Components: Generate Tooltip

[JasonVMo]

Summary

Generate Tooltip with its canonical contract, implementation, tests, stories, platform validation, and explicit package export so controls can expose concise hover and focus descriptions. The component remains blocked on the shared Popover anchoring and overlay host, with trigger-coupled accessible-description behavior preserved.

Observed. tooltip is entry tooltip in the canonical catalog and has no
implementation in packages/agentic/components. Upstream describes it as: Non-interactive contextual label that surfaces a brief description of an adjacent UI element on hover or focus. Single style, four runtime positioning directions.

Goal

Generate the tooltip component in
packages/agentic/components/src/components against the
canonical Fluent Flex spec, with the colocated coverage, stories, and platform
validation the package requires, and export it explicitly from
src/index.ts.

Stage

Stage 2 (beta). Wave 2 - overlay and popover stack.

Why it matters

Observed. The canonical catalog has 50 components and the agentic library has
generated 18. tooltip is one of the 32 in the gap, enumerated in
the missing-components index.

Inferred. It belongs to the overlay stack, which is the largest single cluster of blocked components. Delivering the cluster converts a broad "not implementable" state into ordinary component work.

Observed current state

Canonical spec and source

Field	Value
Canonical spec	plugins/components/skills/tooltip/SKILL.md with usage.md, web/tokens.yaml, web/accessibility.md, and web/interaction.md, at x3-design/fluent-design @ d334acf
Upstream tier	atom
Upstream catalog key	tooltip in component-map.yaml
Local staged spec	packages/agentic/components/specs/tooltip - SPEC.md, usage.md, interaction.md, accessibility.md, tokens.yaml, blockers.md
Local implementation	None. No src/components/tooltip directory exists

Closest existing FURN or V1 implementation

• packages/experimental/Tooltip - Tooltip.tsx, Tooltip.types.ts, TooltipNativeComponent.ts, and TooltipNativeComponent.win32.ts. The Win32 variant is the desktop-specific native path; there is no macOS-specific file.

Note on platform canon. Where a legacy package has platform-specific files, the
desktop path (.win32, .windows, .macos, or the unsuffixed cross-platform file)
is the compatibility reference. .ios, .android, and .mobile variants are not
treated as the cross-platform canonical implementation.

Local dependencies

• No generated agentic component is required as a direct dependency.

Known blockers

Observed (blockers.md, blocker class B in the index).

Four blockers were recorded: the tooltip is an anchored floating surface needing anchor measurement and overlay rendering with hover persistence across trigger and tooltip, plus Escape dismissal and four directions; the accessibility contract is trigger-coupled through aria-describedby; packages/experimental/Tooltip already relies on a native RCTTooltip component, which the record cites as evidence the contract is not pure React Native today; and completing it would need new exports and overlay wiring the session could not add.

Reassessment.

Valid, and resolved by popover. Every blocker is an instance of the overlay and anchoring gap. Inferred: once popover establishes the overlay host, tooltip becomes a thin, non-interactive consumer of it.

Scope

• Ingest or promote the spec into the component directory in the generated shape
  (SPEC.md plus a spec/ folder), per
  spec-ingestion-and-generation.md.
• Establish the public contract first: variants, slots, native props, accessibility,
  interaction states, and platform behavior.
• Implement the required file structure from
  src/components/AGENTS.md:
  tooltip.types.ts, tooltip.styles.ts, use*.ts, use*Styles.ts, render*.tsx, and
  the assembly module with a displayName.
• Style from Flex tokens first and record genuine token gaps rather than substituting
  unrelated values.
• Export the component, its public types, and the state, style, and render stages
  explicitly from src/index.ts under component-qualified unstable names.
• Build on the overlay host from popover rather than introducing a second anchoring mechanism.
• Define the hover-persistence rule precisely: the tooltip stays open while the pointer is over either the trigger or the tooltip.
• Decide the show and hide delays and whether they are tokens or fixed constants.

