[hellices]

Closes #470

Summary

test_an_injected_short_timeout_expires_an_agent_write learned that the approval dialog had opened only by polling app.screen every 0.05 seconds. It failed four times on 2026-10-02, on four unrelated branches, with "agent approval dialog opened not met within 5.0s".

Its one-second window starts before the dialog is pushed. _await_user_approval re-checks the budget right after push_screen, so when mounting took the whole second, the request expired and the dialog was dismissed while it mounted, between two polls. A longer wait (#464, #465) cannot help here: by then the request has already resolved. #460 fixed the same race in the eval driver (#451).

• The fix: the test now subscribes to the app's screen_change_signal (immediate=True, as in test: note each approval dialog when Textual pushes it #460) and notes each ConfirmScreen as Textual pushes it.
• The new test: test_a_window_that_runs_out_while_the_dialog_mounts_still_expires_it pins the loaded-runner case. With a one-millisecond window the dialog always expires as it mounts; the test requires that the dialog was pushed, the request resolves as expired, nothing is written, and no dialog is left on screen.

Verification

• RED: the new test, observing the dialog by polling app.screen as the old test did, failed five runs out of five with CI's exact message, "agent approval dialog opened not met within 5.0s".
• GREEN: with the subscription, tests/ui/test_approval_timeout.py passed three runs in a row (7 passed each).
• Mutation: removing the subscription fails both approval tests the same way.

Run locally on macOS with Python 3.13 and the frozen lock. Each step ran directly with the project's environment rather than through make, because this machine cannot sync from PyPI:

Command	Result
pytest -p no:tach tests/ui/test_approval_timeout.py	7 passed
python scripts/check_source_size.py	passed
ruff check src/ tests/ and ruff format --check src/ tests/	passed; 659 files already formatted
SKIP=mypy,source-size pre-commit run --files tests/ui/test_approval_timeout.py	passed
mypy	no issues in 659 source files
tach check	all modules validated
pytest -n 8 -q	13,697 passed, 25 skipped

Checklist

• This closes an accepted issue in this repository that is assigned to me.
• Tests cover the change, written to fail first where behavior changed.
• make check passes locally.
• User-facing docs and the README match the change, or nothing user-facing changed.
• No security invariant is weakened: writes still need a keystroke approval
  and a fail-closed audit entry, and sensitive reads are still masked.

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

The focused test-only change addresses the missed-dialog race, preserves safety assertions, and has no identified blocking issues.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

Addresses #470 by making approval-timeout tests record dialogs when Textual pushes them, rather than relying on polling that can miss short-lived dialogs. Production behavior is unchanged.

Changes:

• Adds a signal-based helper to record approval dialogs and updates the existing timeout test to use it.
• Adds a one-millisecond timeout regression test checking expiry, no writes, and dialog dismissal.

File	Description
tests/​ui/​test_approval_timeout.py	Records dialog pushes through Textual’s signal and adds short-window expiry coverage.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[my-reviewer-agent]

검토 범위에서 보고할 이슈가 없습니다.

[my-reviewer-agent]

검토 범위에서 보고할 이슈가 없습니다.