From 85c61547b9fc5b24ff50cd64afb5028c1934e12d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Colin Neilens <coneilen@microsoft.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:34:39 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Re-resolve workspace detail children while waiting for layout

The settle loop added in #441 polled cached AutomationElement references.
These children are served by a custom fragment provider that destroys and
recreates them when the loop panel re-lays out, and a dead fragment reports
an empty AutomationId and empty BoundingRectangle instead of throwing, so a
cached reference can never recover from a remount. The loop burned its whole
budget and then failed with a blank id in the message.

Re-resolve the four children from the live tree on every attempt and require
one observed generation to satisfy existence and layout together, then rebind
the variables so the later Invoke cannot run against a stale fragment.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: Colin Neilens <coneilen@microsoft.com>
---
 Tools/windows/uia-live-gate.ps1 | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Tools/windows/uia-live-gate.ps1 b/Tools/windows/uia-live-gate.ps1
index 07bf30f9..51c6a80f 100644
--- a/Tools/windows/uia-live-gate.ps1
+++ b/Tools/windows/uia-live-gate.ps1
@@ -1621,17 +1621,52 @@ try {
   Require ($null -ne $workspaceUsage) "workspace right panel omitted token-usage child"
   # The four detail children can be present in the UIA tree before the loop panel has
   # laid them out, so existence (which the mount loop above waits for) does not imply
-  # non-empty bounds. Wait for the layout to settle on exactly the condition asserted
-  # below rather than reading BoundingRectangle the instant the children appear.
-  $workspaceDetailChildren = @($workspacePanelToggle, $workspaceSparkline, $workspaceStart, $workspaceUsage)
+  # non-empty bounds. They are also served by a custom fragment provider that destroys
+  # and recreates these children when the panel re-lays out, which invalidates any
+  # AutomationElement reference captured beforehand. A dead fragment reference reports
+  # an empty AutomationId and an empty BoundingRectangle indefinitely instead of
+  # throwing, so polling cached references can never recover from a remount - it just
+  # burns the budget and then fails with a blank id. Re-resolve the children from the
+  # live tree on every attempt and require a single observed generation of the tree to
+  # satisfy existence and layout together.
+  $detailSpecs = @(
+    @{ Label = "collapse control"; Id = '^workspace-toggle-panel-'; Name = '^Collapse loop panel$' },
+    @{ Label = "metric sparkline child"; Id = '^workspace-detail-sparkline-'; Name = '^Metric sparkline$' },
+    @{ Label = "start-time child"; Id = '^workspace-detail-start-'; Name = '^Start time$' },
+    @{ Label = "token-usage child"; Id = '^workspace-detail-usage-'; Name = 'tokens$' }
+  )
+  $resolvedDetails = $null
+  $detailFailure = "workspace right panel never resolved its detail children"
   for ($attempt = 0; $attempt -lt 100; $attempt++) {
-    $unlaidOut = @($workspaceDetailChildren | Where-Object {
-      ($_.Current.BoundingRectangle.Width -le 0) -or ($_.Current.BoundingRectangle.Height -le 0)
-    })
-    if ($unlaidOut.Count -eq 0) { break }
+    $liveChildren = @(Get-DirectChildren $graph $rawWalker)
+    $candidates = @()
+    $pendingLabel = $null
+    foreach ($spec in $detailSpecs) {
+      $match = @($liveChildren | Where-Object {
+        ($_.Current.AutomationId -match $spec.Id) -and ($_.Current.Name -match $spec.Name)
+      }) | Select-Object -First 1
+      if ($null -eq $match) {
+        $pendingLabel = "workspace right panel omitted $($spec.Label) while waiting for layout"
+        break
+      }
+      $rect = $match.Current.BoundingRectangle
+      if (($rect.Width -le 0) -or ($rect.Height -le 0)) {
+        $pendingLabel = "workspace right panel $($spec.Label) has empty bounds"
+        break
+      }
+      $candidates += $match
+    }
+    if ($null -eq $pendingLabel) { $resolvedDetails = $candidates; break }
+    $detailFailure = $pendingLabel
     Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100
   }
-  foreach ($detailChild in $workspaceDetailChildren) {
+  Require ($null -ne $resolvedDetails) $detailFailure
+  # Rebind to the live references so the Invoke below cannot run against a stale fragment.
+  $workspacePanelToggle = $resolvedDetails[0]
+  $workspaceSparkline = $resolvedDetails[1]
+  $workspaceStart = $resolvedDetails[2]
+  $workspaceUsage = $resolvedDetails[3]
+  foreach ($detailChild in $resolvedDetails) {
     Require (($detailChild.Current.BoundingRectangle.Width -gt 0) -and
              ($detailChild.Current.BoundingRectangle.Height -gt 0)) `
       "workspace right panel child $($detailChild.Current.AutomationId) has empty bounds"