Out of scope

• Changing the contract of an existing generated component, unless this task explicitly
  calls for it above; raise it as its own item.
• Building shared infrastructure owned by another task: overlay hosting
  (popover), roving focus (focus-zone.md), spec
  ingestion (spec-ingestion-and-generation.md),
  or the coverage contract (component-test-strategy.md).
• Migrating any legacy FURN consumer onto this component.
• Mobile platform support; the applicable upstream companion is web, retargeted to
  React Native for Windows and macOS.

Deliverables

• src/components/tooltip/ implementing the full required file structure.
• SPEC.md and a spec/ companion folder with provenance recording the upstream path,
  SHA, and ingestion date.
• Colocated tooltip.test.tsx, tooltip.types.test.ts, and tooltip.stories.tsx.
• Snapshot coverage where the visual contract is state-dependent, or a recorded
  exemption.
• Explicit exports from src/index.ts, with src/index.test.ts updated.
• A changeset, per the repository's version management rules.
• A recorded readiness level with its supporting evidence.

Required coverage, stories, and platform validation

Runtime and type coverage:

• All four directions, plus the edge-flip behavior inherited from the overlay host.
• Show on hover and on focus; hide on blur, on Escape, and on pointer exit.
• The trigger carries the description relationship in the accessibility tree.
• The tooltip content is not focusable and does not steal focus.
• Delay behavior, asserted with fake timers rather than real waits.
• User style and handler forwarding, and that user styles are applied after component
  styles.
• Compile-time slot acceptance and any mutually exclusive props.

Stories: a typed Meta titled Components/Tooltip, an args-driven Default, a
grouped Overview when the contract has several axes, one focused story per variant
axis, and an interactive story for each stateful axis. Self-driving axes expose
default<State> as the control; externally driven selection is owned by the story with
React.useState. Identity-changing axes are not exposed as controls.

Platform validation: the component's stories render and behave correctly on macOS
and on React Native Windows Fabric through apps/storybook,
including hover, pressed, disabled, focus, optional-slot, and constrained-content
scenarios. Add a stable root testID if the component joins the automated smoke set.

Acceptance criteria

• src/components/tooltip exists with the required file structure and a displayName.
• Every variant axis in the component's SPEC.md is implemented, or a deviation is recorded in the spec.
• The component styles from Flex tokens, with any genuine token gap recorded rather than approximated.
• Focus feedback renders through FocusVisual; no outline* props and no React Native Windows native focus visuals are introduced.
• State precedence is explicit: disabled wins over pressed, which wins over hovered.
• Every stateful axis is classified as self-driving or externally driven, and both paths are covered.
• Runtime, type, and story coverage satisfy the package coverage contract.
• The component, its public types, and its pipeline stages are exported explicitly from src/index.ts, and src/index.test.ts covers them.
• The component's stories render on macOS and on React Native Windows Fabric.
• yarn workspace @fluentui-react-native/components format, lint, build, and test pass, and the Storybook bundle succeeds for both desktop platforms.
• A readiness level is recorded with its supporting evidence.
• A changeset is included.

Dependencies and ordering

• Blocked by popover for the overlay host, anchoring, light dismiss, and focus return.
• Gated by component-test-strategy.md: the component must satisfy the coverage contract on arrival rather than being retrofitted.
• Gated by readiness-model.md: the target readiness level must be stated before the work starts.
• Consumes the Infrastructure workstream (storybook-e2e.md) for automated macOS and Windows Fabric validation; until it lands, platform validation is manual.

Risks and open decisions

1. Hover is not a universal React Native concept; macOS and Windows Fabric hover behavior differs and must be validated on device.
2. The existing FURN Tooltip uses a native component on Win32, so a pure-React-Native agentic tooltip may look and behave differently from the legacy one on that endpoint.

Evidence and references

• Upstream spec: plugins/components/skills/tooltip/SKILL.md and
  components-index/SKILL.md
  at x3-design/fluent-design @ d334acf.
• Local staged spec and blocker record: packages/agentic/components/specs/tooltip.
• Canonical implementations to follow: src/components/button
  for a styled higher-order component and src/primitives/icon
  for a primitive.
• Authoring rules: src/components/AGENTS.md and the
  agentic component authoring skill.
• Workstream context: Components README and
  the missing-components index.

Sources retrieved 2026-08-20.