tooling: drop Chrome for Testing — it was never the browser this ships to

.claude/hooks/post-edit.mjs

@@ -65,11 +65,6 @@ if (problems.length) {
   process.exit(2);
 }
 
-// The file is good, so make sure it is actually VISIBLE somewhere. `ensure` is
-// idempotent and the already-running path is a pid check plus one loopback
-// request, so this costs nothing on the common path.
-try {
-  console.log(run('node', ['scripts/watch-daemon.mjs', 'ensure']).trim());
-} catch {
-  /* the live loop is a convenience; never fail an edit over it */
-}
+// There is no live-injection loop to revive here. A change reaches the browser
+// only through a real Violentmonkey install, which is the operator's action —
+// see CONTRIBUTING.md "Testing a change".

.claude/hooks/stop-gate.mjs

@@ -25,17 +25,6 @@ try {
 const run = (cmd, args) =>
   execFileSync(cmd, args, { cwd: root, encoding: 'utf8', stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'pipe'] });
 
-// Revive the live loop on EVERY turn, not only the turns that touched a
-// userscript — "stays running" has to survive a crash during a docs change too.
-// Idempotent, and the already-running path is a pid check plus one loopback
-// request. Never allowed to block a stop.
-try {
-  const out = run('node', ['scripts/watch-daemon.mjs', 'ensure']).trim();
-  if (out && !/already running/.test(out)) console.log(out);
-} catch {
-  /* the browser is a convenience; a clean stop is not */
-}
-
 let changed = [];
 try {
   changed = run('git', ['status', '--porcelain', '--', '*.user.js'])

.claude/settings.json

@@ -43,9 +43,7 @@
       "Bash(typos:*)",
       "Bash(markdownlint-cli2:*)",
       "Agent(Explore)",
-      "Agent(Plan)",
-      "Bash(node scripts/watch-daemon.mjs:*)",
-      "Bash(pkill -f chrome-for-testing:*)"
+      "Agent(Plan)"
     ],
     "deny": [
       "Bash(npm install:*)",
@@ -66,11 +64,6 @@
             "type": "command",
             "command": "node \"${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/.claude/hooks/session-start.mjs\"",
             "timeout": 20
-          },
-          {
-            "type": "command",
-            "command": "node \"${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/scripts/watch-daemon.mjs\" ensure",
-            "timeout": 30
           }
         ]
       }
@@ -98,18 +91,6 @@
           }
         ]
       }
-    ],
-    "SessionEnd": [
-      {
-        "matcher": "*",
-        "hooks": [
-          {
-            "type": "command",
-            "command": "node \"${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/scripts/watch-daemon.mjs\" status",
-            "timeout": 15
-          }
-        ]
-      }
     ]
   }
 }

.gitignore

@@ -15,11 +15,6 @@ result
 result-*
 .direnv/
 
-# The browser `nix run .#watch` drives: a PROJECT-LOCAL Chrome profile plus its
-# log. Hundreds of megabytes, and it holds cookies for whatever you were testing
-# — it must never be committed, and it is not shared with your real browser.
-.nix-browser/
-
 # Editor and OS noise
 .DS_Store
 Thumbs.db

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -13,6 +13,24 @@ Entries are grouped by script. Within a release, use the
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Removed
+
+- **The entire Chrome for Testing / DevTools-Protocol toolchain**, because it was
+  not the browser this project is developed against and therefore not
+  verification. Gone: `nix/chrome-for-testing.nix`, `nix/violentmonkey.nix`,
+  `scripts/cdp.mjs`, `scripts/userscript-watch.mjs`,
+  `scripts/userscript-verify.mjs`, `scripts/watch-daemon.mjs`, the `browser` /
+  `watch` / `verify` / `watch-status` / `watch-stop` / `browser-bump` flake
+  commands, the two Claude Code hooks that kept the loop alive, and the 470 MB
+  `.nix-browser/` profile. The repository went from 474 MB to **3.8 MB** on disk.
+- **The `allowUnfreePredicate` with it.** It existed to admit exactly one
+  package, Chrome for Testing; nothing unfree is left in the flake, so a
+  contributor no longer needs any unfree allowance to get a dev shell.
+- **Five ESLint globals** — `fetch`, `WebSocket`, `AbortController`, `setTimeout`,
+  `clearTimeout` — which only the CDP client needed. `scripts/` is now
+  `meta-lint.mjs` alone, and the globals list is back to what a file there
+  actually references, so `no-undef` keeps meaning something.
+
 ### Added
 
 - Repository scaffolding: contribution guide, code of conduct, security policy,
@@ -163,6 +181,36 @@ Entries are grouped by script. Within a release, use the
 
 ### Changed
 
+- **The documented way to test a change is to install it.** The browser is
+  ungoogled-chromium **152.0.7977.64** with **Violentmonkey 2.48.0** from the
+  Chrome Web Store, and the only channel into a page is the manager's own
+  install path. `CONTRIBUTING.md` gains a **Testing a change** section;
+  `CLAUDE.md`'s two browser sections were rewritten around it; `README.md` no
+  longer offers `nix run .#watch` as the one-command way to try something.
+- **Why, stated as the trade it was.** The CDP lane ran a different browser at a
+  different version against a throwaway profile, so whatever it proved was not
+  what a reader gets. It was measured drifting: a feature was reported "verified
+  on all five hosts" against Chrome for Testing **154** on a machine whose actual
+  browser is **152**, and two of those five hosts turned out to be scroll-locked
+  in ways the rig papered over. thumbwall's own `WHY` block had recorded its
+  original measurements on `Chromium 152.0.7977.64` all along — the real browser.
+- **Measuring a selector is now the script's own job.** `selector-verify.mjs`
+  returned a `GENERATED` verdict mechanically; with no tool, `CONTRIBUTING.md` §
+  Measure the live page carries the rule instead — anchor on ARIA roles, `href`
+  values and data attributes, never a generated class and never `aria-label` or
+  link text, both of which are localised. Log the count from the script behind a
+  debug flag that ships off, and break the selector on purpose to prove the
+  failure mode.
+- **Two findings kept as page facts, not rig facts.** xhamster ships
+  `body.xh-scroll-disabled` (`overflow-y: hidden`) on a clean profile with no
+  dialog behind it, and pornhub holds `scrollHeight === innerHeight` behind its
+  age modal. Both measured 2026-09-29 identical with a script armed and with it
+  torn down, so neither is the script's doing — check the page scrolls at all
+  before blaming a scroll-driven feature.
+- The per-host marked-node counts in `CLAUDE.md`'s script map (106 / 153 / 108 /
+  1439) are labelled as CDP-era figures: orders of magnitude, not numbers to diff
+  against.
+
 - CI's Node is 20 → **22**, matching `nodejs_22` in `flake.nix`, so the npm path
   and the flake path run ESLint on the same runtime. Node 20 went end-of-life in
   April 2026 and eslint 10 wants `^20.19 || ^22.13 || >=24`.