UX Audit (v2)

Walk through a live web app AS a real user. The audit is interaction-first — typing, clicking, sending, watching, screenshotting. A static DOM sweep cannot produce a verdict.

Why this skill exists in v2

Most catastrophic UX bugs only surface under interaction:

• The Send button that doesn't clear the input

• The @-mention picker that double-inserts the handle

• The thread pane that breaks layout when the sidebar is also open at 1280px

• The form submit that disables the button but silently 5xx's

• The console warning that's been logging for weeks but no audit ever flagged

A DOM probe sees none of these. They require: type → wait → screenshot → diff → console-read → repeat. The previous audit method drifted toward sweep mode (faster, feels productive, blind to behaviour). v2 makes that drift impossible — the agent cannot output "Pass" without an Interaction Manifest that proves real clicks happened.

Verdict states

The audit ends in exactly one of:

• Pass — Critical = 0, High = 0, all hard gates green, Interaction Manifest complete.

• Conditional Pass — Critical = 0, High = 0, all hard gates green, but Medium/Low present.

• Fail — at least one Critical or High finding, OR a hard gate red.

• Incomplete — Interaction Manifest missing required entries, a phase wasn't run, OR the audit-the-audit meta-check fires (manifest timestamps clustered < 0.5s apart, screenshots fewer than 2 × routes, console reads fewer than 1 × routes, Phase 3 took < 1m for an exhaustive audit). Not legal to upgrade to Pass even if everything observed looked fine.

If the work doesn't include a complete Interaction Manifest, the only legal verdict is Incomplete. "It looked OK" is not Pass. A clean Pass with implausible timings is rejected — the agent must redo the audit with real interaction.

Hard gates

These auto-fail the audit. They cannot be downgraded.

Gate Threshold Severity if violated

Console errors during walkthrough

0 Critical

Console warnings during walkthrough

0 High

Network 5xx

0 Critical

Network 403 / 404 on authenticated pages

0 High

Layout collapse at any tested viewport / pane combo

0 High

axe-core Critical violations on any audited page

0 Critical

axe-core Serious violations on any audited page

0 High

LCP on representative route (pragmatic budget)

4.0s High

CLS on representative route

0.25 High

INP on representative route

500ms High

Required Interaction Manifest entry missing n/a Incomplete

Manifest median gap between entries < 0.5s n/a Incomplete (didn't actually interact)

A console warning is High minimum. A 5xx is Critical automatically. There is no "Medium console error" — that category does not exist in this skill.

axe-core thresholds are run per page (>1 violation on any single page fails). Performance thresholds are run once on a representative route (per-page is overkill); pragmatic budget is well above broken, well below CWV-strict. Full thresholds + rationale in references/performance-budget.md. Full a11y wiring + severity mapping in references/a11y-automation.md.

Allowlist for known noise

Some apps have known-noisy console / network categories that aren't bugs (Sentry info logs in dev, browser-extension chatter, expected 401 on auth-check probes). The audit reads .jez/audit-config.yml (or .json ) before Phase 3 and applies the allowlist when classifying findings. Allowlisted entries stay in the Interaction Manifest (transparency) but suppress from the findings count. The verdict block always shows both raw and allowlisted counts — Console warnings: 3 (1 allowlisted, 2 reportable) .

Default without a config: every console error / warning is a finding. Allowlist is opt-in per project, not a global escape hatch. Full format, semantics, surface overrides, and quarterly-audit discipline in references/audit-config.md.

Phases (in order)

• Pre-flight — Persona Lock, browser tool, URL, viewport, capability tests

• Discovery — sitemap, thread inventory, element inventory

• Walkthrough — Interaction Manifest, threads, element exhaustion, multi-pane stress, first-time-user lens, live interaction smoke

• Polish — visual polish sweep, component perfection checklist

• Stress — scenario battery (10 scenarios) + extended stress recipes

• Verdict — verdict state, hard-gate scorecard, perfection roadmap, findings with reproduction

• Fix-and-verify — patch findings, re-walk affected slices, update report

This is the thorough audit. There is no quick mode. For a 30-second pre-deploy check, use the dogfood drill at the bottom of this file — it's a project-level rule, not a skill invocation.

Phase 1 — Pre-flight

Five gates. Stop if any fail.

1. Persona Lock

The audit needs a persona before anything else. Without a locked persona, findings drift toward generic "looks fine".

