[ENHANCEMENT] [MER-5674] Add LotE Plate Tectonics adaptive lesson strict Playwright coverage

[Francisco-Castro]

MER-5674

Summary

• Adds Playwright E2E coverage for the adaptive lesson "Plate Tectonics" (Living on the Edge, Unit 1: Geologic Risk), driving all 22 screens through the happy path
• Introduces a strict verification path for adaptive lessons: instead of asserting the completion text, the walk verifies per screen that the answer actually registered (readback + deferred-save receipt), the submitted request body carried the intended answer, and the server's own evaluation returned actions.correct: true, with an ordered ledger asserted at the end
• Why: recon runs reached the lesson end with 4 of 22 screens never answered and the old assertion passed — 3 of 22 screens are authored to navigate away even on a wrong answer, so "reached the end" proves neither answered nor correct
• The two merged specs (MER-5672/5673) keep their existing compatibility walk unchanged; they benefit only from shared helper fixes (verified fills, no first-option guessing)

What changed

New files:

• lote-plate-tectonics.spec.ts — the E2E test on the strict entry point (173 lines)
• AdaptiveStrictContract.ts — manifest validation, receipt/ledger types, payload matchers, assertLedger
• AdaptiveEvaluationObserver.ts — multi-event evaluation collector; attributes traffic by submitted part-path prefixes (attempt GUIDs rotate legally), separates saves/finalizes/evaluations by shape
• adaptive-strict-driver.spec.ts, adaptive-strict-walk.spec.ts — 64 stubbed tests (no server): observer negatives, ledger negatives, and a scripted fake deck driving the strict walk through duplicate/foreign/out-of-order traffic

Modified files:

• AdaptiveHappyPathTask.ts — new completeAdaptiveHappyPathStrict (per-screen manifest, one click per action, explicit transition state machine, navigation licensed via the server-minted attempt chain); the existing completeAdaptiveHappyPath compat walk preserved verbatim
• AdaptiveDeckPO.ts — screen identity from [model][context] (sequenceId/resourceId/attemptGuid), part inventory, verified widget drivers (fill-in-the-blanks via the widget's own selectmenu — programmatic DOM writes never reach the CAPI model and submit Selected Index: -1; drag-and-drop verified by DOM re-parenting, not geometry)
• playwright.config.ts — actionTimeout (a flaky iframe once held a getAttribute for 732 s)
• CHANGELOG.md — skip notice includes MER-5674

Test environment setup

CI does not run these suites yet — MER-5857 tracks provisioning; this is for running locally.

Same env vars as MER-5672/5673 (PLAYWRIGHT_SCENARIO_TOKEN, PLAYWRIGHT_ASSETS_BUCKET, PLAYWRIGHT_AUTOMATION_API_KEY).

Seed the bucket with the MER-5674 private assets (course IP, not in the repo):

<your-bucket>/
└── mer-5674/
    ├── living-on-the-edge-course.zip
    └── answers.json   # strict per-screen manifest (22 screens)

PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL must be http://127.0.0.1 — localhost resolves to ::1 and the archive fetch dies with ECONNREFUSED.

Running locally

cd assets/automation
npx playwright test lote-plate-tectonics      # ~5 min live
npx playwright test adaptive-strict           # 64 stubbed tests, ~17 s, no server

Verification

• Live strict runs green ×4 (4.5–4.8 min), all 22 screens with verdict=true payloadMatch=true
• Canary: poisoning one answer fails the run at exactly that screen — the test can fail for the reason it exists
• Cross-model code review: 9 rounds, final verdict approved; every should-fix applied and re-verified
• Stubbed suites 64/64; tsc/eslint/prettier clean on touched files (2 pre-existing liveSocket tsc errors excluded, present on clean master)

Known limitations

• Transition derivation reads results[0]; activities with custom.combineFeedback (4 of these 22 screens) can process several results — runs pass because the derivations agree here; recorded as a limit, addressed by the follow-up framework ticket
• Teardown leaks the imported project per run — server-side bug, diagnosed in TRIAGE-2419

Follow-up

• Adaptive Lessons: Strict Verification Framework (ticket TBD, linked to this one) — restructures this machinery into a shared journal/registry/oracle framework and migrates MER-5672/5673 to the strict path; spec already drafted and cross-reviewed (8 design passes)
• MER-5857 — CI provisioning for archive-backed suites

[github-actions]

	Warnings
⚠️	PR is large (3885 LOC changed). Consider splitting.

Risk score: 10 → risk/high

Generated by 🚫 dangerJS against b8042f0

[github-actions]

AI Review —

Transition actions from later results are ignored

file: assets/automation/src/systems/torus/tasks/AdaptiveStrictContract.ts
line: 371
Description: deriveTransition reads only actions.results[0]. Multi-part evaluations can place feedback or navigation actions in later results, causing a valid transition to be classified as none.
Suggestion: Flatten the actions from every result before deriving feedback and navigation, e.g. actions.results?.flatMap(result => result.params?.actions ?? []) ?? [].

Unescaped part IDs can invalidate the locator

file: assets/automation/src/systems/torus/pom/delivery/AdaptiveDeckPO.ts
line: 419
Description: Interpolating partId into #${partId} creates an invalid selector when the ID contains CSS-special characters such as :. Because it is part of a selector list, the safe attribute-selector alternative does not prevent the entire selector from failing.
Suggestion: Use only an escaped locator, such as this.page.locator(\#${CSS.escape(partId)}`)`, or construct a safely quoted attribute selector without combining it with an unescaped ID selector.

[Francisco-Castro]

Superseded by #6788, which carries this branch commit for commit plus the shared strict verification framework (MER-5865).

Why close instead of merge: every commit of this PR's branch is an ancestor of #6788's HEAD (git merge-base --is-ancestor confirms it), so nothing here is lost. The LotE spec has since moved from the self-graded strict walker to an audited run boundary whose pass condition is an independent oracle over wire evidence, so merging this first would land a spec that #6788 immediately rewrites — and pay its master conflicts twice.

MER-5674 is delivered by #6788, whose title carries both tickets.