feat: add focus detection before type() to warn or throw when no element is focused

type() sends keystrokes via page.keyboard which silently drops input when no
element has focus. Add a shared checkFocusBeforeType() that warns in debug mode
and throws NonFocusedType in strict mode. Applied to Playwright, Puppeteer, and
WebDriver helpers.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: DavertMik

lib/helper/Playwright.js

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import promiseRetry from 'promise-retry'
 import Locator from '../locator.js'
 import recorder from '../recorder.js'
 import store from '../store.js'
+import { checkFocusBeforeType } from './extras/focusCheck.js'
 import { includes as stringIncludes } from '../assert/include.js'
 import { urlEquals, equals } from '../assert/equal.js'
 import { empty } from '../assert/empty.js'
@@ -2259,6 +2260,8 @@ class Playwright extends Helper {
    * {{> type }}
    */
   async type(keys, delay = null) {
+    await checkFocusBeforeType(this)
+
     // Always use page.keyboard.type for any string (including single character and national characters).
     if (!Array.isArray(keys)) {
       keys = keys.toString()

lib/helper/Puppeteer.js

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import promiseRetry from 'promise-retry'
 import Locator from '../locator.js'
 import recorder from '../recorder.js'
 import store from '../store.js'
+import { checkFocusBeforeType } from './extras/focusCheck.js'
 import { includes as stringIncludes } from '../assert/include.js'
 import { urlEquals, equals } from '../assert/equal.js'
 import { empty } from '../assert/empty.js'
@@ -1575,6 +1576,8 @@ class Puppeteer extends Helper {
    * {{> type }}
    */
   async type(keys, delay = null) {
+    await checkFocusBeforeType(this)
+
     if (!Array.isArray(keys)) {
       keys = keys.toString()
       keys = keys.split('')

lib/helper/WebDriver.js

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import promiseRetry from 'promise-retry'
 import { includes as stringIncludes } from '../assert/include.js'
 import { urlEquals, equals } from '../assert/equal.js'
 import store from '../store.js'
+import { checkFocusBeforeType } from './extras/focusCheck.js'
 import output from '../output.js'
 const { debug } = output
 import { empty } from '../assert/empty.js'
@@ -2283,6 +2284,8 @@ class WebDriver extends Helper {
    * {{> type }}
    */
   async type(keys, delay = null) {
+    await checkFocusBeforeType(this)
+
     if (!Array.isArray(keys)) {
       keys = keys.toString()
       keys = keys.split('')

lib/helper/errors/NonFocusedType.js

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+class NonFocusedType extends Error {
+  constructor() {
+    super(
+      'No element is in focus. Use I.click() or I.focus() to activate an element before calling I.type(). '
+      + 'This error is thrown because strict mode is enabled.',
+    )
+    this.name = 'NonFocusedType'
+  }
+}
+
+export default NonFocusedType

lib/helper/extras/focusCheck.js

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import store from '../../store.js'
+import NonFocusedType from '../errors/NonFocusedType.js'
+
+export async function checkFocusBeforeType(helper) {
+  const isStrict = helper.options.strict
+  if (!isStrict && !store.debugMode) return
+
+  const noFocus = await helper.executeScript(() => {
+    const ae = document.activeElement
+    return !ae || ae === document.documentElement || (ae === document.body && !ae.isContentEditable)
+  })
+
+  if (!noFocus) return
+
+  if (isStrict) {
+    throw new NonFocusedType()
+  }
+
+  helper.debugSection('Warning', 'No element is in focus. Use I.click() or I.focus() to activate an element before typing.')
+}

test/helper/webapi.js

@@ -2331,6 +2331,29 @@ export function tests() {
       expect(err.message).to.include('/html')
       expect(err.message).to.include('Use a more specific locator')
     })
+
+    it('should throw NonFocusedType error when typing without focus', async () => {
+      await I.amOnPage('/form/field')
+      I.options.strict = true
+      let err
+      try {
+        await I.type('test')
+      } catch (e) {
+        err = e
+      }
+      expect(err).to.exist
+      expect(err.constructor.name).to.equal('NonFocusedType')
+      expect(err.message).to.include('No element is in focus')
+      expect(err.message).to.include('strict mode')
+    })
+
+    it('should not throw NonFocusedType when element is focused', async () => {
+      await I.amOnPage('/form/field')
+      I.options.strict = true
+      await I.click('Name')
+      await I.type('test')
+      await I.seeInField('Name', 'test')
+    })
   })
 
   describe('#elementIndex step option', () => {