Source the persona in this order:

• Argument — if the user provided one ("ux audit as a busy insurance broker")

• Project personas — read .jez/audit-personas/<slug>.md , .jez/personas/default.md , or .jez/personas/<app-name>.md if they exist

• Ask once — "Who uses this app and what are they trying to get done?"

Capture: role, tech comfort, time pressure, emotional state, device context. A good persona predicts what they'd miss ("A receptionist between phone calls won't scroll below the fold").

Lock the persona by writing the chosen persona at the top of the audit report. Every finding must be defensible from this persona's perspective. If you catch yourself thinking "a developer would know..." — stop. Your persona doesn't.

Always also run the first-time-user lens (mandatory, see Phase 3) on every multi-page feature, even when the explicit persona is something else. It's the single biggest blind spot for AI / internal tooling.

See references/persona-lock.md for the persona library and writing protocol.

2. Browser tool

Target Tool Why

Authenticated app Chrome MCP Uses your real logged-in Chrome session — OAuth, cookies, RBAC just work

Public site Playwright MCP No login needed

Neither available Stop Ask the user to connect Chrome MCP or install Playwright

Do not silently fall back to a fresh Playwright session for an authenticated app — the audit is worthless if you can't log in. If Chrome MCP isn't connected, stop and say: "Open Chrome, click Connect in the Claude extension, then rerun."

See references/browser-tools.md for commands.

3. URL

Prefer the deployed/live version — that's what real users see.

• Check wrangler.jsonc for pattern or custom_domain

• Check CLAUDE.md, README, package.json homepage field

• Fall back to lsof -i :5173 -i :3000 -i :8787 -t for a running dev server

• Ask the user

Live site has real auth, real latency, real CDN and CORS behaviour. Local misses deployment-specific bugs. Only use local if the user asks or the feature isn't deployed.

4. Viewport

Pin the window at 1440×900 to start. Phase 3 multi-pane stress tests 375 / 768 / 1024 / 1280 / 1440 / 1920. Do not go above 2000px — it breaks the harness.

5. Capability tests

Before any walkthrough, prove the tools work — one call each:

• One screenshot

• One console read

• One network request inventory

• One element selector query

If any fail, stop and fix the connection before starting the audit. An audit blind to console output is worthless.

Phase 2 — Discovery

Sitemap crawl

Build the complete page inventory before auditing any page.

• Router config — read the app's route definitions (React Router, TanStack Router, Next.js app dir)

• Nav crawl — click through every section and sub-section of the sidebar/menu

• Deep links — URLs in CLAUDE.md, docs, or a prior audit report

One line per route, with purpose: /app/clients — list of clients, search, add new .

Thread inventory

Identify 3–5 real tasks that make up a user's day. These are the spines of the audit.

How to find them: ask the user, read CLAUDE.md / README, infer from top-level nav. Examples: insurance broker → renew a policy, create a client, work today's queue. Project management → morning triage, update a task, send a client summary. Spaces / chat app → create a space, send a message, open a thread.

Element inventory

For each route as you reach it, list every interactive element. Build inventories lazily — per-page as you traverse, not all up-front. This drives the coverage metric: "tested 29 of 31 elements on /app/clients".

Phase 3 — Walkthrough (the audit itself)

Interaction Manifest (MANDATORY)

Every walkthrough produces a manifest. Without it, verdict = Incomplete.

INTERACTION MANIFEST — /dashboard/spaces/marketing-pod Persona: SME owner, time-pressed, low tech comfort [✓] 14:32:01 Typed "@assistant test" into message input (textarea[placeholder*="message"]) [✓] 14:32:03 Picked @assistant from autocomplete (li[data-mention-id="assistant"]) [✓] 14:32:05 Clicked Send (button[aria-label="Send"]) [✓] 14:32:06 Verified input cleared within 1000ms (textarea.value === "") [✓] 14:32:08 Verified message appeared in transcript ([data-message-id] count +1) [✓] 14:32:12 Opened thread on the message ([data-thread-trigger]) [✓] 14:32:13 Verified main column width ≥ 200px after thread open (getBoundingClientRect().width) [✓] Console read after each step (0 warnings, 0 errors) [✓] Screenshot before + after each step [✓] Network requests inventoried (0 5xx, 0 403/404 on auth pages)

Every checkbox needs a tool call (a click, a screenshot, a console read) and the timestamps + selectors are logged. The agent cannot produce a "Pass" report without a complete manifest.

