fix: pass the actual previous step in the Tour show event

[chuckcarpenter]

The show event payload has always reported previous incorrectly.

The bug

Tour._showStep reassigned currentStep before building the event payload:

this.currentStep = step;
this.trigger("show", {
  step,
  previous: this.currentStep  // already reassigned — same object as `step`
});

So previous read back the step being shown. It was always === step, and never the step that was actually showing before.

The documented contract

docs-src/src/content/docs/guides/usage.md ("Tour Events") states:

show: Triggered with a hash of the step and the previous step

The behavior contradicted the docs, so consumers relying on previous to detect direction or clean up the outgoing step got the wrong object.

The fix

Capture currentStep before the reassignment, normalized to null:

const previous = this.currentStep ?? null;

this.currentStep = step;
this.trigger("show", { step, previous });

The ?? null matters because currentStep is Step | null | undefined and only start() initializes it to null. removeStep() sets it to undefined before calling show(0), so without normalizing, that path reported previous: undefined while the start path reported null. Now previous is consistently null when nothing was showing before.

Placing this in _showStep covers every route into it, including the async waitForElement path added in #3471.

Notes

• This predates feat: add waitForElement and skipMissingElement step options #3471, which only moved this code into _showStep. It was deliberately left out of that PR to avoid bundling a public event-payload change into a feature PR. Rebased onto feat: add waitForElement and skipMissingElement step options #3471 after it landed.
• This changes a public event payload, hence its own PR. Anyone who worked around the bug by treating previous as an alias for step will now get the real previous step, or null on the first step.

Testing

Two unit tests in shepherd.js/test/unit/tour.spec.js:

1. On the second show, previous is the step that was showing before and is not the same object as step.
2. Via the removeStep path, previous is null rather than undefined.

Both were verified to fail against the unfixed code and pass with the fix.

• pnpm test:unit:ci — 216 passed
• pnpm -F shepherd.js types:check:esm — clean
• pnpm -F shepherd.js lint — clean

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
shepherd-docs	Ready	Preview	Aug 12, 2026 12:43pm
shepherd-landing	Ready	Preview	Aug 12, 2026 12:43pm

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 118c5981-b74c-4104-bf07-278fcb644e0d

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 47d6f0c and 488a510.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• shepherd.js/src/tour.ts
• shepherd.js/test/unit/tour.spec.js

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• shepherd.js/src/tour.ts

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Tour.show now captures the prior step before selecting the new step and passes it in the show event. Unit tests cover initial display, navigation, and current-step removal.

Changes

Show event payload

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Capture and validate the previous step shepherd.js/src/tour.ts, shepherd.js/test/unit/tour.spec.js	Tour.show reports the actual prior step as previous. Tests verify null on the first display, the prior step during navigation, and null after removing the current step.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main fix to the Tour show event's previous step value.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch claude/infallible-chaum-5821d5

Warning

There were issues while running some tools. Please review the errors and either fix the tool's configuration or disable the tool if it's a critical failure.

🔧 ESLint

If the error stems from missing dependencies, add them to the package.json file. For unrecoverable errors (e.g., due to private dependencies), disable the tool in the CodeRabbit configuration.

shepherd.js/test/unit/tour.spec.js

(node:2) ESLintIgnoreWarning: The ".eslintignore" file is no longer supported. Switch to using the "ignores" property in "eslint.config.js": https://eslint.org/docs/latest/use/configure/migration-guide#ignore-files
(Use node --trace-warnings ... to show where the warning was created)

Oops! Something went wrong! :(

ESLint: 10.8.1

A config object is using the "root" key, which is not supported in flat config system.

Flat configs always act as if they are the root config file, so this key can be safely removed.

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[qltysh]

Coverage Impact

This PR will not change total coverage.

Modified Files with Diff Coverage (1)

Rating	File	% Diff	Uncovered Line #s
	shepherd.js/src/tour.ts	100.0%
	Total	100.0%

🚦 See full report on Qlty Cloud »

🛟 Help

• Diff Coverage: Coverage for added or modified lines of code (excludes deleted files). Learn more.

• Total Coverage: Coverage for the whole repository, calculated as the sum of all File Coverage. Learn more.

• File Coverage: Covered Lines divided by Covered Lines plus Missed Lines. (Excludes non-executable lines including blank lines and comments.)

  • Indirect Changes: Changes to File Coverage for files that were not modified in this PR. Learn more.

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@shepherd.js/src/tour.ts`:
- Around line 333-338: Update the previous-step capture in Tour.show around
this.currentStep so it normalizes an uninitialized value with a nullish fallback
to null before assigning the new step. Preserve the existing event payload and
assignment behavior, ensuring the first show event reports previous as null.

🪄 Autofix

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: c4c160dd-66f2-4916-868f-54ca5b5c9433

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 1991f23 and 2609c7d.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• shepherd.js/src/tour.ts
• shepherd.js/test/unit/tour.spec.js