facebook/react · error · Error

Unable to acquire scope for the current node. This is a bug

Error message

Unable to acquire scope for the current node. This is a bug in eslint-plugin-react-hooks, please file an issue.

What it means

The react-hooks/exhaustive-deps rule analyzes each hook callback by asking ESLint's ScopeManager for the variable scope of the callback node (scopeManager.acquire(node)). If the scope manager returns null for a node that must have a scope, the rule cannot compute dependencies and aborts with this invariant error. The message itself states it is a bug in eslint-plugin-react-hooks, not a problem in your code. It almost always indicates a mismatch between the AST a parser produced and what the scope manager can map.

Source

Thrown at packages/eslint-plugin-react-hooks/src/rules/ExhaustiveDeps.ts:210

          message:
            `Effect callbacks are synchronous to prevent race conditions. ` +
            `Put the async function inside:\n\n` +
            'useEffect(() => {\n' +
            '  async function fetchData() {\n' +
            '    // You can await here\n' +
            '    const response = await MyAPI.getData(someId);\n' +
            '    // ...\n' +
            '  }\n' +
            '  fetchData();\n' +
            `}, [someId]); // Or [] if effect doesn't need props or state\n\n` +
            'Learn more about data fetching with Hooks: https://react.dev/link/hooks-data-fetching',
        });
      }

      // Get the current scope.
      const scope = scopeManager.acquire(node);
      if (!scope) {
        throw new Error(
          'Unable to acquire scope for the current node. This is a bug in eslint-plugin-react-hooks, please file an issue.',
        );
      }

      // Find all our "pure scopes". On every re-render of a component these
      // pure scopes may have changes to the variables declared within. So all
      // variables used in our reactive hook callback but declared in a pure
      // scope need to be listed as dependencies of our reactive hook callback.
      //
      // According to the rules of React you can't read a mutable value in pure
      // scope. We can't enforce this in a lint so we trust that all variables
      // declared outside of pure scope are indeed frozen.
      const pureScopes = new Set();
      let componentScope: Scope.Scope | null = null;
      {
        let currentScope = scope.upper;
        while (currentScope) {
          pureScopes.add(currentScope);

View on GitHub (pinned to eafeac097b)

Solutions

Update eslint-plugin-react-hooks to the latest version - several scope-acquisition crashes have been fixed across releases
Align parser tooling: bump or pin @typescript-eslint/parser and eslint to versions known to work with your plugin version (check the plugin's peer dependencies)
Shrink the failure to one file/line by linting files individually, then simplify the offending hook until the trigger syntax is obvious
File an issue on facebook/react with the minimal repro, ESLint config, and package versions - the error message explicitly asks for this
Unblock CI immediately with /* eslint-disable react-hooks/exhaustive-deps */ on that file, and remove it after the real fix

Example fix

// before (package.json, versions drifted apart)
"eslint-plugin-react-hooks": "^4.6.0",
"@typescript-eslint/parser": "^8.0.0"

// after (upgrade the plugin, keep the toolchain in lockstep)
"eslint-plugin-react-hooks": "^5.2.0",
"@typescript-eslint/parser": "^8.0.0"
// then: npm dedupe && npx eslint --fix-dry-run src/hooks/**

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

Only relevant when driving ESLint programmatically (editors, lint runners). Catch the Error, match /Unable to acquire scope for the current node/, and treat it as tooling failure: skip the file with a warning instead of failing the entire lint run, then surface the file for an upgrade/report.

Prevention

Keep eslint-plugin-react-hooks, ESLint core, and your parser (babel/@typescript-eslint) on mutually compatible, pinned versions
Verify version pins in CI so a transitive upgrade cannot silently introduce the bug
Lint new or exotic syntax locally before pushing, especially files with hooks
Watch the plugin changelog when adopting new TypeScript syntax

When it happens

Trigger: Running ESLint with the exhaustive-deps rule when the configured parser (e.g. @typescript-eslint/parser with unusual parserOptions, or an experimental Babel plugin) emits an AST that leaves a hook callback node without an acquireable scope. Also triggered by other ESLint plugins or custom rules that mutate/replace AST nodes before exhaustive-deps visits them, or by plugin versions that predate a fix for a specific syntax pattern.

Common situations: Upgrading eslint-plugin-react-hooks, TypeScript, or @typescript-eslint/* independently so versions drift out of compatibility; monorepos where different packages lint with different parser configs; adopting new syntax (decorators, satisfy expressions, macros) in files containing hooks.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of facebook/react@eafeac097b (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/723d06e9785f4c69. Report an issue: GitHub.