Required entries per page audited:

• ≥ 1 input typed into (real text, not just clicked)

• ≥ 1 primary action triggered (Send / Save / Submit / Create / Publish — whichever fits)

• ≥ 1 modal or detail pane opened

• ≥ 1 console read after the primary action

• ≥ 1 screenshot before AND after the primary action

• Verification of expected post-action state (input cleared, success toast, route change, list updated)

Full template + replay protocol in references/interaction-manifest.md.

Thread Traversal

For each thread:

• Start from the app entry point — not mid-thread. Real users land at / or /dashboard .

• Walk as the persona — if they'd skim, skim. If they'd misread a label, misread it. Note hesitations.

• Screenshot every state change — default → hover/focus → active → after click → after load → confirmation. The filmstrip is the evidence.

• Track the cost — click count, decision points, dead ends, interrupt recovery (close tab at step 3, return at step 4 — did state survive?)

• Hand screenshots to a sub-agent for review at the end of each thread.

At the end of each thread, answer (as the persona): Did it end clearly? Would I come back? One thing to make this twice as easy?

See references/walkthrough-checklist.md and references/workflow-comprehension.md.

Element Exhaustion

For each route, work the inventory. Skip elements already exercised by thread traversal. Detail in references/walkthrough-checklist.md.

For every list/table, test at volumes 0 / 1 / 100 / 1000+ if data permits.

Multi-Pane Stress (mandatory for apps with collapsible UI)

Pane combinations are where the worst layout bugs hide — including the 2026-04-29 vertical-text-in-spaces bug, which only manifested at 1024-1280px with all three panes open. Skipping this phase means missing this class of bug entirely.

For apps with sidebars, members panels, threads, drawers, sheets:

Viewport Panes What to capture

1920 All open Baseline — should always work

1440 All open Common dev resolution

1280 All open Where layout collapses start

1024 All open Tablet landscape — high-bug zone

1024 2-pane (drop one) Verify graceful degradation

1024 1-pane (mobile-style) Should fold cleanly

768 All collapsible closed Tablet portrait

375 Mobile baseline Mobile

For each combination: scroll the longest content, capture a screenshot, run the layout-detection JS to flag overflow / clipping / vertical-text-stacks (every character on its own line), and verify min-content widths.

Detail + automation snippets in references/multi-pane-stress.md.

First-time-user lens (mandatory)

Beyond the locked persona, every multi-page feature must pass the first-time user check. This catches the single biggest UX failure mode in internal/AI tooling: features built by the people who designed them work for them, but a brand-new user landing on the same screen has no idea what any of the controls mean.

Adopt the persona of someone signing in to this app for the very first time, with no prior context, no source access, no internal documentation. For each screen ask:

Question What it catches

Could I complete the task without reading the code or docs? Hidden technical knowledge baked into the form

Are field labels in plain language, not internal vocabulary? agentClass , slug , webhook_id leaking into UI

Do dropdowns / pickers show what each option does, not just an ID? Snake_case enums, raw class names, opaque slugs

Are defaults sensible enough to keep them and move on? Required fields with no defaults, mandatory ID inputs

Is there a discoverable list of valid values when something needs to be entered? Free-text inputs where a combobox should be

If I'd say "click Skip" because I don't understand a setting, that's a UX bug. Optional-but-confusing settings exposed as primary inputs

When the lens fires, log a finding even if the screen technically works. Common fixes: replace text inputs with pickers, surface metadata, auto-derive values, hide internal IDs under "Advanced", add inline guidance.

A screen passes the lens when a brand-new persona could complete the task without back-channel help.

Live Interaction Smoke

Code reading verifies a button exists and has an onClick . It does not verify clicking actually does something observable. For every interactive control on every page:

• Click it. Pointer moves, element highlights, click lands.

• Watch the Network tab. Did a request fire? To the right URL? Correct method + body?

• Watch the DOM. Did something visibly change — new element, removed element, state transition?

• If nothing changed in (2) or (3), that's a bug.

Known silent-failure controls (Approve/Deny on tool-call cards, OAuth-in-dialog popup-blocked, async-validation forms, optimistic-UI delete, off-by-one pagination, filter chips with stale TanStack Query, Reply/Forward without Message-ID): see references/live-interaction-smoke.md for the full silent-failure catalogue and SDK contract checks (@ai-sdk/react , better-auth, TanStack Query, React Router v7, Radix Dialog, zodResolver).

