22 @critical failures in 41-chat-deep.spec.ts shared one root cause:
`firstConversationRow` searched for `button[type="button"]` inside
the sidebar container, which also matched the "New Channel" CTA
button at the sidebar footer. When the listener test user had no
conversations seeded, `waitForConversationOrEmpty` raced and
returned 'has-conversations' because the CTA button matched the
conversation-row locator — `selectFirstConversation` then clicked
the CTA, opened CreateRoomDialog, and the subsequent
`expect(input).toBeEnabled()` failed because clicking the CTA
never set `currentConversationId`.
Fix:
* `data-testid="chat-conversation-item"` on ConversationItem
(+ `data-conversation-id` for callers that need the id).
* `data-testid="chat-new-channel-cta"` on the New Channel
footer button.
* `firstConversationRow` / `waitForConversationOrEmpty` /
`createRoom` rewired to target by testid. No more overlap.
* Shared helper `tests/e2e/helpers/conversation.ts` with a
minimal `navigateToConversation(page)` — picks the first
existing conversation if any, else creates a disposable one,
returns when the message input is enabled. Signature is
deliberately minimal (no options) to avoid the second-API-
surface trap. Future callers that need specialised behavior
set up store state directly instead of extending this helper.
Results:
* 22 failed → 20 passed / 3 failed / 10 skipped (graceful skips
when test user lacks seed data).
* The 3 remaining failures are distinct root causes:
- `:220` chat page debug text leak (suspected [object Object]
or undefined rendering somewhere in chat UI — real bug,
tracked separately)
- `:339` / `:347` createRoom DOM-detach race: the "Create
room" button gets detached mid-click, suggesting the dialog
is re-rendering during the click handler. Likely a fix in
the dialog lifecycle rather than the test. Tracked
separately.
29-chat-functional.spec.ts (2 failures on send-message) not
touched by this fix — those tests don't hit the row-vs-CTA
ambiguity, they fail further downstream when the backend doesn't
echo sent messages. Same class as #7 (backend-side chat
processing incomplete in test env).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>