skills/docs/worklogs/2025-12-29-issue-triage-playwright-skill-implementation.org

Issue Triage and Playwright-Visit Skill Implementation

• Session Summary
  • Date: 2025-12-29 (Late night session, continuation from 2025-12-28)
  • Focus Area: Clearing design decision backlog, implementing playwright-visit skill
• Accomplishments
• Key Decisions
  • Decision 1: Web search skills - keep two separate
  • Decision 2: Repo-setup-verification - keep as prompt doc
  • Decision 3: Skill trigger conditions - agent judgment sufficient
  • Decision 4: Gemini CLI skills - wait for native support
  • Decision 5: Skills-molecules integration - park the ADR
  • Decision 6: Structured skill reference schema - defer
• Problems & Solutions
• Technical Details
  • Code Changes
  • New Files Created
  • Commands Used
  • Architecture Notes
• Process and Workflow
  • What Worked Well
  • What Was Challenging
• Learning and Insights
  • Technical Insights
  • Process Insights
  • Architectural Insights
• Context for Future Work
  • Open Questions
  • Next Steps
  • Related Work
• Raw Notes
  • Issues Closed This Session
• Session Metrics

Session Summary

Date: 2025-12-29 (Late night session, continuation from 2025-12-28)

Focus Area: Clearing design decision backlog, implementing playwright-visit skill

Accomplishments

• Closed skills-vb5: Resolved web search design questions
• Closed skills-al5: Decided to keep repo-setup-verification as prompt doc (not skill)
• Closed skills-u3d: Confirmed agent judgment from description is sufficient for triggers
• Closed skills-1n3: Gemini CLI skills - wait for native support, no MCP
• Closed skills-2xo: Added README.md for web-search skill
• Closed skills-qeh: Added README.md for web-research skill
• Closed skills-gq9: Deferred structured skill reference schema
• Closed skills-hin: Parked ADR-001 skills-molecules integration
• Closed skills-rpf: Implemented playwright-visit skill for browser automation
• Moved skills-e8h to dotfiles repo (waybar+niri belongs there)
• Fixed playwright-visit networkidle timeout issue
• Tested playwright-visit on NYT homepage successfully
• Added playwright-visit to dotfiles deployment (commit ready, deploy blocked by network)

Key Decisions

Decision 1: Web search skills - keep two separate

• Context: Had brainstorm doc with open questions about single vs multiple skills

• Options considered:

  1. Single smart skill that figures out what to do
  2. Two skills: web-search (quick) and web-research (deep)
• Rationale: Claude Code has built-in WebSearch now, so web-search is mainly for OpenCode. Keep separate for clear intent.
• Impact: web-search deployed to OpenCode only, web-research to both

Decision 2: Repo-setup-verification - keep as prompt doc

• Context: Dotfiles has repo-setup-prompt.md for verifying agent setup

• Options considered:

  1. Convert to skill
  2. Keep as prompt doc
• Rationale: Claude can read it when asked "verify my repo setup". Skill wrapper adds no value for instructions-only content.
• Impact: No new skill created, doc stays in dotfiles

Decision 3: Skill trigger conditions - agent judgment sufficient

• Context: How should agents know when to invoke skills?
• Options considered: Frontmatter triggers, file detection, agent judgment, beads hooks, LLM pattern matching
• Rationale: Current approach (description + "When to Use" section) works well. Infrastructure for triggers is premature.
• Impact: No new trigger mechanism, focus on good skill documentation

Decision 4: Gemini CLI skills - wait for native support

• Context: Skills don't work with Gemini CLI

• Options considered:

  1. MCP extension (gemini-cli-skillz)
  2. Wait for native support (issue #11506)
  3. Manual GEMINI.md references
• Rationale: User doesn't want MCP. Native support pending. GEMINI.md workaround sufficient.
• Impact: No Gemini skill integration for now

Decision 5: Skills-molecules integration - park the ADR

• Context: ADR-001 describes complex integration between skills and beads molecules
• Rationale: Current simpler approach works well. Skills as standalone entrypoints. Molecules not actively used.
• Impact: ADR status changed to "Parked", revisit when orchestration needs grow

Decision 6: Structured skill reference schema - defer

• Context: Proposed schema for molecule→skill invocation with typed inputs/outputs
• Rationale: Premature infrastructure. Skills work well with agent reading SKILL.md directly.
• Impact: No schema implementation, revisit if programmatic workflows become active

Problems & Solutions

Problem	Solution	Learning
playwright networkidle timeout on NYT	Changed to domcontentloaded + wait param	Heavy sites need different wait strategy
Dotfiles deploy failed - delbaker flake issue	Unrelated to skill, network issues compounded	Flake input mismatches need manual update
GitHub API 504 timeout	Defer deploy, changes committed	Network instability throughout session
Gemini CLI lacks skill support	Use GEMINI.md to reference skill paths	Native support pending, MCP rejected