Round-trip Workflow Integrity (mandatory)

For every workflow that traverses pages — A → B → A — the audit must exercise the full round-trip. The bug pattern: a mutation on B creates data tied to A, but B's mutation only invalidates B's own query key. A is stale on return. User sees an empty list, thinks the action failed, retries or gives up.

For each cross-page workflow:

• Capture A's state (count, latest timestamp, badges).

• Trigger the action on A that navigates to B.

• Complete the mutation on B.

• Navigate back via the discoverable back affordance — NOT a hard reload.

• Verify A reflects the new state (incremented count, new row, updated timestamp, decremented badge).

• Verify the back affordance was discoverable: visible without hover, labelled with parent name, sized like a control, sidebar still shows parent context.

If A is stale OR the back affordance is hidden, log a finding (severity High — looks like data loss to the user). Reload that "fixes" the staleness is the smoking gun.

Build the round-trip surface inventory during Phase 2. For each mutation across the app, list every parent query key it should invalidate. Particular smells: header badges (notification bell, unread counts, pending pips) that depend on data multiple pages can mutate.

Full protocol, surface inventory format, detection heuristics, and findings template in references/round-trip-workflows.md.

Responsive Sweep

Layout-detection JS at every width (overflow, clipping, invisible text). Capture transition points. Combined with multi-pane stress above for full coverage.

Auth-expired mid-audit

A long audit (30+ min) can outlast the session expiry. If during the walkthrough a navigation OR an API call returns 401/403 on a route that previously authenticated, the session has dropped.

Don't try to silently re-auth. From this point onward, every observation is potentially corrupted (signed-out user sees different surfaces, hits different gates, gets different copy).

Protocol:

• Stop immediately on the first unexpected 401/403 in the manifest.

• Capture the exact step that broke (network log + screenshot) — that itself is evidence for a possible "session expired without warning" finding.

• Terminate the audit with verdict Incomplete , cause = auth expired mid-audit at <step> .

• Note in the Verdict block how far the audit got: which pages had complete manifest, which were mid-flight.

• Recommend next steps: re-auth in Chrome (or re-run test-auth /cookies if headless) and resume from the point of failure with a fresh session.

This is intentional: silently re-authenticating mid-audit hides session-expiry bugs (the very thing the user might want to know about) AND mixes pre-expiry and post-expiry observations into one report.

If the audit is running headless via test-auth cookies and the cookies expire mid-walkthrough, the same protocol applies — re-mint cookies, restart the audit. Do not stitch two halves together.

Phase 4 — Polish

Visual Polish Sweep

A page-by-page micro-polish pass covering ten AI-tell categories: optical centring, nested border-radius rule, off-scale spacing, vibe greys, border-weight drift, drop-shadow direction, animation timings off canonical, hover-delta calibration, underline / uppercase letter-spacing, symmetry vs editorial pacing.

Plus a per-component optical pass for buttons, badges, inputs, dropdowns, cards, tabs, avatars, toasts.

Full protocol with DevTools workflow, severity guide, and reference apps for calibration in references/visual-polish.md.

Component Perfection Checklist

Component-level granularity that page-level audits miss. Six categories, each with concrete yes/no checks that need proof artefacts:

• Buttons & Triggers — state clarity, intent matching, micro-copy, loading state, hierarchy

• Inputs & Forms — persistent labels, masks, inline validation, error clarity, defaulting

• Navigation & Hierarchy — Where am I?, click depth, search logic, sticky headers

• Visual Coherence — icon consistency, empty states, border radii, contrast ratio

• Mobile & Touch — tappable surface (≥ 48×48), keyboard optimisation, swipe gestures

• Performance & Feedback — skeleton screens, success toasts, confirmation modals only for high-stakes

Plus six visual states per major component (default, skeleton, empty, partial, error, disabled) — skeleton-on-blank is not a skeleton.

Each checkbox in the report cites a proof artefact (screenshot, console line, DOM selector, code reference). No proof = doesn't count.

Full checklist in references/perfection-checklist.md.

Automated accessibility (axe-core, mandatory)

Manual keyboard-only walks (Scenario 5) catch focus traps and tab-order. They miss ~80% of structural a11y bugs (heading skips, hover/focus contrast failures, missing aria-labels, role mismatches). axe-core covers that 80% in <1 second per page.

