[Meta] Dogfood Ace end to end

This is a tracking issue, not a task: read the linked scope-decision comment (issuecomment-5986572832) first, then pick one open sub-issue such as #50 or #55 rather than the meta issue itself. The stated convention is that every PR adds an external-tool escape to its "Built in Ace" section and links the gap issue; done means the sub-issue checkbox and its linked PR reflect that record. Nothing here is assigned or open for a single first-time edit.

All Ace development happens in Ace. Record external-tool escapes in each PR's Built in Ace section and link the gap. Items are ordered by importance within each list.

Dogfooding MVP

• #8 — Inspect, operate, and verify Ace's native windows and dialogs.
• #50 — Reproduce, debug, and verify browser UI changes. First slice (exact tabs, navigation, bounded inspection) landed in #163; DOM input, diagnostics, uploads, emulation, browser lifecycle and the end-to-end defect workflow remain.
• #55 — Verify the native development loop and recovery after the native/browser paths work.

Dogfooding core/QOL

• #59 — Agent-send by default, sticky per-channel mode, and the existing Esc/double-Esc shortcut.
• #77 — Retain unsent composer drafts across desktop restart. Storage fix landed in #165; signed desktop quit/relaunch verification remains.
• #91 — Attach images pasted into the composer.
• #48 — Reliable input after restoring a terminal.
• #9 — Run and resume Codex and Claude Code inside Ace.
• #35 — See who's in a chat and who's typing.
• #92 — Show participants' GitHub avatars.
• #93 — Align timeline avatars with the sender's byline.
• #17 — Project presence and channel lifecycle.
• #53 — Manage background and interactive jobs.
• #54 — See live tool progress and full logs.
• #167 — Show desktop release phases and notarization submissions while a build runs.
• #98 — Follow and understand agent work in plain language (visibility → explainer pane → personalization).
• #102 — Show mixed or multi-file diff tool output as readable text instead of a blank "Invalid or empty patch" block.
• #94 — Keep literal braces in timeline message text.
• #95 — Exclude trailing punctuation from linkified timeline URLs.
• #168 — Long chat messages clip their final rendered line (display only; stored text is complete).
• #105 — Attach every image from a multi-file Finder paste.
• #19 — Open and continue child chats.
• #21 — Answer agent questions in the chat.
• #24 — Inspect, edit, cancel, and steer pending input.
• #108 — Wake waiting agents on channel handoffs instead of blocking in shell polling loops; show queued or blocked handoffs.
• #52 — Supervise subagents and send follow-up work.
• #12 — Get attention for finished, failed, or waiting work.
• #51 — Inspect saved screenshots and renders directly.
• #22 — Browse and edit files in Ace.
• #28 — Continue existing branch and PR work.
• #16 — Open a lane's dev-server preview.
• #45 — Preserve independent window navigation and layouts.
• #44 — Keep collapsed controls out of accessibility navigation.
• #10 — Verify baseline collaboration on two real hosts.
• #158 — Show and change collaborator agent invocation in the app (draft #161; native owner UI and second-person check remain).
• #15 — Identify projects across hosts by repository, with owner-labeled teammate channel sections. Implementation merged in #157; native and two-host verification remain (tracked in #58).
• #162 — Opening a non-Git folder adds a project that cannot start channels (found validating #157).
• #164 — Archive inactive archives every idle channel, not only those shown as Inactive (found validating #157).
• #170 — Rebuild Settings and top-anchor every modal so async content cannot move dialogs.
• #172 — Keep keyboard focus inside open modal dialogs (Tab briefly escapes to the app navigation; found validating #170).

Development loop findings

• #97 — Finish development-run isolation: conflicting-helper diagnostics, loopback test hosts, reload.
• #128 — Desktop tools unavailable when a source CLI starts a worker in an installed app's data directory.
• #150 — Ace-dev crashes shortly after launch with SIGTRAP in the bundled Bun worker.
• #166 — Make stale worker.pid reclaim atomic (static review finding, not reproduced).

Related capability, not an MVP gate: #56 — required skills and tool integrations in native channels.

Scope decisions and supporting evidence.

Native dogfooding findings

• #83 — Find applications omitted by bounded native inventory; fixed in #84.

• #66 — Do not treat an absent AXEnabled flag as a disabled editable text area.

• #64 — Explain native inspection failure when the desktop or window becomes unavailable (via #8).

• #61 — Button press completion; fixed in #63.

• #69 — Preserve native preflight refusal evidence after focus changes (found during #65 keyboard validation).

• #155 — Report moved-window coordinate clicks rejected before dispatch as refused (via #8).

• #113 — Inspect Chrome windows with Accessibility when the page title changes (via #8).

• #103 — Agent guidance for native-first app control (found during #91 validation); sub-issue of #8.

• #106 — WebKit focus/paste failures (found during #91 validation); sub-issue of #8.