jestjs/jest · error · Error

"cwd" must be an absolute path. cwd: ${cwd}

Error message

"cwd" must be an absolute path. cwd: ${cwd}

What it means

resolveConfigPath requires its `cwd` argument to be an absolute path because it resolves the user-supplied path relative to it. A relative cwd would produce wrong absolute paths and silently misresolve configs, so it is rejected up front. This is an internal/programmatic invariant - the CLI always passes an absolute cwd.

Source

Thrown at packages/jest-config/src/resolveConfigPath.ts:31

import {
  JEST_CONFIG_BASE_NAME,
  JEST_CONFIG_EXT_ORDER,
  PACKAGE_JSON,
} from './constants';
import {BULLET, DOCUMENTATION_NOTE} from './utils';

const isFile = (filePath: string) =>
  fs.existsSync(filePath) && !fs.lstatSync(filePath).isDirectory();

const getConfigFilename = (ext: string) => JEST_CONFIG_BASE_NAME + ext;

export default function resolveConfigPath(
  pathToResolve: string,
  cwd: string,
  skipMultipleConfigError = false,
): string {
  if (!path.isAbsolute(cwd)) {
    throw new Error(`"cwd" must be an absolute path. cwd: ${cwd}`);
  }
  const absolutePath = path.isAbsolute(pathToResolve)
    ? pathToResolve
    : path.resolve(cwd, pathToResolve);

  if (isFile(absolutePath)) {
    return absolutePath;
  }

  // This is a guard against passing non existing path as a project/config,
  // that will otherwise result in a very confusing situation.
  // e.g.
  // With a directory structure like this:
  //   my_project/
  //     package.json
  //
  // Passing a `my_project/some_directory_that_doesnt_exist` as a project
  // name will resolve into a (possibly empty) `my_project/package.json` and

View on GitHub (pinned to f49721c78e)

Solutions

1. Pass an absolute cwd, typically process.cwd() or path.resolve(process.cwd())
2. Use path.resolve() on any relative directory before passing it as cwd

Example fix

// before
resolveConfigPath(configFile, './packages/app')
// after
resolveConfigPath(configFile, path.resolve('packages/app'))

import * as path from 'node:path';
if (!path.isAbsolute(cwd)) {
  cwd = path.resolve(cwd);
}

import * as path from 'node:path';
function isAbsolutePath(p: string): boolean {
  return path.isAbsolute(p);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling resolveConfigPath('./config', './project') or passing a relative cwd from a custom Jest wrapper/runner.

Common situations: Writing a custom test runner on top of jest-config and passing a relative subdirectory string instead of process.cwd(); mocking cwd incorrectly in tests.

Related errors

• Can't find a root directory while resolving a config file pa
• The --config option requires a JSON string literal, or a fil
• Cannot merge config in form of callback
• Whoops! Two projects resolved to the same config path: ${Str
• Jest: Cannot use configuration as an object without a file p

AI-assisted analysis of jestjs/jest@f49721c78e (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/6ca9695c74b71263.json. Report an issue: GitHub.