Node >= 21 exposes a global `navigator` reporting the machine's own language,
so gating detection on `navigator` let a non-browser boot of the client tree
resolve to `en` instead of the documented fallback; `window` is the browser
test. `navigator.languages` is spec-required but absent on some embedders and
older WebViews, where spreading it would throw at boot, so the walk tolerates
its absence and `navigator.language` covers that host.
The per-spec pin boilerplate collapses into one suite-level
`usePinnedBrowserLanguages('zh-CN')`, which owns the rationale in
dsh-client-test-runtime, and the English-browser e2e scenario now clears the
console warnings channel too — its page has no closing inventory spec.
A first visit resolved to Chinese regardless of the browser: LocaleService
read `dsh.locale` and fell straight back to `zh` when nothing was stored,
ignoring the languages the browser already states it reads.
The initial locale now resolves through three ordered sources — the persisted
preference, then `navigator` (first entry of the ordered language list whose
primary subtag names a shipped locale, so `zh-Hans-CN` -> zh and `en-GB` ->
en), then `FALLBACK_LOCALE`. An explicit choice still wins and nothing writes
the detected locale back to storage, so "has the user chosen?" stays a
question only the stored value answers.
Specs asserting the shipped Chinese copy now state the browser they assume:
the web e2e scenarios open their page with `locale: ZH_BROWSER_LOCALE`, and
package specs pin it through the new `pinBrowserLanguages` test helper.
`settings-chrome.e2e.ts` gains an English-browser scenario as the
assembled-app proof.
Registrations declare a dictionary namespace (locale: NS) and the renderer
synthesizes a typed t prop for the entry's component from the installed
LocaleFace; the seat binding is re-derived per locale revision, so a language
switch hands out fresh t references and memoized consumers re-render through
ordinary shallow comparison. LocaleNamespaceMap is the declare-merge table
(namespace -> dictionary key union); TranslateNS<'ns'> is the
namespace-addressed translate type (namespace keys plus the shared common
vocabulary), carried by the t seat and by the locale service's typed bind.
LocaleService implements the face (lookup ns -> common -> zh -> key,
revision-carrying snapshots with subscriber isolation) and installs it
through the boot-once slots.installLocale seam, mirroring the renderer
install. The typed register(ns, {zh, en}) overload checks each dictionary
against the namespace's key union and requires every shipped locale, so a
missing or extra key and an unbalanced translation are compile errors.
Dictionary registration bumps the face revision without emitting
locale/change — the event now means exactly 'the active locale switched',
so registration-heavy boot cannot storm event listeners.
Locale and ui-theme apply coverage on a real Context + SlotCore:
dictionary assembly, declaration-aware registration both ways,
inject-time getter re-sync, service write-back through the event flow,
HMR collapse recovery, and teardown reclamation. Four settings-surface
packages sit at full per-file coverage.
