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Recover the Chromatic baseline

Recover the Chromatic baseline when the visual check stops because of an account limit, or when the last main build is not a trusted baseline. Chromatic visual coverage describes the check.

Before you start​

You need an account owner for the quota and billing check, and CHROMATIC_PROJECT_TOKEN in your environment.

Recover the baseline​

  1. With the account owner, check the project's current quota/billing and the linked build's results. Resolve any account limit and confirm UI tests or UI review are enabled before retrying.

  2. Coordinate one full run on the current main commit after confirming snapshot capacity. From the repository root:

    vp run --filter webapp build-storybook
    cd webapp
    vp exec chromatic --storybook-build-dir=storybook-static --only-changed=false --force-rebuild

    Supply CHROMATIC_PROJECT_TOKEN through the environment, never a committed file or command argument. --force-rebuild prevents same-commit build reuse. --only-changed=false requests full snapshots instead of TurboSnap inheritance.

  3. Verify in Chromatic that the build captured snapshots and completed testing. Inspect every difference and component/interaction error. CI never auto-accepts, including on main: manually accept only intentional, inspected differences, then rerun the check. Never accept a publish-only, limited, errored or untested build as the recovery baseline.

  4. Reproduce component failures with the affected stories. Fix defects with story or regression coverage, or link a scoped defect with reproduction details. For earlier errors that no longer reproduce, record the verification evidence rather than assuming a successful upload fixed them.

  5. Record the main commit, build URL, captured/inherited counts, quota check and error dispositions in the issue tracking the recovery. Then rerun affected PRs.

Check that it worked​

The Chromatic build for the main commit captured snapshots and completed testing, with no unreviewed difference and no component error. A pull request that you rerun compares against that build.