Answer with the connected browser's error, never a Playwright stand-in

In auto mode any extension error fell through to headless Playwright, so
a slow page in the user's own browser came back as Playwright's missing
executable. A connected browser's failure is now the answer; Playwright
stands in only when no browser is on the router. hanzo-tools-browser
0.5.16.

pkg/hanzo-tools-browser/hanzo_tools/browser/browser_tool.py

@@ -1131,9 +1131,11 @@ class BrowserTool(BaseTool):
             if "error" not in ext_result:
                 return _answer(action, ext_result)
 
-            # Refs and labels exist only in the extension, and an explicit
-            # backend means that browser: no Playwright stand-in for either.
-            if backend in ("firefox", "chrome", "extension") or by_ref or wire == "annotate":
+            # Refs and labels exist only in the extension, an explicit backend
+            # means that browser, and a connected browser's own failure is the
+            # answer: Playwright stands in only when no browser is connected.
+            if (backend in ("firefox", "chrome", "extension") or by_ref or wire == "annotate"
+                    or await _check_extension(browser=browser_filter)):
                 return {"error": ext_result["error"], "action": action, "backend": backend}
 
         if by_ref:

pkg/hanzo-tools-browser/pyproject.toml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "hanzo-tools-browser"
-version = "0.5.15"
+version = "0.5.16"
 description = "Browser automation tools: drive the user's own browser through the Hanzo extension, over the ZAP router every ZAP process embeds."
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.12"

pkg/hanzo-tools-browser/tests/test_browser_tools.py

@@ -177,3 +177,46 @@ class TestZapdWire:
         assert o == len(buf)
         assert out == params
 
+
+
+class TestConnectedBrowserIsTheAnswer:
+    """A connected browser's own failure comes back; Playwright never stands in for it."""
+
+    @pytest.fixture
+    def tool(self, monkeypatch):
+        import importlib
+
+        from hanzo_tools.browser import BrowserTool
+
+        browser_tool = importlib.import_module("hanzo_tools.browser.browser_tool")
+
+        async def failed(*a, **k):
+            return {"error": "timed out waiting for browser/dgx/chrome"}
+
+        monkeypatch.setattr(browser_tool, "_extension_command", failed)
+        monkeypatch.setattr(browser_tool, "PLAYWRIGHT_AVAILABLE", False)
+        t = BrowserTool()
+        t.backend = "auto"
+        return t, browser_tool
+
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_connected(self, tool, monkeypatch):
+        t, bt = tool
+
+        async def yes(**k):
+            return True
+
+        monkeypatch.setattr(bt, "_check_extension", yes)
+        r = await t.execute(action="navigate", url="https://example.com")
+        assert r["error"] == "timed out waiting for browser/dgx/chrome"
+
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_none_connected_falls_through(self, tool, monkeypatch):
+        t, bt = tool
+
+        async def no(**k):
+            return False
+
+        monkeypatch.setattr(bt, "_check_extension", no)
+        r = await t.execute(action="navigate", url="https://example.com")
+        assert "timed out" not in str(r)

uv.lock

@@ -1767,7 +1767,7 @@ provides-extras = ["consensus", "api", "full", "dev"]
 
 [[package]]
 name = "hanzo-tools-browser"
-version = "0.5.14"
+version = "0.5.16"
 source = { editable = "pkg/hanzo-tools-browser" }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "hanzo-tools" },