Cross-browser E2E tests require Firefox to be installed

[intendednull]

Problem

e2e/cross-browser-sync.spec.ts tests fail immediately (~200ms) because they manually launch Firefox via chromium.launch() / firefox.launch() and Firefox is not installed. The tests don't use Playwright fixtures, so they bypass project-level browser configuration.

✘ mobile Chrome to desktop Firefox — invite + messaging (218ms)
✘ desktop Firefox to mobile Chrome — invite + channel sync (180ms)

Expected Behavior

Cross-browser tests should either:

1. Skip gracefully when Firefox is not installed
2. Use Playwright fixtures with proper browser project configuration
3. Document the Firefox requirement in setup-e2e.sh

Notes

setup-e2e.sh currently only installs Chromium (npx playwright install --with-deps chromium). Adding Firefox would increase setup time but enable cross-browser tests.

Files

• e2e/cross-browser-sync.spec.ts — manually launches browsers
• scripts/setup-e2e.sh — only installs Chromium

[m13v]

option 2 (using Playwright fixtures with project configuration) is the cleanest fix here. manually launching browsers with chromium.launch() and firefox.launch() bypasses Playwright's entire lifecycle management which is why it breaks. convert the tests to use standard test fixtures and configure separate projects in playwright.config.ts, one for chromium and one for firefox. then update setup-e2e.sh to install both browsers. the CI time increase is modest, firefox adds maybe 30-40 seconds to install. for graceful skipping when firefox isn't available, add a test.skip() condition that checks the browser type from the project config rather than trying to detect installed browsers at runtime.

[m13v]

for the cross-browser session management and preventing test conflicts between browser projects, we built a lock-based orchestration script: https://github.com/m13v/browser-lock/blob/main/playwright-lock.sh

[intendednull]

already-fixed. e2e/cross-browser-sync.spec.ts ship firefoxAvailable() probe + test.skip(!firefoxAvailable(), FIREFOX_SKIP_REASON) in beforeEach — exact option 1 from issue ("skip gracefully when Firefox is not installed"). probe stat the binary path (not just executablePath() string) so missing-binary case skip clean instead of fail-200ms.

verify @ e2e/cross-browser-sync.spec.ts:21-29,49. close as completed.

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