For every audited page:

• Inject axe-core via CDN (one script tag).

• Run axe.run() after the page settles.

• Map violations → audit findings (axe critical → audit Critical, axe serious → audit High, etc).

• Hard-gate: > 0 axe Critical OR > 0 axe Serious on any page = audit Fails.

Total runtime for a 16-route audit is ~16 seconds. Allowlist via .jez/audit-config.yml for builder-mode reference pages (Components, Style guide). Full snippet, severity mapping, and findings format in references/a11y-automation.md.

Performance budget (pragmatic, mandatory)

Run the Performance API capture once on a representative route (the page real users hit most — usually dashboard or main work surface). Pragmatic thresholds (LCP < 4.0s, CLS < 0.25, INP < 500ms) sit well above broken and well below Google's CWV "Good" tier. CWV-strict is for landing pages and marketing teams; for app interiors that real users sit inside, pragmatic is the right bar.

Add to verdict block. Hard-gate any threshold breach. Diagnose with Chrome DevTools Performance trace (large hero, late font, heavy click handler, hydration cost). Full measurement snippet, throttling spec, and common offenders in references/performance-budget.md.

Phase 5 — Stress

Scenario Battery (10 scenarios)

All ten, always. They catch what screen-by-screen testing misses. Full protocols in references/scenario-tests.md.

• First Contact — figure out the app with zero prior knowledge, write a 2-min plain-English guide to each thread.

• Interrupted Workflow — start a task, close the tab, refresh, navigate away mid-form. Does state survive?

• Wrong Turn Recovery — deliberately click wrong. How many clicks to recover?

• Returning User — repeat a thread. Faster? Shortcuts? Can you tell what changed since last visit?

• Keyboard Only — every thread keyboard-only. Focus visible, tab order logical, Escape closes.

• Heavy Data — seed 500+ records. Lists virtualise, search returns the right thing, filters narrow.

• Destructive Confidence — every delete/send/publish/pay/share: consent clear, copy specific, undo available.

• Second User (Role) — restricted role (viewer not editor, client not staff). Read-only views, permission errors.

• Lifecycle Position — same role at user #1 (founder), #2 (first invitee, partial state), #N (later joiner, populated workspace). Each sees a different reality.

• Round-Trip Workflow Integrity — every A→B→A flow: complete mutation on B, verify A reflects new state on return without reload. Discoverable back affordance. Header badges update. The single biggest "the project is just empty when I go back" source.

Extended Stress Recipes

Beyond scenarios, run every relevant recipe in references/stress-test-recipes.md:

Stress What it catches

Empty / saturated / long content Edge layouts AI rarely sees during dev

Race conditions (double-click, fast-type-then-blur, slow network) Optimistic UI bugs, debounce failures

Slow network (3G throttle) Loading states, skeleton rhythm, timeout UX

Reduced motion (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce ) Animations that ignore the preference

i18n (long German, RTL Arabic, CJK widths) Layout assumptions about text length

Offline mode Retry / queue / dirty-state UX

Print stylesheet Forgotten media query

High-contrast mode Forced-colors media query handling

Real-flavour data battery (mandatory for any form-accepting app) Validation that strips characters silently (apostrophe, accents, RTL); length truncation without warning; SQL/XSS canaries not escaped; file uploads that don't fit (.heic, 8000×8000 PNG, 50MB PDF). AI-built UIs are notoriously dev-data clean.

Phase 6 — Verdict

Verdict block (mandatory at the top of the report)

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ VERDICT: [Pass / Conditional Pass / Fail / Incomplete]

Persona: [locked persona slug] Surfaces audited: N / M routes Interaction Manifest: complete / incomplete (X of Y required entries)

Hard Gates: Console errors: [count] [GREEN/RED] ([N] allowlisted) Console warnings: [count] [GREEN/RED] ([N] allowlisted) Network 5xx: [count] [GREEN/RED] Network 403/404 auth: [count] [GREEN/RED] ([N] allowlisted) Layout collapse: [count] [GREEN/RED] axe-core Critical: [count] [GREEN/RED] ([N] allowlisted) axe-core Serious: [count] [GREEN/RED] ([N] allowlisted)

