Retire Browser Daemon

1. Code retirement

• Move acquireIsolatedBrowser (and IsolatedBrowser / AcquireIsolatedBrowserOptions types) from packages/polyfill-connectors/src/browser-daemon.ts into a new packages/polyfill-connectors/src/browser-launch.ts.
• Update the import in packages/polyfill-connectors/src/connector-runtime.ts:608 to reference ./browser-launch.ts.
• Delete packages/polyfill-connectors/src/browser-daemon.ts.
• Delete packages/polyfill-connectors/bin/browser-daemon-worker.ts.
• Delete packages/polyfill-connectors/src/browser-profile.ts.
• Delete packages/polyfill-connectors/src/bootstrap.ts.
• Drop the browser start|stop|status|restart|logs|bootstrap|probe subcommands from packages/polyfill-connectors/bin/pdpp-connectors.ts. If no subcommands remain, delete the binary and its package.json entry.
• Drop bootstrap:browser and probe:browser scripts from packages/polyfill-connectors/package.json.
• Delete one-shot probe scripts that depended on the legacy paths: bin/usaa-connectivity.ts, bin/usaa-structural-probe.ts, bin/amazon-listcard-probe.ts, bin/amazon-listpage-probe.ts, bin/amazon-listcard-yohtmlc-probe.ts, bin/amazon-capture-detail.ts, bin/bootstrap-slack-session.ts, bin/bootstrap-github-pat.ts.

2. Migration

• Migrate packages/polyfill-connectors/bin/amazon-request-export.ts from CDP-attach to acquireIsolatedBrowser({ profileName: "amazon", headless: false }). Preserve the existing flow, ensureAmazonSession integration, and INTERACTION-passing scaffold.
• Migrate packages/polyfill-connectors/bin/amazon-privacy-probe.ts similarly.
• Verify both scripts no longer read ~/.pdpp/browser-daemon.json and no longer invoke chromium.connectOverCDP.

3. Operator-surface and docs cleanup

• Remove documentation references to pdpp-connectors browser ... daemon/bootstrap commands from packages/polyfill-connectors/README.md (if present) and any docs/local-testing-e2e.md mentions.
• Update connectors/chatgpt/index.ts source-file comment that references pdpp-connectors browser bootstrap (line 6) to point at the auto-login + INTERACTION flow.

3a. Patchright best-practice alignment (added during owner review)

• Switch acquireIsolatedBrowser to viewport: null per the patchright README "Best Practice" config (was { width: 1280, height: 800 } — a fixed viewport is a fingerprint signature antithetical to stealth). Verified by 636/636 tests passing.
• Update connector-authoring-guide.md patchright entry to reflect the README "Best Practice": channel: "chrome", viewport: null, headless: false, no custom userAgent/headers, do not re-add patchright-managed Chromium flags. Reference pnpm --dir packages/polyfill-connectors exec patchright install chrome for installation.

3b. Patchright channel decision — Option D (decided 2026-04-25)

See design-notes/browser-channel-decision-memo.md for the full decision and rationale. Owner decision summary: prefer real Chrome automatically; fall back to bundled Patchright Chromium only when Chrome is not installed; PDPP_BROWSER_CHANNEL is a strict override; the Docker image installs Chrome explicitly so the recommended channel is the in-container default; host install is unchanged (bundled Chromium via postinstall, optional pnpm --dir packages/polyfill-connectors exec patchright install chrome for best stealth).

• acquireIsolatedBrowser auto-detects: prefer channel: "chrome" and fall back to bundled Patchright Chromium only on the patchright "Chromium distribution 'chrome' is not found" error class. Other launch errors propagate.
• PDPP_BROWSER_CHANNEL=<value> is a strict operator override — when set, no fallback; the launcher uses the requested channel verbatim and surfaces any launch error.
• Log the fallback to stderr exactly once per process so operators can see when bundled Chromium was substituted.
• Dockerfile reference stage explicitly installs Chrome + Chromium via pnpm --dir packages/polyfill-connectors exec patchright install --with-deps chrome chromium, since browser assets installed during the deps stage do not survive into the final image.
• Update connector-authoring-guide.md, proposal.md, and design.md to describe the auto-detect default and the strict env override (replaces any earlier "default to bundled Chromium, opt into Chrome via env" framing).
• Mark design-notes/browser-channel-decision-memo.md Status: decided with the date.

4. OpenSpec reconciliation

• In openspec/changes/add-polyfill-connector-system/tasks.md, append a "superseded by retire-browser-daemon" note to the daemon line (currently around line 91) and the related pdpp-connectors browser line (line 95). Do not delete the historical record.
• In openspec/changes/add-reference-runtime-spec/design.md, drop the daemon-specific paths from the row at line 25 ("Browser-backed connectors use ... browser-daemon lifecycle commands ..."), leaving only the per-connector isolated profile path. Also drop "browser daemon commands" from the bullet at line 39.
• Verify the polyfill-runtime capability spec under add-polyfill-connector-system/specs/polyfill-runtime/spec.md does not promote any daemon-specific requirement (it currently does not; this is a confirm step).

5. Validation

• cd /home/tnunamak/code/pdpp && openspec validate retire-browser-daemon --strict
• cd /home/tnunamak/code/pdpp && openspec validate --all --strict
• pnpm --filter @pdpp/polyfill-connectors typecheck
• pnpm --filter @pdpp/polyfill-connectors test
• Manual smoke: trigger one browser-backed connector run end-to-end on the host (e.g. Spotify or GitHub). Confirm no ~/.pdpp/browser-daemon.json is created. (operator-side check; not run as part of this tranche)
• Manual smoke: run bin/amazon-request-export.ts to its existing checkpoint; confirm it acquires Chromium directly and does not depend on a separate daemon process. (operator-side check; not run as part of this tranche)

6. Future capability (not implemented in this tranche)

• Deferred: change connector-runtime.ts:609 default from profileName = name to profileName = ${name}__${subjectId} when multi-account support ships. Captured as a requirement in the spec delta; no code change here.