[frankorbit]

Problem

Measured with native AX on macOS 27.2 Contacts:

• The SwiftUI search field exposes no AXPress, only AXConfirm / AXShowMenu. click falls through to AXConfirm, which submits the search while keyboard focus stays on the list, so the following type_text fails with “requires a focused editable text element”.
• Sidebar group rows are AXRow elements whose parent is an AXOutline, not an AXList. selectContainingListItem does not cover them and the rows have no AXPress, so clicking a row never changed the selection.

Changes

• click on AXTextField / AXTextArea first sets AXFocused = true and verifies that the app's focused element is now that element, before falling back to the AXPress / AXConfirm / AXOpen chain.
• click on an element inside an AXRow sets AXSelected = true on the row and reads it back; it does not count as handled when the row is not settable.
• press_key accepts ArrowUp / ArrowDown / ArrowLeft / ArrowRight.
• The REPL's app.click({ x, y }) is equivalent to app.click([x, y]) (models use both spellings; the object form used to be rejected).

Verification

• On device: clicking the Contacts search field followed by type_text("Yumi") filters the list; clicking the All on My Mac / All Contacts rows switches the selection.
• Known unrelated failure: CursorWindowFollowTests.testServiceClickRegistersLiveWindowAndFeedbackMatchesMovedButton depends on the test host's own window and fails the same way on main here.

History: docs/histories/2026-11/20261106-1802-click-focus-text-fields-and-select-rows.md; release note added.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[hyprcat]

The Contacts cases are real. We built the same kind of ladder and ran it against a compiled AppKit fixture on macOS 27.2. Three things came out of that which apply here:

1. The new rungs fall through after writes that may have applied. setBoolAttribute and performAction turn .failure and .cannotComplete into false, so the chain moves on to AXPress, AXConfirm, descendants and then the pointer. AppKit answers -25205 for actions it did run. AXConfirm on a table cell returned -25205 and started editing the cell (the focus moved in within 38–43 ms). AXScrollDownByPage returned -25205 and scrolled a page. Notes returns -25205 while it creates the note, so a chain that moves on makes two notes.

   • For a write, only attributeUnsupported / actionUnsupported / illegalArgument / noValue / notImplemented prove nothing applied. For an action, only actionUnsupported / illegalArgument / notImplemented do. The AXOpen + attributeUnsupported special case already in performAction is the same lesson.
   • The same goes for a write that answered success but hasn't shown yet. If focusTextEntry returns false at 300 ms, the chain sends the very AXConfirm this PR is avoiding. If selectContainingRow returns false, AXPress/AXConfirm go into the row. Once a write went out, report it as delivered but unverified instead of trying another way.
   • The focus can also land on the field's own editor rather than the field itself (Preview's PDF form fields focus a text area inside). Accepting a descendant a few levels down avoids that false negative.

2. Rows whose own AXSelected isn't settable need their container. Write [row] to the outline's or table's AXSelectedRows (or AXSelectedChildren, whichever is settable) and read back that the row is in it. Falling into the chain instead reaches the cell's text field, whose AXConfirm starts editing (see above) and selects nothing.

3. A control inside a row now selects the row and never gets pressed. selectContainingRow climbs from any element and runs before AXPress. A click on a checkbox or a disclosure triangle in an outline row therefore selects the row and never toggles. Taking the row path only when the target is the row or cell itself, or has no AXPress of its own (a label), keeps those working.

Minor: the fixed 150 ms and 30 ms waits can be polls. On the fixture, writing AXSelected and reading it back took 0.7–2.2 ms end to end, polling every 5 ms with a 400 ms limit. With OPEN_COMPUTER_USE_ACTION_READ_BACK=0, pauseBeforeReadBack returns at once, so the row read-back can run before the selection shows.

[frankorbit]

Thanks, the three cases are real and 3a48b3e addresses them:

1. AXFocused / AXSelected writes are now treated as delivered unless the error proves nothing applied (attributeUnsupported, actionUnsupported, illegalArgument, noValue, notImplemented, invalidUIElement); .failure / .cannotComplete no longer let the chain fall through to AXPress / AXConfirm. When the read-back does not confirm within 300 ms (focus) / 400 ms (row), the click stops there and the result carries a "delivered, not confirmed, run get_app_state" note instead of trying another way. Focus landing on the field's own editor (up to four levels down) counts as confirmed.
2. Rows whose own AXSelected is not settable are selected by writing [row] to the outline's / table's AXSelectedRows or AXSelectedChildren, whichever is settable, with the membership read back.
3. The row path now runs only when the target is the row or cell itself, or has no AXPress of its own, so checkboxes and disclosure triangles inside a row are pressed as before.

The fixed 150 ms / 30 ms waits are 5 ms polls now and no longer depend on OPEN_COMPUTER_USE_ACTION_READ_BACK. Not re-run against Contacts / Notes live yet.