Performance (sampled on /[representative-route]): LCP: [N]s [GREEN/RED] (threshold 4.0s) CLS: [N] [GREEN/RED] (threshold 0.25) INP: [N]ms [GREEN/RED] (threshold 500ms)

Findings: Critical: [count] High: [count] Medium: [count] Low: [count]

Time per phase: Phase 3 (walkthrough): [N]m ← exhaustive ≥ 5m Total: [N]m

Manifest plausibility: Entries: [N] ← ≥ 6 per audited route Median gap: [N]s ← if < 0.5s, agent didn't actually interact; verdict → Incomplete Screenshots: [N] ← ≥ 2 per audited route ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Audit-the-audit meta-check

The verdict block's "Time per phase" + "Manifest plausibility" rows are not decoration — they're a forcing function against the agent (or a rushed human) claiming Pass without doing the work.

Auto-Incomplete triggers:

Signal Implies Action

Phase 3 took < 1m for an exhaustive audit Agent skipped the walkthrough Verdict → Incomplete

Median gap between manifest entries < 0.5s Entries logged in bulk, no real interaction Verdict → Incomplete

Screenshots fewer than 2 × routes audited Most pages didn't get before/after captures Verdict → Incomplete

Console reads fewer than 1 × routes audited Pages weren't checked for warnings Verdict → Incomplete

Manifest first→last span < 5m for exhaustive Whole audit was rushed Verdict → Incomplete

These are non-negotiable. A clean Pass with implausible timings is rejected — the agent must redo the audit with real interaction.

The reviewer (the human supervising the audit, or you reading the report later) can spot-check: do timestamps in the manifest cluster suspiciously? Do screenshot file mtimes align with manifest timestamps? Did the agent actually press keys and wait for state changes, or did it batch-emit a fictional log?

Findings format (mandatory per finding)

Every finding must include:

ID: H-2 Layer: Interaction Severity: High Surface: /dashboard/spaces/:id (lg viewport, all 3 panes open) Persona: SME owner

Reproduce:

1. Sign in
2. Open any existing space
3. Open the members panel (md+ default)
4. Click any message → opens thread aside
5. Look at the timeline column

Observed: message text wraps one character per line (vertical column). Expected: message text wraps at word boundaries within the available column width. Evidence: .jez/audit-evidence/2026-04-29/spaces-vertical-text.png .jez/audit-evidence/2026-04-29/spaces-vertical-text-devtools.png Suspected location: src/client/modules/spaces/pages/SpacePage.tsx:200 (main flex-1 min-w-0) Suggested fix: add min-w-[260px] to prevent the catastrophic squeeze, or hide one pane at lg.

A finding without reproduction + evidence + suspected location is rejected. Forces real pinning, not gestures. Layer is one of: Architecture / Interaction / Visual / Feedback / Delight (see Five-Layer Hierarchy in references/perfection-checklist.md).

Perfection Roadmap (mandatory)

Group findings into:

• Quick Wins (24-48h) — micro-copy, hover states, contrast fixes, single-line CSS adjustments

• Structural (1-2 weeks) — primitive replacements, route restructures, multi-pane refactors

• Advanced Polish (post-launch) — micro-animations, skeleton variations, personalised empty states

Full report structure in references/report-template.md.

Phase 7 — Fix-and-verify

After the report, offer the loop:

"Found N Critical and M High issues. Fix them now and re-verify?"

If yes:

• Group findings by file/area

• Patch each one

• Re-walk just the affected slice (not the whole app) — including the original interaction that surfaced the bug, with a fresh screenshot

• Update the report: mark ✓ fixed , ✗ still present , or ⚠ new issue found

• Close with a "fixed in this session" summary

Closes the loop in one session instead of waiting for tomorrow's audit.

Cross-reference with ux-extract and brains-trust

If a pattern library exists at .jez/artifacts/ux-extracts/<ref>.md or docs/ux-extracts/<ref>.md , read it before starting and use it as the bar for findings.

After v2 produces a verdict, consider running dev-tools:brains-trust to get a second-opinion review from a different model. v2 catches a class; brains-trust catches what your specific model habit misses. Recommended cadence: every 4-6 weeks.

When merging brains-trust findings back into the audit report, dedup by (reproduction-steps, suspected-location) . Same bug surfaced by a second model is one finding with two confirmations, not two findings. The merged finding gets a Confirmed by: line listing the models that flagged it — useful signal for prioritising fixes (a bug both models found is high-confidence).

