A web run runs on the model it was started with (#1697)

[suleimansh]

Fixes #1697 (option 1).

What

A run started with a model choice (--model, the launcher's model, Settings) that lands on the web path now runs on that model. The choice travels the whole way — /_web-start → the start-queue → /_bridge/start → the Driver's tf-drive — and content.js picks it in claude.ai's model menu before sending, reporting what it clicked the way the repo and branch chips do. A menu that does not offer the model, or a page with no picker, fails the creation naming it, so the run stops with that note instead of running on the page's default.

Before this, cloud.ts posted {repo, branch, prompt} although agent.ts already handed it model; the dashboard then showed the chosen model on a web run that claude.ai was running on its own default.

How

• driver/cloud.ts: the request body carries model from the start options when set; the "asked the browser extension…" notice names it.
• dashboard/web-start-endpoints.ts: model, when present, must be a string (400 otherwise).
• dashboard/bridge-starts.ts: model stored trimmed on the request; blank is none; over 100 characters is refused (MAX_START_MODEL).
• dashboard/server.ts + bridge-endpoints.ts: /_bridge/start hands the extension the model.
• background.js: the claimed request's model rides the tf-drive start.
• content.js createSession: after the branch chip is verified and before anything is filled — the model trigger (button[aria-haspopup="menu"] reading a model name, beside the effort button; not a combobox, so the chips' order is untouched) is read; if it does not read the model, its menu ([role="menuitemradio"] entries, label read without the hidden shortcut digit and check glyph) is opened and the entry clicked — exact label first, else the first entry carrying the model's word (opus → "Opus 5", the newest), the "More models" submenu searched when the menu offers nothing — and the trigger is read again. Notes: model already Opus 5 / model: clicked "Sonnet 5" via menu / model: the menu offered no "gpt-9" (6 entries: …) / no model picker on the page — not sending. No model in the request → the picker is never touched. probeNewSession reports the picker's text.
• Options page: a lastCycle line — background.SPEC.md said the outcome is kept so the options page can state it; the page never read it. Rendered on open and re-rendered from chrome.storage.onChanged, so "reloading the extension: content.js changed on disk" is visible there.

Selectors from one live look at claude.ai/code on 2026-08-26: trigger button[aria-haspopup="menu"] "Opus 5"; menu div[role="menu"] of div[role="menuitemradio"][aria-checked] with the label in the first span, a kbd shortcut in an aria-hidden span, and a check glyph on the current one; More models is a menuitem[aria-haspopup="menu"] that opens a submenu (Opus 4.8 / 4.7 / 4.6, Sonnet 4.6) on click; a plain .click() on an entry picks it, the trigger text becomes the label, and the pick survives a page load.

Tests

• cloud.test.ts: the model rides the POST body; absent when unset.
• web-start-endpoints.test.ts: string travels to the queue; non-string is 400.
• bridge-starts.test.ts: trimmed, blank dropped, cap refused.
• bridge-endpoints.test.ts: /_bridge/start carries it.
• server.test.ts: end to end through a dashboard with the bridge on — run posts model, the extension's claim reads it (this one covers the server.ts wiring; broken on purpose, it fails).
• check.mjs: five new cases — picked, already reads it (picker not opened), found behind "More models", not offered (nothing sent, note names the model and the entries), no picker (nothing sent) — plus the no-model case asserting the picker is never opened. Each broken on purpose once: removing the entry click, the model-word filter on the trigger, or the read-back fails exactly the cases guarding it.

Specs

content.SPEC.md, background.SPEC.md, options.SPEC.md, the extension's SPEC.md, driver/cloud.SPEC.md, dashboard/web-start-endpoints.SPEC.md, dashboard/bridge-starts.SPEC.md, dashboard/bridge-endpoints.SPEC.md, and FEATURES-SPEC.md (the model on web runs; the options page's last-cycle line).

Not done here: option 2's "don't offer a model pick for a web run" — moot once the pick is honoured.

🤖 automated · Fable 5, effort high

[suleimansh]

Dogfood on the live dashboard (daemon rebuilt from this branch, pid 53455; extension self-reloaded onto this branch's files), prefs temporarily target=web, model=sonnet — the page's remembered model was Opus 5, so the pick had to happen:

• Run 2026-08-26T09-39-23-076Z on gemstack. The run's notice: "asked the browser extension to create the cloud session on framework/the-framework at cloud-1-ca581338 on sonnet (request c52eeac6-…)".
• The extension's report on the request (GET /_web-start/c52eeac6-…): state: created, session_01TeJWj29xRD5K12PTbfs6nn, note "repo already the-framework; branch: clicked "cloud-1-ca581338" via combobox; model: clicked "Sonnet 5" via menu; sent via button".
• https://claude.ai/code/session_01TeJWj29xRD5K12PTbfs6nn: the composer's model trigger reads Sonnet 5, and the session's own reply is "Running as claude-sonnet-5 (both configured/session model and last served model). No files changed, no PR opened."
• A probe request with model queued through /_web-start and claimed by hand on /_bridge/start came back with "model":"sonnet" (claimed and reported failed by me at once, never driven).
• The fold-in: the options page shows "Last cycle at 12:38:14 PM: read 1 of 1 (0 awaiting, 1 unread, 0 missing), visited 0, typed 0" — the first time that record has been visible anywhere.

One earlier attempt (run …T05-24-26-123Z, session_01H66fhqqJwvNdwo9hAUYWmB) ran on Opus 5 with no model note: I had switched the checkout back to main after building, and the extension — which loads its files from the checkout — self-reloaded onto main's old files while the daemon kept the new dist. Nothing wrong in the change; a dogfood-procedure trap, now in my notes.

Prefs and the page's remembered model are restored (target=local, model=opus; Opus 5).

🤖 automated · Fable 5, effort high

[suleimansh]

The red build check here is not this change: bridge-store.test.ts's list-status test asks waiting() with the wall clock against a status stamped 2026-08-25T18:00Z, and the twelve-hour session window ran out at 06:00 UTC today — it fails on main too (reproduced locally). Fixed in #1715; this branch goes green once that lands and this is rebased on it.

🤖 automated · Fable 5, effort high