Waiting and Actionability in Vibium

Vibium auto-waits before every interaction, so you rarely write explicit waits. Before it clicks, types, or fills, Vibium checks that the element is actionable — visible, stable, receiving events, and enabled — and polls until those conditions hold or a timeout is reached.

Do I need to add waits in Vibium?

In most cases, no. Vibium handles waiting inside its Go engine, so a single line like the one below already waits for the element to become clickable before acting.

from vibium import browser_sync as browser
 
vibe = browser.launch()
vibe.go("https://example.com")
 
# Vibium waits until the link is actionable, then clicks
vibe.find("a").click()
 
vibe.quit()

This is why Vibium code stays so short: there is no wait_for_element call to sprinkle before each action. The waiting is built into find() and the interaction methods themselves.

What does "actionable" mean?

Actionability is a set of conditions an element must satisfy before Vibium interacts with it. The core checks are:

• Visible — the element has a non-zero size and is not hidden with display: none or visibility: hidden.
• Stable — its bounding box has stopped moving, so animations and layout shifts have settled.
• Receives events — a hit-test at the element's center returns the element itself (or one of its descendants), not an overlay covering it.
• Enabled — the element is not disabled, aria-disabled, or inside a disabled <fieldset>.
• Editable — only checked for fill-style actions; the field must accept input and not be read-only.

Different actions require different subsets. A click needs visible, stable, receives-events, and enabled. A fill needs visible, enabled, and editable. Vibium also scrolls the element into view before running these checks, so off-screen elements get a fair chance to pass.

How long does Vibium wait?

Vibium polls for actionability with a default timeout of 30 seconds. It re-checks the element repeatedly, and if every required condition passes, the action proceeds. If the element never becomes actionable within the window, the action raises a timeout error instead of silently doing nothing.

# Times out after the default window if #submit never becomes clickable
vibe.find("#submit").click()

That explicit failure is a feature: a clear timeout points you at the real problem — a hidden element, a disabled control, or an overlay — rather than producing a confusing no-op.

When should I still wait manually?

The main reason to think about waiting is when an element stays unactionable for a legitimate reason, such as a cookie banner or modal sitting on top of your target. The fix is to act on the blocker first, then on your element, rather than adding arbitrary delays.

# Dismiss the overlay first, then the real target becomes actionable
vibe.find(role="button", text="Accept").click()
vibe.find("#start-checkout").click()

Because Vibium already waits internally, adding time.sleep() usually just slows your script down and hides the actual cause. Lean on actionability instead.

Next steps

• How to Find Elements in Vibium
• How to Click Elements in Vibium
• Vibium vs Playwright