From a3bf41952676d5bce360d834b485d9293b1cb4ec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jacek <jacek@clerk.dev>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:33:01 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] ci(e2e): report captcha drift in staging instance validation

---
 .changeset/heavy-pugs-warn.md               |  2 ++
 scripts/validate-staging-instances.mjs      |  3 +--
 scripts/validate-staging-instances.test.mjs | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .changeset/heavy-pugs-warn.md

diff --git a/.changeset/heavy-pugs-warn.md b/.changeset/heavy-pugs-warn.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a845151cc84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/heavy-pugs-warn.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+---
+---
diff --git a/scripts/validate-staging-instances.mjs b/scripts/validate-staging-instances.mjs
index 5afb0178617..a02e336aaac 100644
--- a/scripts/validate-staging-instances.mjs
+++ b/scripts/validate-staging-instances.mjs
@@ -25,8 +25,6 @@ const IGNORED_PATHS = [
   /\.id$/,
   /^auth_config\.id$/,
   /\.logo_url$/,
-  /\.captcha_enabled$/,
-  /\.captcha_widget_type$/,
   /\.enforce_hibp_on_sign_in$/,
   /\.disable_hibp$/,
 ];
@@ -416,5 +414,6 @@ export {
   collapseAttributeMismatches,
   collapseSocialMismatches,
   compareEnvironments,
+  isIgnored,
   main,
 };
diff --git a/scripts/validate-staging-instances.test.mjs b/scripts/validate-staging-instances.test.mjs
index 57c86a53801..f1381349ea5 100644
--- a/scripts/validate-staging-instances.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/validate-staging-instances.test.mjs
@@ -11,11 +11,29 @@ import {
   collapseSocialMismatches,
   diffObjects,
   fetchEnvironment,
+  isIgnored,
   loadKeys,
   main,
   parseFapiDomain,
 } from './validate-staging-instances.mjs';
 
+// ── isIgnored ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+describe('isIgnored', () => {
+  it('compares captcha settings (behavior-changing for headless e2e)', () => {
+    expect(isIgnored('user_settings.sign_up.captcha_enabled')).toBe(false);
+    expect(isIgnored('user_settings.sign_up.captcha_widget_type')).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('still ignores ids, logo_url and hibp settings', () => {
+    expect(isIgnored('user_settings.social.oauth_google.id')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isIgnored('auth_config.id')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isIgnored('user_settings.social.oauth_google.logo_url')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isIgnored('user_settings.sign_in.enforce_hibp_on_sign_in')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isIgnored('user_settings.password_settings.disable_hibp')).toBe(true);
+  });
+});
+
 // ── loadKeys ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 describe('loadKeys', () => {