docs(testing): batch the computer-use grants so the operator can leave - #373
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A full capture-to-export pass is dozens of computer-use actions and, once the grants are in place, not one of them prompts again. Verified across the 2026-08-14 run: four dialogs, all at unpredictable moments, then forty-odd uninterrupted actions. So what pins a human to the keyboard is not the grant model, it is that the requests arrive scattered through the run. One batched call at the start and the operator answers once and walks away; discovering a fourth app you need an hour in and they cannot. Names the two easy-to-forget ones: the desktop shell, because the tray is the only reliable route back to the HUD and the save dialogs live there too, and the OS settings app, because changing display scaling is how DPI checks get run at all. Also records why batching is the whole mitigation rather than a preference — there is no config to pre-approve any of it (claude-code#46907, closed stale), and bypassPermissions does not cover it (#43172).
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📝 WalkthroughWalkthroughThe manual E2E checklist adds step 4 guidance for batched computer-use access requests before testing. It documents localized app names, shell and native-dialog dependencies, DPI testing, resolver failures, and live approval limits. ChangesManual E2E permissions
Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~2 minutes Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to This documentation-only change clarifies how to batch access requests for the manual testing flow and introduces no actionable merge-blocking risk. Possibly related PRs
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Inline comments:
In `@technical-documentation/testing/manual-e2e-checklist.md`:
- Line 18: Update the instruction in the section containing the request_access
guidance so it requires launching all required applications first, then making
the single access request before the first test action; replace the current
“before anything else” sequencing while preserving the one-call access behavior.
Apply the same fix in `@technical-documentation/testing/manual-e2e-checklist.md`
at line 20: Covered by the consolidated correction for process naming and launch
ordering.
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technical-documentation/testing/manual-e2e-checklist.md
…lver does Two review findings, one valid and one that would have broken the recipe. Valid: "here, before anything else" contradicted the launch-first rule stated three lines above it. Now "after the launches above, before the first check", with the reason attached so nobody moves it back. Not valid: the suggestion to use `explorer.exe` instead of the localized label. Tested it — `explorer.exe` returns notInstalled and suggests "Windows Software Development Kit", while `Explorateur de fichiers` resolves to c:\windows\explorer.exe. The resolver matches Start-menu display names, not executables, so that change would have short-circuited the whole batch: exactly the failure this step warns about. The concern underneath it was real though — a localized label is machine-specific and this doc is not. So the step now says the names are display names in the system's language, gives both spellings for the shell, and says to ask rather than guess.
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One valid, one that would have broken the recipe. Both addressed in Ordering — correct, and my wording was self-contradictory. "Here, before anything else" sat three lines under the rule saying the resolver cannot see a dev build until it is running. Now reads "after the launches above, before the first check", with the reason attached so it does not drift back.
Whereas the localized label resolves, and resolves to exactly the executable this comment says to use: The resolver matches installed-app display names, not executables — the tool's own contract says as much ("display names exactly as they appear in the Start menu"). Making that substitution would have short-circuited the entire batch, which is the precise failure mode this step exists to warn about, and it would have done so silently: one bad name voids every other name in the call. The concern underneath it was right, though, and I would have missed it: a localized label is machine-specific and this document is not. So the step now states that the names are display names in the system's own language, gives both spellings for the shell (
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1 participant
Why
A full capture-to-export pass is dozens of computer-use actions, and once the grants are in place none of them prompts again. Measured on the 2026-08-14 run: four approval dialogs, each arriving at an unpredictable moment, then forty-odd uninterrupted actions — recordings, killing the helper mid-capture, the editor, an export, even the native Windows save dialog.
So what pins a human to the keyboard is not the grant model. It is that the requests arrive scattered through the run. Answer one dialog at the start and the operator can leave for the rest of the pass; discover a fourth app you need an hour in and they cannot — which, for a release validation that takes an hour, is the difference between "kick it off and go" and "sit here".
What
Step 4 now says to ask for everything in a single
request_accesscall, and names the two that are easy to forget until you are blocked by them:The ordering constraint already documented in that step is what makes this non-obvious: one unresolvable name voids the whole request, and a dev build's
electron.exedoes not resolve until it is running. So it has to be launch, then one call, not the other way round.Why batching rather than config
There is no way to pre-approve any of this. claude-code#46907 requested exactly that (
computerUse.preApprovedApps); it was flagged as a duplicate by a bot, the reporter refuted all three supposed duplicates, and it was then auto-closed for inactivity and locked with no maintainer response.bypassPermissionsplusmcp__*in the allow list does not cover it either — #43172 traces that to twoPermissionManagerinstances reading different state, the MCP-bridge one hardcoded toskipPermissions: false.Batching is the entire mitigation available today, so the doc says so rather than leaving the next person to rediscover it.
Docs only.
check-docsgreen.Summary by CodeRabbit