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web-vitals-inp-deep

Deep INP (Interaction to Next Paint) testing: decomposes input delay, processing duration, and presentation delay via the web-vitals/attribution build, asserts per-interaction INP budgets in Playwright using PerformanceObserver plus the web-vitals visibilitychange flush, and identifies long tasks blocking the main thread. Use when a page feels unresponsive while LCP and CLS are green, or to gate key interactions (form submit, modal open, route change) under an INP budget in CI. Covers interactions only - for page-load Web Vitals gating use lighthouse-perf; for service-worker cache-strategy latency use the qa-pwa plugin's service-worker skills.

Install with skills.sh (any agent)

npx skills add testland/qa --skill web-vitals-inp-deep
View source

web-vitals-inp-deep

INP is "the time from the start of the interaction to the moment the next frame is fully presented" per the INP web.dev article (opens in new window). Thresholds at the 75th percentile of page loads:

  • Good: ≤ 200 ms
  • Needs Improvement: 201 - 500 ms
  • Poor: > 500 ms

When to use

  • A page reports "feels slow" but LCP and CLS are green - INP is the missing dimension.
  • Pre-merge gate: assert key user interactions (form submit, modal open, route transition) stay under budget.
  • Field debugging: correlate field INP outliers with specific interaction types.

Step 1 - Install the web-vitals library

npm install web-vitals

Per the INP web.dev article (opens in new window).

Step 2 - Measure INP in lab (per interaction)

import { onINP } from 'web-vitals';

onINP((metric) => {
  console.log('INP:', metric.value, metric);
  // metric.attribution gives interaction details (target, eventType, etc.)
});

Per the INP web.dev article (opens in new window): the web-vitals library handles edge cases (BFCache restoration, visibility changes) that raw PerformanceObserver does not.

Step 3 - Decompose INP

INP encompasses three components per the INP web.dev article (opens in new window):

  1. Input Delay - time before event handlers begin (often long tasks blocking main thread)
  2. Processing Duration - time for all event handler callbacks to run
  3. Presentation Delay - time until browser paints the next frame

Use metric.attribution (provided by web-vitals INP attribution build) to identify which component dominates:

import { onINP } from 'web-vitals/attribution';

onINP((metric) => {
  console.log('Total INP:', metric.value);
  console.log('Input delay:', metric.attribution.inputDelay);
  console.log('Processing duration:', metric.attribution.processingDuration);
  console.log('Presentation delay:', metric.attribution.presentationDelay);
  console.log('Long animation frame:', metric.attribution.longAnimationFrameEntries);
});

Step 4 - Playwright assertion per interaction

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('modal open INP under 200ms', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.addInitScript({ path: 'node_modules/web-vitals/dist/web-vitals.iife.js' });
  await page.goto('https://localhost:3000');

  await page.evaluate(() => {
    (window as any).__inpValues = [];
    (window as any).webVitals.onINP((m: any) => {
      (window as any).__inpValues.push(m.value);
    });
  });

  // The interaction under test
  await page.click('[data-testid="open-modal"]');
  await page.waitForSelector('[role="dialog"]');

  // Force INP to flush. web-vitals finalizes INP inside its own
  // visibilitychange handler, which reads document.visibilityState
  // synchronously (per the [web-vitals README]). Redefine the property to
  // 'hidden' FIRST, THEN dispatch the event: if you dispatch first, the
  // handler still sees 'visible' and never reports.
  await page.evaluate(() => {
    Object.defineProperty(document, 'visibilityState', {
      configurable: true,
      get: () => 'hidden',
    });
    document.dispatchEvent(new Event('visibilitychange'));
  });

  const inps = await page.evaluate(() => (window as any).__inpValues);
  const max = Math.max(...inps);
  expect(max).toBeLessThan(200);
});

Step 5 - Identify long tasks blocking main thread

test('no long tasks > 50ms during route change', async ({ page }) => {
  // Install the observer BEFORE navigation and push entries onto a
  // window-scoped array. A closure-local array would never reach
  // window.__longTasks, so the later read returns [] and the assertion
  // passes vacuously regardless of real long tasks.
  await page.addInitScript(() => {
    (window as any).__longTasks = [];
    const obs = new PerformanceObserver((list) => {
      for (const e of list.getEntries()) {
        (window as any).__longTasks.push({
          name: e.name, duration: e.duration, startTime: e.startTime,
        });
      }
    });
    // 'longtask' is the Long Tasks API entry type; buffered:true replays
    // tasks recorded before the observer attached (per [MDN longtask]).
    obs.observe({ type: 'longtask', buffered: true });
  });

  await page.goto('https://localhost:3000');
  await page.click('[data-testid="route-link"]');
  await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');

  const blocking = (await page.evaluate(() => (window as any).__longTasks ?? []))
    .filter((t: any) => t.duration > 50);
  expect(blocking).toEqual([]);
});

The richer successor to Long Tasks is the Long Animation Frames (LoAF) API (type: 'long-animation-frame'), but it is not yet Baseline across browsers per MDN LoAF (opens in new window), so attach it as a separate, guarded observer rather than relying on it alone.

Step 6 - CrUX field data correlation

Lab + field don't always match. Pair lab tests with CrUX queries:

# CrUX REST API
curl -X POST 'https://chromeuxreport.googleapis.com/v1/records:queryRecord?key=<API_KEY>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"url":"https://yoursite.com/","metrics":["interaction_to_next_paint"]}'

Field 75th percentile INP ≤ 200 ms = "Good" per the INP web.dev article (opens in new window). Lab passing + field failing = sample population mismatch (real devices slower, real interactions less predictable).

Anti-patterns

Anti-patternWhy it failsFix
Use raw PerformanceObserver for INPMisses BFCache, visibility-change reportingUse web-vitals library (Step 2)
Test INP only on click eventsINP measures all interactions; tap, keypress also countTest representative interactions per type
Use desktop CPU 4× speedHides regressions; field is mobile + slower CPUThrottle CPU 4 - 6× in Playwright config
Assert single sampleINP is jittery; one bad sample fails CIRun interaction N times; assert P75 ≤ budget
Fix INP by fragmenting handlers with setTimeout(0)Hides yield, doesn't reduce workActually reduce processing duration via deferral patterns

Limitations

  • INP became the official Core Web Vital in March 2024 (replacing FID). Some older audit tools still report FID - verify the tool uses INP.
  • Service worker interception adds presentation-delay variance (cache miss vs hit). Pin to a known cache state in tests. Testing the cache strategy itself is out of scope here: use the qa-pwa plugin's service-worker skills.
  • attribution API requires the web-vitals/attribution build bundle, not the default.

References

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