[FEATURE] Native dialogs on iOS always tap on positive action

[mi-hla]

Problem Statement

If there is a native iOS dialog, maestro-runner taps automatically on the positive action on that dialog even the tap on the second button is configured.

Proposed Solution

I don't know if it is a bug or a feature request to disable this behaviour somehow. It happens only in the original wda OS driver; the devcelab driver looks ok.

Use Case

We have an update dialog in the app and there is a skip and an update. Maestro-runner quickly tap on the update, but as we use a simulator, there is no store, I must go away from the browser back to the app, which takes extra time and it drops the stability of the tests.

[omnarayan]

@mi-hla, thanks for the report , and good news, this is a one-line config change rather than something you're stuck with.

On the WDA (original iOS) driver, launchApp defaults to granting all permissions, and to do that it turns on WebDriverAgent's alert monitor in "accept" mode. The catch is that monitor isn't limited to system permission prompts — it auto-accepts any alert that pops up, so it taps the positive button on your app's update dialog ("Update") before your tapOn: "Skip" gets a chance. The devicelab driver doesn't use that monitor, which is why it behaves the way you'd expect.

To turn it off, set permissions to unset on your launchApp:

- launchApp:
    permissions:
      all: unset

With unset, no alert monitor is registered, so your update dialog is left alone and your flow drives it. This works on both the simulator and real devices. It's documented here under setPermissions / Alert Handling:

https://devicelab.dev/open-source/maestro-runner/docs/flow-commands#setpermissions

One trade-off to keep in mind: unset also turns off the automatic permission handling. So if another part of your flow relies on a real system dialog (camera, location, etc.) being granted, handle that one explicitly — either add an acceptAlert step where the prompt appears, or grant just the specific permissions you need, e.g. permissions: { camera: allow }.

Hope that sorts out the update-dialog case . let me know how it goes.