Technical Details

Code Changes

• Total files modified: ~15

• Key files changed:

  • skills/playwright-visit/ - New skill (SKILL.md, README.md, flake.nix, scripts/visit.py)
  • skills/web-search/README.md - New human documentation
  • skills/web-research/README.md - New human documentation
  • web_search_brainstorm.md - Added resolution section
  • docs/adr/001-skills-molecules-integration.md - Updated status to Parked
  • ~/proj/dotfiles/home/claude.nix - Added playwright-visit to skills lists

New Files Created

• skills/playwright-visit/SKILL.md - Agent instructions for browser automation
• skills/playwright-visit/README.md - Human documentation
• skills/playwright-visit/flake.nix - Nix devShell with playwright
• skills/playwright-visit/scripts/visit.py - CLI with screenshot/text/html/pdf commands
• skills/web-search/README.md - Human docs
• skills/web-research/README.md - Human docs

Commands Used

# Test playwright-visit
cd skills/playwright-visit && nix develop --command ./scripts/visit.py --help
./scripts/visit.py screenshot "https://example.com" /tmp/test.png
./scripts/visit.py text "https://example.com"
./scripts/visit.py screenshot "https://www.nytimes.com" /tmp/nyt.png --wait 3000

# Deploy dotfiles (failed due to network)
cd ~/proj/dotfiles && ./bin/deploy.sh
nix flake update skills delbaker

Architecture Notes

• playwright-visit uses NixOS system chromium (no browser download)
• domcontentloaded wait strategy more reliable than networkidle for heavy sites
• Skills deployed via Nix home-manager symlinks to ~/.claude/skills/

Process and Workflow

What Worked Well

• Rapid issue triage - many design decisions resolved quickly
• Pattern: show issue → analyze → decide → close with rationale
• Testing playwright-visit immediately after implementation caught timeout bug
• Using playwright to screenshot NYT demonstrated real-world utility

What Was Challenging

• Network instability (GitHub API timeouts, cachix DNS issues, git remote down)
• Flake input mismatches requiring manual updates
• Dotfiles deploy blocked by multiple issues (delbaker flake, network)

Learning and Insights

Technical Insights

• Playwright networkidle waits for all network activity to stop - too strict for modern sites
• domcontentloaded + explicit wait is more reliable pattern
• NixOS playwright uses system chromium via executable_path, avoiding binary downloads

Process Insights

• Many open design issues were actually resolved by "current approach is sufficient"
• Parking/deferring premature infrastructure is better than building unused complexity
• Skills work well as standalone - molecule integration adds overhead without proportional benefit

Architectural Insights

• Claude Code built-in WebSearch/WebFetch reduces need for web-search skill
• Agent judgment from description is the right trigger mechanism - no infrastructure needed
• GEMINI.md manual skill references work until native support lands

Context for Future Work

Open Questions

• When will Gemini CLI get native skill support?
• Should playwright-visit support authentication (storage_state)?
• Add –viewport option for different screen sizes?

Next Steps

• Deploy dotfiles when network stabilizes
• Test playwright-visit from deployed ~/.claude/skills/ location
• Consider adding playwright-visit to more repos via .skills manifest
• Remaining ready issues: x2l (orch hooks), pdg (AT-SPI), ebl (vision benchmark), 6e3 (search history), 8d9 (orch patterns)

Related Work

• Earlier 2025-12-28 session - niri fixes, OpenCode research
• 2025-12-28 morning session - code-review skill creation

Raw Notes

• Session ran late night into early morning (Dec 28 → Dec 29)
• Cleared significant design decision backlog
• Many issues closed as "current approach sufficient" or "deferred/parked"
• playwright-visit is first skill with its own flake.nix devShell
• NYT headline captured: "Trump and Zelensky Meet to Iron Out Peace Plan, but Deal Remains Elusive"

Issues Closed This Session

Issue	Title	Resolution
skills-vb5	Resolve web search design questions	Keep 2 skills, web-search for OpenCode only
skills-al5	Consider repo-setup-verification skill	Keep as prompt doc in dotfiles
skills-u3d	Define skill trigger conditions	Agent judgment sufficient
skills-1n3	Set up agent skills for Gemini CLI	Wait for native support, no MCP
skills-2xo	Add README.md for web-search	Created
skills-qeh	Add README.md for web-research	Created
skills-gq9	Define structured skill reference schema	Deferred
skills-hin	ADR: Skills and Molecules Integration	Parked
skills-rpf	Implement playwright-visit skill	Implemented and tested

Session Metrics

• Commits made: 12 (skills repo) + 2 (dotfiles)
• Files touched: ~15
• Lines added/removed: +500/-20 (estimated)
• Issues closed: 9
• New skills created: 1 (playwright-visit)
• READMEs added: 3 (web-search, web-research, playwright-visit)
• Tests added: 0 (manual testing only)