grafana/k6 · error

waiting for URL %q: %w

Error message

waiting for URL %q: %w

What it means

Thrown by Frame.WaitForURL when the RegExMatcher fails while testing urlPattern against the current frame URL — i.e. the pattern itself cannot be compiled, before any waiting logic matters. Identical failure class to the waitForNavigation pattern error, but surfaced from the fast-path check that decides whether the frame is already at the target URL.

Source

Thrown at internal/js/modules/k6/browser/common/frame.go:2224

	f.log.Debugf("Frame:WaitForTimeout", "fid:%s furl:%q timeout:%s", f.ID(), f.URL(), to)
	defer f.log.Debugf("Frame:WaitForTimeout:return", "fid:%s furl:%q timeout:%s", f.ID(), f.URL(), to)

	select {
	case <-f.ctx.Done():
	case <-time.After(to):
	}
}

// WaitForURL waits for the frame to navigate to a URL matching the given pattern.
// RegExMatcher should be non-nil to be able to test against a URL pattern.
func (f *Frame) WaitForURL(urlPattern string, opts *FrameWaitForURLOptions, rm RegExMatcher) error {
	f.log.Debugf("Frame:WaitForURL", "fid:%s furl:%q pattern:%s", f.ID(), f.URL(), urlPattern)
	defer f.log.Debugf("Frame:WaitForURL:return", "fid:%s furl:%q pattern:%s", f.ID(), f.URL(), urlPattern)

	matched, err := rm.Match(urlPattern, f.URL())
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("waiting for URL %q: %w", urlPattern, err)
	}
	if matched {
		// Already at target URL, just wait for load state
		return f.WaitForLoadState(opts.WaitUntil.String(), &FrameWaitForLoadStateOptions{
			Timeout: opts.Timeout,
		})
	}

	// Wait for navigation to matching URL
	navOpts := &FrameWaitForNavigationOptions{
		URL:       urlPattern,
		Timeout:   opts.Timeout,
		WaitUntil: opts.WaitUntil,
	}
	_, err = f.WaitForNavigation(navOpts, rm)

	return err
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 93accf6570)

Solutions

1. Escape regex metacharacters or use a dedicated RegExp literal: page.waitForURL(/\/orders\/\d+$/)
2. For substring matching use a pattern like '**/orders/**' if glob semantics are enabled, otherwise anchor a simple regex

Example fix

// before
page.waitForURL('https://example.com/checkout?step=2');

// after
page.waitForURL(/https:\/\/example\.com\/checkout\?step=2/);

function assertURLPattern(p) {
  if (typeof p === 'string') new RegExp(p); // throws on malformed regex
}
assertURLPattern(pattern);

function isWaitForURLPatternError(e) {
  return e instanceof Error && /waiting for URL/.test(e.message);
}

When it happens

Trigger: page.waitForURL('(bad[') or a string pattern containing unescaped regex metacharacters ('?' of a query string, '.'); the very first Match call fails, so the error appears immediately, even if the page is already on the target URL.

Common situations: Passing a full URL with query strings as a plain string; mixing glob syntax where regex is expected; patterns copied from other tools with different dialects.

Related errors

• parsing URL pattern: %w
• matching %q against pattern %q: %w
• predicate function is not callable
• "handler" argument cannot be nil
• clip area is either empty or outside the viewport

AI-assisted analysis of grafana/k6@93accf6570 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/78d4a4b394c919af. Report an issue: GitHub.