[ellatrix]

What?

Three Links tests wait for the link popover's URL field to have focus before pressing keys, instead of only for the popover to be visible.

Why?

"Links › can be created by selecting text and using keyboard shortcuts" (Chromium) needed a retry in 3 of the last 7 trunk CI runs (2026-10-29). CI got content like This is h or This is https:// instead of This is Gutenberg: the start of the URL went into the paragraph and replaced the selected word.

1. Cmd+K opens the link popover, and the test types the URL as soon as the popover is visible.
2. The URL field takes focus later: useFocusOnMount() moves focus to the first input in a setTimeout.
3. When the keys come first, they go to the paragraph. Logging where focus was when the popover became visible showed the paragraph in 3 of 8 runs, and the URL field in all 8 runs 500 ms later.

Locally it fails 16 of 20 times on trunk. (It fails just as often on the commit before "Rich Text: Register each field once instead of adding its own listeners" (#85887), after which CI started reporting it, so that change isn't the cause.)

The two "allows arrow keys to be pressed during link creation…" tests press keys right after the popover appears in the same way, and Escape can then miss the popover: they fail 6 of 20 times locally, though CI doesn't flag them.

How?

After checking the popover is visible, check that its "Search or type URL" field is focused, as other tests in this spec already do.

Testing Instructions

WP_BASE_URL=<site> npm run test:e2e -- --project=chromium --retries=0 --repeat-each=10 test/e2e/specs/editor/blocks/links.spec.js -g "allows arrow keys to be pressed during link creation|can be created by selecting text and using keyboard shortcuts"

• Before: "can be created by selecting text…" failed 16 of 20; the arrow key tests 6 of 20.
• After: 30 of 30 pass, and the whole links.spec.js passes (28).

There is no Playground link or screenshot: only e2e tests change.

Use of AI Tools

Investigated and written with Claude Code.

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[github-actions]

🤖 PR meta 🤖

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Co-authored-by: ellatrix <ellatrix@git.wordpress.org>

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📦 Bundle size

Size Change: 0 B

Total Size: 8.56 MB

_{156d479 Run}

🏁 Flaky tests

Some tests passed with failed attempts. The failures may not be related to this commit but are still reported for visibility. See the documentation for more information.

As a user I want to be able to add multiple close buttons so that users can close the overlay from different positions in /test/e2e/specs/site-editor/navigation-overlay-template-part.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(locator).toHaveCount(expected) failed

Locator:  getByRole('button', { name: 'Close' })
Expected: 2
Received: 1
Timeout:  5000ms

Call log:
  - Expect "toHaveCount" getByRole('button', { name: 'Close' }) with timeout 5000ms
  - waiting for getByRole('button', { name: 'Close' })
    14 × locator resolved to 1 element
       - unexpected value "1"

    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/site-editor/navigation-overlay-template-part.spec.js:228:33

Undo restores the post selection when another synced entity is loaded in /test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-undo-redo.spec.ts, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(received).toMatchObject(expected)

- Expected  - 2
+ Received  + 2

  Object {
    "attributeKey": "content",
    "blockIndex": 0,
    "content": "abcdef",
-   "endOffset": 3,
-   "offset": 3,
+   "endOffset": 2,
+   "offset": 2,
  }

Call Log:
- Timeout 5000ms exceeded while waiting on the predicate
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-undo-redo.spec.ts:363:5

does not select blocks in the canvas preview when editing from the sidebar (Site Editor v2) in /test/e2e/specs/site-editor/navigation-sidebar-list-view.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: expect(locator).toBeVisible() failed

Locator: getByRole('listbox', { name: 'Search results' })
Expected: visible
Timeout: 5000ms
Error: element(s) not found

Call log:
  - Expect "toBeVisible" getByRole('listbox', { name: 'Search results' }) with timeout 5000ms
  - waiting for getByRole('listbox', { name: 'Search results' })

    at LinkControl.useLinkControlSearch (/home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/site-editor/navigation-sidebar-list-view.spec.js:423:33)
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/site-editor/navigation-sidebar-list-view.spec.js:179:3

should only mutate text data on input in /test/e2e/specs/editor/various/rich-text.spec.js, passed after 1 failed attempt.

Error: locator.evaluate: Error: The selection change event listener was never called.
    at eval (eval at evaluate (:311:30), <anonymous>:6:15)
    at UtilityScript.evaluate (<anonymous>:313:16)
    at UtilityScript.<anonymous> (<anonymous>:1:44)
    at eval (eval at evaluate (:311:30), <anonymous>:6:15)
    at UtilityScript.evaluate (<anonymous>:313:16)
    at UtilityScript.<anonymous> (<anonymous>:1:44)
    at /home/runner/work/gutenberg/gutenberg/test/e2e/specs/editor/various/rich-text.spec.js:407:42

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