[Meta] Dogfood Ace end to end #5

Pre-Universe focus (October 13): #218 is the current priority list for team dogfooding, packaging, and the stable release. Native engine items moved to githubnext/desktop-tools; #8 is closed. This issue stays the standing dogfooding policy and backlog.

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

• [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace #8 — Inspect, operate, and verify Ace's native windows and dialogs.
• Inspect and debug browser pages from an Ace channel #50 — Reproduce, debug, and verify browser UI changes. First slice (exact tabs, navigation, bounded inspection) landed in feat: list, inspect, and navigate tabs in a dedicated browser #163; DOM input, diagnostics, uploads, emulation, browser lifecycle and the end-to-end defect workflow remain.
• Verify native development and recovery end to end in Ace #55 — Verify the native development loop and recovery after the native/browser paths work.

Dogfooding core/QOL

• Default to agent mode and retain composer mode per channel #59 — Agent-send by default, sticky per-channel mode, and the existing Esc/double-Esc shortcut.
• Verify unsent composer drafts survive a signed desktop quit and relaunch #77 — Retain unsent composer drafts across desktop restart. Storage fix landed in fix(ui): keep unsent composer drafts across restart #165; signed desktop quit/relaunch verification remains.
• Attach images pasted into the composer #91 — Attach images pasted into the composer.
• Pasted command gets a stray 1R prefix after returning to a terminal #48 — Reliable input after restoring a terminal.
• Run and resume Codex and Claude Code in Ace channels #9 — Run and resume Codex and Claude Code inside Ace.
• Show typing and participant presence in chats #35 — See who's in a chat and who's typing.
• Show GitHub profile avatars for participants #92 — Show participants' GitHub avatars.
• Align timeline avatars with the sender's byline #93 — Align timeline avatars with the sender's byline.
• Add project lobbies for presence and channel lifecycle #17 — Project presence and channel lifecycle.
• Manage background and interactive jobs from channel tools #53 — Manage background and interactive jobs.
• Show live tool progress in the channel #54 — See live tool progress and full logs.
• Show desktop release phases and notarization submissions while a build runs #167 — Show desktop release phases and notarization submissions while a build runs.
• [Meta] Help participants follow and understand agent work #98 — Follow and understand agent work in plain language (visibility → explainer pane → personalization).
• Show mixed or multi-file diff tool output as text instead of a blank "Invalid or empty patch" block #102 — Show mixed or multi-file diff tool output as readable text instead of a blank "Invalid or empty patch" block.
• Keep literal braces in timeline message text #94 — Keep literal braces in timeline message text.
• Exclude trailing punctuation from linkified URLs in the timeline #95 — Exclude trailing punctuation from linkified timeline URLs.
• Long chat messages clip their final rendered line #168 — Long chat messages clip their final rendered line (display only; stored text is complete).
• Attach every image from a multi-file Finder paste #105 — Attach every image from a multi-file Finder paste.
• Expose several chats in a channel's UI #19 — Open and continue child chats.
• Let agents ask participants questions in the chat #21 — Answer agent questions in the chat.
• Edit, delete, and steer queued messages #24 — Inspect, edit, cancel, and steer pending input.
• Wake waiting agents on channel handoffs instead of blocking in shell polling loops #108 — Wake waiting agents on channel handoffs instead of blocking in shell polling loops; show queued or blocked handoffs.
• Let agents supervise and follow up with subagents #52 — Supervise subagents and send follow-up work.
• Notify participants when an agent finishes #12 — Get attention for finished, failed, or waiting work.
• Let native agents inspect image files by path #51 — Inspect saved screenshots and renders directly.
• Add a File tab for browsing and editing files #22 — Browse and edit files in Ace.
• Start work from issues, PRs, and existing branches #28 — Continue existing branch and PR work.
• Open a lane's dev server from its channel #16 — Open a lane's dev-server preview.
• Keep window navigation and saved layouts from overwriting each other #45 — Preserve independent window navigation and layouts.
• Hide collapsed sidebar controls from accessibility navigation #44 — Keep collapsed controls out of accessibility navigation.
• Verify Ace with two machines on the tailnet #10 — Verify baseline collaboration on two real hosts.
• Show and change collaborator agent invocation in the app #158 — Show and change collaborator agent invocation in the app (draft feat(app): add channel header agent and desktop access toggles #161; native owner UI and second-person check remain).
• Verify repository-based project identity in the native app and across two hosts #15 — Identify projects across hosts by repository, with owner-labeled teammate channel sections. Implementation merged in feat(app): group projects by repository with teammate channel sections #157; native and two-host verification remain (tracked in [Meta] Extend work across hosts and devices #58).
• Opening a non-Git folder adds a project that cannot start channels #162 — Opening a non-Git folder adds a project that cannot start channels (found validating feat(app): group projects by repository with teammate channel sections #157).
• Archive inactive archives every idle channel, not only those shown as Inactive #164 — Archive inactive archives every idle channel, not only those shown as Inactive (found validating feat(app): group projects by repository with teammate channel sections #157).
• Rebuild Settings and top-anchor every modal #170 — Rebuild Settings and top-anchor every modal so async content cannot move dialogs.
• Keep keyboard focus inside open modal dialogs #172 — Keep keyboard focus inside open modal dialogs (Tab briefly escapes to the app navigation; found validating Rebuild Settings and top-anchor every modal #170).
• Paired hosts echo channel listings forever, starving the gateway #200 — Paired hosts echo channel listings forever, so opening channels takes 20–60 s locally and remotely.
• Operate a teammate host's desktop from an Ace channel #202 — Operate a teammate host's desktop from an Ace channel (Screen Sharing was needed to verify Paired hosts echo channel listings forever, starving the gateway #200 on a second Mac).

