[tang-vu]

Why this matters

Settings replaces a native category select with PanelSelect. It supports arrow navigation but ignores typed category names, making a long configuration list unnecessarily slow to navigate by keyboard. Add prefix navigation and repeated-initial cycling while retaining focus on the combobox and committing only on Enter/Space.

This is an optional usability enhancement described by the WAI-ARIA combobox pattern, not a claim that every select-only widget is required to implement it: https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/combobox/#keyboardinteraction

Overlap check

Searched open/closed PRs touching PanelSelect.jsx and typeahead/category/keyboard keywords. #4224 preserves highlighted selection when option arrays refresh; this adds printable-character navigation. It retains existing index state so #4224 remains independently useful and should be reconciled when merged. #4210 introduced the contained selector.

Validation

• Two rendered interaction tests failed on base where printable characters did nothing.
• npx vitest run src/components/PanelSelectTypeahead.test.jsx src/components/PanelSelect.test.jsx: 5 passed. Covers prefix search, repeated-letter cycling, explicit commit, Escape reset, IME/modified-key exclusion, existing arrows, pointer selection and disabled/empty lists.
• Focused ESLint 0 errors; scoped pre-commit and git diff --check passed.

Prefix accumulation expires after 700 ms and is capped at 256 characters. No configuration value is saved by navigation alone. Screen-reader announcement relies on existing aria-activedescendant; a live assistive-technology session was not run. Revert removes only typeahead.

Batch integration receipt

Validated with the other 19 public-beta PRs on integration commit ce0d0132, based on upstream f5f49b7. All 20 patches compose without conflicts in creation order; no new PR requires another to fix its own behavior. For shared files, use #4325 before #4327 and #4339 before #4356 as the tested order.

• Final combined dashboard: 118 test files / 932 tests pass; ESLint 0 errors (575 warnings); production build passes.
• Affected API suites: 292 pass. APE full suite: 52 pass. Scoped pre-commit secret/private-key/large-file checks and git diff --check pass.
• Native Linux make gate reaches an existing CLI-update failure also reproduced on the untouched base; fix(update): keep host-agent refresh non-fatal #3159 supplies its separate fix. BATS: 419/421 pass, with the same two baseline failures (non-GNU OSTYPE fixture detects the real WSL host; skip-Docker fixture lacks production helpers). Smoke tests and installer simulation pass. These are explicit validation gaps, not a claim that the whole release gate is green.

Merge coordination

Not merge-ready until reconciled with open #4224: both touch the category keyboard handler. A tested resolution is 4e7f55e9, which retains #4224's active option identity and sets activeValue from the typeahead match. All 7 combined selector tests pass. The independent branch remains based on public-beta; do not merge both heads without this reconciliation.

Latest candidate CI: 32 successful checks, 4 skipped. Independent human review of filesystem/authorization changes remains required despite green CI.

Review status update — 2026-09-15

Ready for review at the author's request. Not merge-ready. The branch conflicts with public-beta. Preserve the tested typeahead behavior while reconciling the category control with overlapping #4224; the previously recorded comparison and union are not proof that this PR head is mergeable.

Reviewed head: 72fdafa. Changing draft status does not bypass these gates or authorize a merge.

[Lightheartdevs]

Thanks for this contribution. public-beta was promoted into main on 2026-09-24 and no longer receives changes, so we're closing pull requests that target it. This isn't a judgment on the change itself. If it's still needed, please rebase onto main and open a focused PR. See #7253 for details and the contribution policy.