Explain native inspection failure when the desktop or target window becomes unavailable
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Active
- Tech stack
- macos, typescript
- Domain
- desktop
Research direction
Start from the native inventory code that emits is_on_screen, observation_capability: pixels_only, and observation_reason: no_matching_accessibility_window, plus where DESKTOP_ERROR: AX tree incomplete is produced. Read the shipped work in #71 and #87 and the sparse-tree report in #73 to see what states are already distinguished. Done means a reliable classification of offscreen/other-desktop vs unavailable desktop vs incomplete Accessibility, an actionable agent-facing explanation, and a recovery check that requires fresh observation without switching windows or stealing focus.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Status (Oct 6)
Shipped: pixels-mode inspection and target availability reporting (#71), and typed target_unavailable refusal for a known locked session with unlock-and-refresh guidance (#87, details). Remaining: a reliable distinction and recovery path for an offscreen/other-desktop target versus an unavailable desktop versus incomplete Accessibility, sparse initial WKWebView Accessibility trees (seen in #73), and the real recovery check below. The Chrome window-title mismatch is tracked separately in #113.
Original report
During real desktop-action dogfooding for #8 / #63, native inspection became unavailable after previously passing against the same live Ace-dev process and window. The agent received an incomplete Accessibility-tree error without an actionable explanation of target availability.
Observed on the signed macOS development app:
- The real local pi click/type/key/button workflow and delivered-input Stop/restart checks had passed.
- A subsequent local Workers/Durable Objects run passed its seed native inspection, then two model
desktop_inspectcalls failed withDESKTOP_ERROR: Warning: AX tree incomplete at incomplete accessibility read. - Fresh native inventory still returned the same process instance/window and bounds, with
is_minimized: false, butis_on_screen: false,observation_capability: pixels_only, andobservation_reason: no_matching_accessibility_window. Inventory itself reported complete. - Codex computer use could still read and capture that test window. Its Raise and Ace's Show Ace action did not restore native availability in the subsequent inventory.
- No mutation ran in the failed hosted workflow. No evidence establishes whether a Space/desktop/controlled-surface change or another macOS condition caused the availability change; this is not yet a confirmed hosted-transport defect.
Expected: give the agent a bounded, useful explanation when native window/Accessibility availability changes, retain the exact target, and require a fresh observation when the target is available again. Do not silently switch to another window, steal focus, or replay uncertain input as recovery.
Investigate which native state reliably distinguishes an offscreen/other-desktop target, a locked/unavailable desktop, and incomplete Accessibility. Add a real recovery check under #8's visual targeting and longer-workflow slice. Keep the unavailable-desktop limitation explicit until that check passes.
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 1
- Forks
- 0
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Getting set up
- No Dockerfile or Docker Compose file
- Has a pull request template
- No contributing guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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