Link clicks silently do nothing on file:// pages

Orca: 1.4.201 · macOS 15.5 (Darwin 25.5.0), Apple Silicon

Summary

On a page loaded over file://, clicking an <a href="..."> link does nothing. The URL never changes, and nothing is logged to the console. The page looks broken to the user.

Repro

1. Create a folder with two local pages, index.html containing <a href="part1.html">Part 1</a>, and part1.html.
2. orca tab create --url "file:///abs/path/index.html"
3. orca snapshot — the link is present with the correct ref.
4. orca click --element <ref>, or orca eval --expression "document.querySelector('a').click()"

Expected: the tab navigates to part1.html. Actual: orca get --what url still returns index.html. No console error, no UI feedback.

The anchor's href resolves correctly — orca eval --expression "document.querySelector('a').href" returns the full file:///.../part1.html.

What narrows it down

Case	Result
file:// page, click a link	no navigation
file:// page, orca goto --url file:///.../part1.html	navigates
Same folder served over http://localhost:8777, click a link	navigates
Same file:// page in headless Chromium, click a link	navigates

So it is specific to link-initiated navigation on the file:// scheme in Orca. Driver-initiated goto is unaffected.

localStorage is also unavailable on these file:// pages, so any page state that depends on it silently fails as well. I have not checked whether that part is Orca's doing or standard Chromium file:// behavior.

Request

If blocking file:// navigation is deliberate, please surface it — a console warning, or a one-line notice in the UI. A silent no-op is indistinguishable from a broken page, and it cost a while to diagnose.