Anti-pattern: appending the second model's report verbatim to the first. Produces a noisy report with the same Critical bug listed twice and inflates the perceived severity.

The 30-Second Dogfood Drill (project-level rule)

The audit is heavy. For per-change pre-deploy checks, recommend a project rule in CLAUDE.md:

Before declaring any UI change "done", run the 30-second dogfood drill:

• Open the affected page

• Type into any input

• Click the primary action

• Watch the next state for 2 seconds

• Open a related view (thread, modal, detail)

• Read the console If any step shows unexpected behaviour, the change isn't done.

Six steps, ~30 seconds. Catches behavioural bugs that surface immediately. Pair with the full ux-audit weekly.

Playwright killer-flow tests

Audits find what's broken now. Tests prevent regressions. Recommend writing 10-15 Playwright tests for the killer flows — see references/playwright-killer-flows.md for starter examples (input clears after send, no console warnings on mount, message column width ≥ 200px after thread open, @-mention exactly one pill, etc.). Run on every deploy via CI.

Autonomy

• Just do it: Navigate, screenshot, read pages, inject layout-detection JS, submit forms with fake test data, write the report file, dispatch screenshot-review sub-agents.

• Ask first: Destructive actions (delete, send, publish, pay). For Destructive Confidence testing, ask once before running that scenario.

• Stop and confirm: Anything that emails / notifies external people.

Execution discipline

• Drive the audit from the main session, not a sub-agent. Cross-interaction state lives in the session that's been watching. A fresh sub-agent starts cold and misses second-order findings.

• Use the browser tool directly. Chrome MCP or Playwright MCP from the main session. Don't hand screenshots to a fresh agent for opinions.

• Loop to exhaustion with variations. After each pass, generate a new angle (different persona, different workflow, different input volume, different starting point). Stop only when a full pass produces no new findings.

For audits expected to run > 30 minutes, set up a 15-min /loop check-in alongside the main session — it journals findings, grounds the session, and provides a natural termination signal. See references/long-running-check-in-pattern.md.

Reference files

When Read

Persona library + writing protocol references/persona-lock.md

Audit-config allowlist format + semantics + surface overrides references/audit-config.md

Interaction Manifest template + replay protocol references/interaction-manifest.md

Multi-pane stress matrix + automation snippets references/multi-pane-stress.md

Per-screen evaluation questions, layout-detection JS references/walkthrough-checklist.md

Wayfinding, mental model, page-to-page continuity references/workflow-comprehension.md

Full protocol for each of the 10 scenarios references/scenario-tests.md

Extended stress recipes (race, slow network, reduced motion, i18n) references/stress-test-recipes.md

Component-level perfection checklist (6 categories + 6 states) references/perfection-checklist.md

AI-tell catalogue, optical centring, design-token discipline references/visual-polish.md

Silent-failure controls + SDK contract checks references/live-interaction-smoke.md

Playwright killer-flow test starters references/playwright-killer-flows.md

Report format, verdict block, severity rubric, reproduction-step format references/report-template.md

Browser tool commands and viewport notes references/browser-tools.md

Round-trip workflow integrity (A→B→A pattern) references/round-trip-workflows.md

Automated accessibility (axe-core injection + severity mapping) references/a11y-automation.md

Pragmatic performance budget (LCP/CLS/INP via Performance API) references/performance-budget.md

Long-running audit supervision via 15-min /loop

references/long-running-check-in-pattern.md

Tips

• Interaction first, sweep last. A sweep without prior interaction is Incomplete.

• Type into something on every page. Real text. The single most-effective change for catching behaviour bugs.

• Read the console after every primary action. Most regressions surface as warnings before they become bugs.

• Multi-pane stress is not optional. If the app has collapsible UI, the worst bugs live in pane-overlap zones.

• Stay in persona. If you catch yourself thinking "a developer would know..." — stop. Your persona doesn't.

• Every hesitation is a finding. If you paused to figure out what to click, that's friction worth reporting.

• Use the eyedropper liberally. Single fastest way to find vibe greys, off-token colours, design-system drift.

• Coverage is arithmetic. Inventoried ÷ tested. Publish the ratio in the report.

• Sub-agents for screenshot review. Don't drive the browser and analyse 200 screenshots in one loop.

• Write findings incrementally. The report file is cheaper memory than your context.