avajs/ava · error · Error

Could not parse `--node-arguments` value. Make sure all stri

Error message

Could not parse `--node-arguments` value. Make sure all strings are closed and backslashes are used correctly.

What it means

normalizeNodeArguments guard: the arrgv parser threw while tokenizing the raw --node-arguments CLI string into argv entries, meaning the quoting is malformed (unclosed string, dangling backslash). The input at fault is the fromArgv string.

Source

Thrown at lib/node-arguments.js:11

import process from 'node:process';

import arrgv from 'arrgv';

export default function normalizeNodeArguments(fromConf = [], fromArgv = '') {
	let parsedArgv = [];
	if (fromArgv !== '') {
		try {
			parsedArgv = arrgv(fromArgv);
		} catch {
			throw new Error('Could not parse `--node-arguments` value. Make sure all strings are closed and backslashes are used correctly.');
		}
	}

	return [...process.execArgv, ...fromConf, ...parsedArgv];
}

View on GitHub (pinned to bbfd946322)

Solutions

1. Quote the whole value and use inner quotes for args: --node-arguments="--loader ./loader.js"
2. Close all string literals and remove trailing backslashes
3. Test the argument string by running it directly with node first
4. Prefer putting node args in the config's nodeArguments array instead of the CLI flag

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/node-arguments.js:11 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of avajs/ava@bbfd946322 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5a08449ca73174d6. Report an issue: GitHub.