Unexpected ActionMenu focus handling

[adierkens]

Description

When converting the tests for ActionMenu to vitest (#6383) an issue with the focus management of ActionMenu was discovered. The tests assert that, when opening the menu w/ a click, the button should remain focused and arrow-down should highlight the first item in the list.

However, in storybook (and vitest) the first item to be highlighted after opening the menu is the second item in the list. (see video)

CleanShot.2025-08-01.at.10.27.00.mp4

The menu works as expected when it is opened via the keyboard.

I suspect this is due to a the focus-lock management auto-advancing the focus into the menu prior to the arrow keys being clicked; thus when the arrow-key is pressed it advances to the second item in the list.

When fixing this, the tests skipped in #6435 should be re-enabled as well.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to the ActionMenu story in storybook
2. Click on the Menu
3. Click down-arrow
4. Observe that the first highlighted item is the second in the list

Version

v37.30

Browser

Chrome

[TylerJDev]

Hey @adierkens!

I think this is due to the input modality switching from mouse to keyboard due to our usage of :focus-visible. When you click into the menu the input modality is mouse up until you utilize the arrow keys, which is when the focus outline appears.

We had a similar issue in Safari where the focus outline wouldn't show at all even when you utilized your keyboard. I believe this is expected behavior since it works with keyboard, but let me know what you think!

[adierkens]

The issue isn't that the focus outline isn't shown (which I agree that the current behavior is expected to only shown when they keyboard is utilized), it's that the wrong element has focus. The button should still have focus (it shouldn't move to the menu) when opened by a click

When the menu is opened via a click, we should be passing the preventFocusOnOpen prop to the Overlay used by ActionMenu. Since that's not happening, focus is automatically moved into the overlay.

[TylerJDev]

Oh I gotcha! The current behavior is expected, as focus should be set to the first item when activated. I think that test was added some time ago when this behavior was going to be removed, but was reverted.

[hellojanehere]

@TylerJDev @adierkens should we keep this issue open?

[TylerJDev]

@hellojanehere, I think we can close it as expected behavior, but I'll leave it up to @adierkens! 😄