test(openclaw): protect post-idle TUI interactions

[senthilr-nv]

Summary

The OpenClaw TUI can render its idle status before it paints the correlated reply or slash-command output. The #6194 live regression guard now accepts either order while requiring both signals inside one bounded wait.

Related Issue

Refs #6194

Changes

• Wait for reply and idle signals as an unordered pair after a chat request.
• Wait for status output and idle signals as an unordered pair after /nemoclaw status.
• Keep both signals inside one deadline with exp_continue -continue_timer.
• Preserve separate timeout and EOF exit codes for whichever signal is missing.
• Execute contract tests for both signal orders, all four failure exits, and repeated redraws.
• Bound both synchronous Expect subprocesses with timeouts and hard-kill behavior.

The expect_pair_or_exit procedure serves the accepted #6194 chat and status journey because terminal redraws do not guarantee text order. Sequential waits discard a signal that renders before the preceding match. A direct ordered wait cannot distinguish a working interaction from a missing signal.

This PR does not change OpenClaw product code or close #6194. It protects the accepted user-facing journey through the existing live E2E boundary.

Type of Change

• Code change (feature, bug fix, or refactor)
• Code change with doc updates
• Doc only (prose changes, no code sample modifications)
• Doc only (includes code sample changes)

Quality Gates

• Tests added or updated for changed behavior
• Existing tests cover changed behavior — justification:
• Tests not applicable — justification:
• Docs updated for user-facing behavior changes
• Docs not applicable — justification: This change strengthens internal E2E coverage and does not change supported product behavior.
• Sensitive paths changed (security, policy, credentials, preflight, onboarding, inference, runner, sandbox, or messaging)
• Sensitive-path review completed or maintainer-approved waiver recorded — reviewer/approval link/justification:
• Non-success, skipped, or missing CI check accepted by maintainer — check name, approval link, and follow-up issue:

Documentation Writer Review

• Documentation writer subagent reviewed the completed changes
• Result: no-docs-needed
• Evidence: No documentation paths changed. The change strengthens the internal [All Platforms][Agent&Skills] openclaw tui interactions timeout after connected idle on v0.0.72 #6194 E2E regression guard without changing product behavior.
• Agent: Codex Desktop

DGX Station Hardware Evidence

• Tested on DGX Station
• Tested commit:
• Station profile/scenario:
• Result:
• Supporting evidence:

Verification

• PR description includes a Signed-off-by: line and every commit appears as Verified in GitHub
• Normal pre-commit, commit-msg, and pre-push hooks passed, or npm run check:diff passed when hooks were skipped or unavailable
• Targeted behavior tests pass for the current change set, or tests are marked not applicable above — command/result or justification: /opt/homebrew/bin/node node_modules/vitest/vitest.mjs run --project e2e-support test/e2e/support/issue-6194-tui-post-idle-contract.test.ts passed 18 tests with real Expect.
• Applicable broad gate passed — npm test for broad runtime/test-harness changes; npm run check for repo-wide validation/coverage changes — command/result:
• Quality Gates section completed with required justifications or waivers
• No secrets, API keys, or credentials committed
• npm run docs builds without warnings (doc changes only)
• Doc pages follow the style guide (doc changes only)
• New doc pages include SPDX header and frontmatter (new pages only)

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Signed-off-by: Senthil Ravichandran senthilr@nvidia.com

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Adds an exported expect_pair_or_exit generator for tracking two regex matches, updates chat and status TUI flows to use it, and expands contract tests for ordering, timeout, EOF, and repeated redraw behavior.

Changes

Issue 6194 paired Expect flow

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Paired Expect procedure and TUI integration test/e2e/live/issue-6194-tui-expect.ts	Generates expect_pair_or_exit with conditional timeout/EOF exits and uses paired matching for chat replies and status output.
Paired Expect contract validation test/e2e/support/issue-6194-tui-post-idle-contract.test.ts	Verifies generated script fragments and runs conditional Expect subprocess cases for signal ordering, timeout, EOF, and repeated redraws.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• NVIDIA/NemoClaw#7523: Introduces the same paired Expect helper and corresponding Issue 6194 contract coverage.

Suggested labels: integration: openclaw, area: e2e

Suggested reviewers: cjagwani

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The changes strengthen the #6194 regression guard for the post-idle chat and /nemoclaw status flows with paired Expect coverage.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The PR stays within test/support code for issue #6194 and adds no unrelated feature or product changes.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title is concise and clearly reflects the main change: protecting post-idle OpenClaw TUI interactions.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch codex/protect-post-idle-tui

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_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[github-code-quality]

Code Coverage Overview

Languages: TypeScript

TypeScript / code-coverage/plugin

The overall coverage in commit 30ae2f2 in the codex/protect-post-i... branch remains at 96%, unchanged from commit 12b9440 in the main branch.

TypeScript / code-coverage/cli

The overall coverage in commit 30ae2f2 in the codex/protect-post-i... branch is 81%. The coverage in commit 66f9383 in the main branch is 80%.

Show a code coverage summary of the most impacted files.

File	main 66f9383	codex/protect-post-i... 30ae2f2	+/-
src/lib/onboard...ort-listener.ts	100%	95%	-5%
src/lib/onboard...or-reconnect.ts	86%	83%	-3%
src/lib/onboard...wn-authority.ts	96%	93%	-3%
src/lib/onboard...-gateway-env.ts	93%	92%	-1%
src/lib/onboard...eway-runtime.ts	92%	92%	0%
src/lib/onboard.ts	32%	32%	0%
src/lib/platform.ts	84%	89%	+5%
src/lib/onboard...eway-service.ts	76%	82%	+6%
src/lib/onboard...ess-identity.ts	90%	100%	+10%
src/lib/adapter...regular-file.ts	0%	91%	+91%

---

_{Updated July 25, 2026 21:57 UTC}

[github-actions]

PR Review Advisor — Informational

Advisor assessment: Informational / low confidence
Next action: No advisor follow-up needed.
Findings: 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions
Status: PR review advisor failed: PR review advisor SDK execution failed: session: Request timed out.; turn: scope-risk-map-analysis: Request timed out.

Model lanes

• GPT-5.6 Terra (primary): Failed
• Nemotron 3 Ultra (second opinion): Completed · high confidence · 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions

Nemotron output stays in workflow artifacts and does not change the assessment above.

E2E guidance

Advisory only. E2E / PR Gate selects and runs jobs independently.

Recommended E2E: cloud-onboard, credential-sanitization, security-posture

Workflow run details

This automated review informs maintainers. Warnings and suggestions do not require a response. A maintainer decides whether to merge.