compose-focus-navigation

Create a FocusRequester with remember, attach it via Modifier.focusRequester, then call requestFocus() inside a LaunchedEffect. If the target appears after loading, key the effect to the loaded condition rather than Unit so the request fires after composition succeeds.

Use focusable components like Button and clickable surfaces so spatial search works by default. Override navigation only where it breaks using Modifier.focusProperties with up, down, left, and right targets, and throttle rapid D-pad input at the scrolling or paging boundary.

Send real key input with composeTestRule.onNodeWithTag(...).performKeyInput { pressKey(Key.DirectionDown) } and assert the result with assertIsFocused(). Prefer asserting focused semantics over screenshot tests, which only suit focus appearance.

requestFocus fails when called before the target is composed, such as directly in the composable body or keyed to Unit while content loads later. Move the call into a LaunchedEffect keyed to the condition that guarantees the target exists.

Use focusProperties only when default spatial search picks the wrong target or you need a specific jump or trap. Hard-coding many links creates stale focus graphs when layouts change, so prefer natural focus order for most layouts.

Track the focused item by stable id rather than index, use stable key values in the lazy list, and re-request focus for the same id after refresh. If the item no longer exists, fall back deterministically to a neighbor, first item, or parent container.