Development loop findings

• Finish development-run isolation: helper conflict diagnostics, loopback test hosts, and reload #97 — Finish development-run isolation: conflicting-helper diagnostics, loopback test hosts, reload.
• Desktop tools unavailable when a source CLI starts a worker in an installed app's data directory #128 — Desktop tools unavailable when a source CLI starts a worker in an installed app's data directory.
• Ace-dev crashes shortly after launch with SIGTRAP in bundled Bun worker #150 — Ace-dev crashes shortly after launch with SIGTRAP in the bundled Bun worker.
• Make stale worker.pid reclaim atomic so two workers cannot own a channel #166 — Make stale worker.pid reclaim atomic (static review finding, not reproduced).
• Hosted idle hibernation interrupts active tools while local shell keeps running #183 — Hosted idle hibernation interrupts active tools while the original local shell continues (reproduced in deployed pilot Verify a deployed hosted channel with a local workspace #176; hosted meta [Meta] Run hosted channels in the cloud with local workspaces #13).

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

Related hosted-channel work: #13 tracks cloud cells with local workspaces; #176 is the deployed-path dogfooding pilot. Record its deployed model/tool, recovery and second-machine evidence there and link discovered bugs here. Local Workers checks and baseline #10 do not certify hosted deployment, and this separate pilot does not expand the native dogfooding MVP gates above.

Scope decisions and supporting evidence.

Native dogfooding findings

• Find applications omitted by bounded desktop inventory #83 — Find applications omitted by bounded native inventory; fixed in Search desktop applications before bounding inventory results #84.

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

• Explain native inspection failure when the desktop or target window becomes unavailable desktop-tools#1 — Explain native inspection failure when the desktop or window becomes unavailable (via [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace #8).

• Native button click can take effect but time out waiting for completion #61 — Button press completion; fixed in feat(desktop): add targeted native actions #63.

• Preserve native preflight refusal evidence after focus changes #69 — Preserve native preflight refusal evidence after focus changes (found during Validate native text insertion on hosted channels and under interruption #65 keyboard validation).

• Report moved-window coordinate clicks rejected before dispatch as refused #155 — Report moved-window coordinate clicks rejected before dispatch as refused (via [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace #8).

• githubnext/ace2#113 — Inspect Chrome windows with Accessibility when the page title changes (via [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace #8).

• Avoid macOS Automation prompts when agents drive other apps #103 — Agent guidance for native-first app control (found during Attach images pasted into the composer #91 validation); sub-issue of [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace #8.

• Focus and paste into WebKit composers with native desktop tools desktop-tools#5 — WebKit focus/paste failures (found during Attach images pasted into the composer #91 validation); sub-issue of [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace #8.