. unknown is better than an incorrect cross-layer ticket.

Known gaps that are not fresh oddities

Do not open duplicates for these without a narrower new symptom:

WBP-14 native timeout, cancellation, invalid-deck, and script-trap evidence;
WBP-12 crash marker and safe-session recovery offer;
WBP-13 sanitized session import/replay and bounded 1,000-step replay;
packaged signing/notarization and packaged screen-reader evidence;
history search/safe recents, multi-window browsing, and named handset profiles; and
the explicit WTP/compliance mapping gaps recorded by the canonical compliance program.

The current WBP-14 audit is tracked separately in WBP_14_DESKTOP_PATH_EVIDENCE.md and should be updated as evidence lands rather than reinterpreted from manual notes.