Found by a docs/ staleness audit: - architecture.md: Claude no longer runs under tmux — it's driven over the stream-json control protocol with --resume (D-75/D-77/D-78); and the IPC socket server is implemented, not "currently unimplemented". - testing/README.md + claude-ui-workflow.md: drop the dissolved app/ two-package paths (D-56) — tests live at test/ and the web build at build/web/. - design/multitab-pane.md: the Claude pane spawns a stream-json session, not a tmux one; ClaudeSessionRef carries the session id. Frozen historical snapshots (initial-plan.md, the HISTORICAL pty docs, dated spikes/audits) left as-is. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
87 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
# How Claude Code uses clide
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Claude Code needs to *actually use* the app while building features.
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The pipeline:
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1. **Flutter builds the app to WASM.** `flutter build web --wasm` ships
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a CanvasKit/Skwasm bundle under `build/web/`.
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2. **A local server serves it.** `tools/ui/serve.sh` starts
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`http://localhost:4280` in the background with a pidfile.
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3. **Playwright drives a headless Chromium.** Instead of click-by-pixel
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— which is brittle on a CanvasKit `<canvas>` — the driver queries
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Flutter's semantic tree (`flt-semantics[aria-label=…]`), the same
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tree screen readers use. This is only reliable because every
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interactive widget in clide already ships `Semantics(label:, hint:)`
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wrappers for a11y — the automation surface is a free side-benefit.
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## Claude's one-liners
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```bash
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# Bring the app up (builds wasm, starts server)
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make ui-dev
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# Run an ad-hoc probe
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cd tools/ui && npx playwright test ...
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# Everything in one shot (build + serve + smoke + stop)
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make ui-smoke
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# Bring it down
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make ui-stop
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```
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## Writing a driver script
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```ts
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import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
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import { ClideDriver } from '../driver';
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test('opens the theme picker and selects summer-night', async ({ page }) => {
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const clide = new ClideDriver(page);
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await clide.goto('/');
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// Keyboard shortcut that invokes `theme.pick`:
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await page.keyboard.press('Control+K');
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// Pick via semantic label.
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await clide.click('summer-night');
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// Dump the whole tree to inspect state after an interaction.
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const tree = await clide.dumpSemanticsTree();
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console.log(JSON.stringify(tree, null, 2));
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// Screenshot into out/ (Claude reads the PNG via the Read tool).
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await clide.screenshot('out/theme-picker.png');
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});
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```
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## Prerequisites (one-time per machine)
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```bash
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cd tools/ui
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npm install
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npx playwright install chromium
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```
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## Known quirks
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- **Labels are merged.** Flutter web concatenates sibling Semantics
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labels into a single `aria-label` separated by newlines. `byLabel`
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uses substring match for that reason. When two Semantics nodes share
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a substring, narrow with `.filter()` on the returned locator.
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- **The placeholder button.** Flutter web ships semantics disabled by
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default, behind an invisible `<flt-semantics-placeholder>` button.
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`ClideDriver.waitUntilReady()` clicks it automatically.
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- **No daemon on web.** The WASM build has no unix socket; the status
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indicator always says `disconnected`. That's honest — a web-hosted
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clide has no local daemon to talk to. The Playwright flow is for
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UI-only verification.
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## When Playwright is overkill
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If all I need is "does the extension register its contributions," a
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widget test (`test/builtin/*/widget_test.dart`) is faster and cheaper.
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Reach for Playwright when the question is about the real rendering
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pipeline, keyboard behavior, or multi-widget interactions that mirror
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a user workflow.
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