webdriverio/webdriverio

Begin with the owning package and the smallest relevant lifecycle chain; the inventory and investigation are bounded. Tests and CI were inspected, not executed, and no passing status is asserted. Preserve the distinctions between Node/browser exports, launcher/worker hooks, stub/real sessions, and Classic/BiDi behavior. Proposed validation should remain read-only here and become executable only under appropriate task authorization.

• Use package.json and pnpm-workspace.yaml as the dependency/build authority; tsconfig selects strict NodeNext/ES2022 compilation, and public webdriverio exports require awareness of Node, browser, ESM, and CommonJS surfaces.
  package.json#L1-L5pnpm-workspace.yaml#L1-L17tsconfig.json#L2-L21packages/webdriverio/package.json#L46-L64
• For CLI lifecycle changes, read commands/run.ts, Launcher.run/_runSpecs/_endHandler, and Runner.run first; preserve hook order and the retry-budget message sent before requesting a real session.
  packages/wdio-cli/src/commands/run.ts#L193-L268packages/wdio-cli/src/launcher.ts#L103-L149packages/wdio-cli/src/launcher.ts#L647-L680packages/wdio-runner/src/index.ts#L145-L158
• For element behavior, keep changes within the command and relevant lookup/middleware chain; selector, parent, elementId, and BiDi locator fields are functional recovery state rather than incidental metadata.
  packages/webdriverio/src/utils/getElementObject.ts#L66-L101packages/webdriverio/src/middlewares.ts#L23-L73
• Treat Classic and BiDi as explicit branches: findElement excludes iframe/deep-selector cases from its BiDi path, and screenshot options are rejected in Classic but validated and supported in BiDi.
  packages/webdriverio/src/utils/index.ts#L828-L854packages/webdriverio/src/node/saveScreenshot.ts#L64-L109
• Do not interpret root build/setup as passive checks: scripts clean artifacts and generate BiDi sources, whose generator can download specification input and overwrite generated TypeScript files.
  package.json#L9-L29scripts/bidi/index.ts#L22-L50
• If execution is later authorized, select the owning test through the configured Vitest runner first; relevant inspected examples include request.test.ts, launcher.test.ts, and node/saveScreenshot.test.ts. Broader typing, smoke, component, and e2e scripts have distinct prerequisites.
  package.json#L42-L61vitest.config.ts#L6-L19packages/webdriver/tests/request.test.ts#L1-L24packages/wdio-cli/tests/launcher.test.ts#L1-L25packages/webdriverio/tests/node/saveScreenshot.test.ts#L1-L33
• Tests and CI were inspected, not executed: carry forward the limitations that driver setup is skipped in unit tests, coverage is disabled by default, Preact/misc component commands are bypassed, and cloud CI is main-only.
  vitest.config.ts#L17-L32e2e/package.json#L11-L13e2e/package.json#L29-L29.github/workflows/test.yml#L146-L151
• Keep publication and deployment outside ordinary edits: npm publishing is manually dispatched and depends on publisher-team authorization, whereas documentation deployment is a separate manually dispatched workflow with cloud credential references.
  .github/workflows/publish.yml#L3-L34.github/workflows/authorize-publisher.yml#L13-L19.github/workflows/deploy.yml#L5-L28