v0.13.0

v0.13.0 — Record/replay parity

Three closely-related improvements to how saved specs behave under realistic conditions: UI drift, missing initial navigation, and dirty page state at record time. Each one was a real user complaint or a known sharp edge; together they close out the long-tail of "spec recorded green but failed on re-run because something I didn't think about."

Highlights

1. Visibility prelude in writeSpec emit (#57)

Every interaction step (click / dblclick / hover / fill / selectOption) is now wrapped in a block-scoped:

{
  const el = page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' });
  await expect(el).toBeVisible();
  await el.click();
}

instead of a bare await page.getByRole(...).click(). Closes a known gap that an external contributor pointed out on X: getByRole defaults to "visible OR attached", so a button that drifted into a closed <details> / kebab menu / drawer is still in the role tree — the locator stays green while the actual flow degraded. Playwright's actionability still catches the case via timeout, but with a generic "element not actionable" message after 30 s; the prelude makes the same case fail in ~3 s with a categorically clear Locator expected to be visible.

Same outcome. Faster + much clearer. The honest framing is in the updated FAQ.

2. Record mode emits page.goto as the first step (#60)

Pressing Record now captures window.location.href as a synthetic browser_navigate step, so the saved spec opens the right page before replaying clicks. Without this, a fresh Playwright run started on about:blank, getByRole(...) resolved to nothing, and the first interaction timed out with element(s) not found. Looked like a Hover bug — was really a missing initial goto. Agent-driven sessions never hit this because the agent calls browser_navigate itself; only manual Record needed the synthetic step.

3. "Reload before recording" setting (#61)

New opt-in setting in the widget Settings overlay (default off). When enabled, pressing Record shows a confirm() dialog; on OK the page reloads via a sessionStorage flag and the widget auto-resumes into recording mode.

Closes the symmetric gap to the page.goto fix above: replay always starts from a fresh page load (because page.goto is the first step), but a recording captured from a page with accumulated state — logged-in, filled forms — can't be reproduced from that fresh load. Users who want strict record/replay parity flip the switch; the default stays off because the common "I logged in, now record the post-login flow" case shouldn't force re-login.

Supporting work

• Visibility-drift lab in examples/basic-app (#59) — ?drift=on URL toggle with three buttons hidden three different idiomatic ways (closed <details>, display: none, visibility: hidden). Paired specs __vibe_tests__/visibility-prelude.spec.ts (NEW emit) and visibility-prelude-old-emit.spec.ts (pre-v0.13 emit) demonstrate the speed + clarity gap side by side.
• Honest framing in FAQ (#58) — the first draft of the prelude FAQ overclaimed ("catches drift Playwright wouldn't"). External reviewer correctly pointed out actionability already catches it, just slowly. Rewrite makes the speed + clarity contribution explicit.
• 9 new vitest cases in packages/core/tests/specs/writeSpec.test.ts covering the prelude — one per element-targeting tool plus three negative cases (no prelude for browser_navigate / browser_press_key, multi-field forms emit one prelude per field, chained interactions don't collide on const el).

Install

npx @hover-dev/cli@latest add        # one command, picks the right shim
# or directly:
pnpm add -D vite-plugin-hover        # Vite
pnpm add -D @hover-dev/astro         # Astro
pnpm add -D @hover-dev/nuxt          # Nuxt
pnpm add -D @hover-dev/next          # Next.js (Turbopack default + webpack)
pnpm add -D webpack-plugin-hover     # webpack 5 / Rspack / Rsbuild

What's next

v0.14 is being scoped — likely a sibling repo for the Chrome extension (drops the bundler-plugin dependency so Hover can drive any tab — staging URLs, third-party sites — at the cost of source attribution). Tracking in the roadmap.

---

Full PR list

• docs: sync 24 files to v0.12 state — workflow audit + apply by @chihyungchang in #55
• docs(screenshots): refresh agents-dropdown to v0.12 (6 agents) by @chihyungchang in #56
• feat(specs): visibility prelude before every interaction by @chihyungchang in #57
• docs(faq): honest framing on the visibility prelude by @chihyungchang in #58
• feat(basic-app): visibility-drift lab + reproduction specs by @chihyungchang in #59
• fix(widget): Record mode emits page.goto as the first step by @chihyungchang in #60
• feat(widget): add Reload before recording setting by @chihyungchang in #61
• chore: prep README + CHANGELOG for v0.13.0 release by @chihyungchang in #62

Full Changelog: v0.12.0...v0.13.0