Docs say selenium-boot.yml is optional, but the version they pin (3.4.0) aborts the suite without it #76

What I did

Cold-start run: fresh Maven project outside the repo, built by following docs-site/docs/getting-started.md (and the README quickstart) exactly as a new user would, deliberately without creating a selenium-boot.yml.

Both documents currently say the file is optional:

• getting-started, Step 2: "selenium-boot.yml is optional — with no file at all the framework runs on built-in defaults (Chrome, local execution, 10 s / 30 s timeouts) and prints one notice line saying so."
• README: "optional; project root, next to pom.xml. Omit it entirely and the framework runs on built-in defaults…"

Both then tell the reader to depend on 3.4.0, which is the latest version on Maven Central. This is live on https://docs.seleniumboot.com/docs/getting-started today.

Project used: the README quickstart pom.xml verbatim (io.github.seleniumboot:selenium-boot:3.4.0, compiler 3.11.0, surefire 3.2.5), the getting-started Step 3 SmokeTest, the Step 4 testng.xml, and no selenium-boot.yml anywhere.

mvn -B -Dmaven.repo.local=<clean repo> test

(clean local repo, so 3.4.0 is really downloaded from Central: Downloaded from central: .../selenium-boot/3.4.0/selenium-boot-3.4.0.jar (552 kB))

What happened

[INFO] Running SmokeTest
[Selenium Boot] Initialization failed: Selenium Boot failed to initialize. Aborting test suite execution.
[Selenium Boot] Cause: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Configuration file 'selenium-boot.yml' not found. Checked: -Dselenium.boot.config, working directory, and classpath.
[ERROR] Selenium Boot failed to initialize. Aborting test suite execution.
[INFO] Tests run: 0, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE

Zero tests run, and the error message states the opposite of what the docs promise.

Why

Zero-config landed in #66 (merged 2026-09-20), which is after the v3.4.0 tag (2026-09-19) and is listed under ### v3.5.0 — unreleased in CHANGELOG.md. git tag --contains 27ed654 returns nothing. So no published artifact has the behavior the docs describe.

Confirmed the feature itself works on current master (5f9ab3d), installed locally under a throwaway version and run against the same no-yml project:

[Selenium Boot] No selenium-boot.yml found — running with built-in defaults (chrome, local, timeouts.explicit=10s, timeouts.pageLoad=30s). Add a selenium-boot.yml to customise.

Exactly one notice line, Chrome launched, ChromeDriver, default explicit timeout measured at 10351 ms. The feature is fine; only the docs/release pairing is wrong.

Impact

Anyone landing on the docs or the README between now and the 3.5.0 release and following the "it's optional" path gets a red build on their first run, with an error that contradicts the page they just read.

Suggested fix (either)

• Release 3.5.0 and bump the pinned version in the docs; or
• Until then, mark the zero-config paragraph with the version it requires (e.g. "3.5.0+; on 3.4.0 the file is required"), in both docs-site/docs/getting-started.md and README.md.

Note also that the pom.xml on master is still 3.4.0 while CHANGELOG.md has a v3.5.0 — unreleased section, so a local mvn install of master silently overwrites the released 3.4.0 in the local Maven repository. That is how this nearly went unnoticed here — the first run of this test picked up a locally installed master jar under the 3.4.0 coordinate and looked green.