jestjs/jest · critical · Error

Jest: Got error running

Error message

Jest: Got error running ${moduleName} - ${modulePath}, reason: ${prettyFormat(error, {maxDepth: 3})}

What it means

Thrown when a globalSetup or globalTeardown hook module throws during execution. Jest catches the original error and re-wraps it with the module name and path for diagnosis. The pretty-format fallback (line 75) fires specifically when the original error's `message` property is not writable, so Jest cannot augment it in-place.

Solutions

1. Read the `reason:` portion of the message — it contains the original error text or a pretty-format dump of the thrown value.
2. Run the globalSetup/globalTeardown file directly with `node --import tsx path/to/setup.ts` to reproduce outside Jest.
3. Verify the hook file default-exports an `async (globalConfig, projectConfig) => {}` function, not an object.
4. Check that all environment variables and external services the hook depends on are available.
5. If the pretty-format dump appears instead of a readable message, inspect the thrown value type — it may be a non-Error throw (e.g. a string or plain object).

Example fix

// before: jest.config.js
module.exports = { globalSetup: './setup.ts' };
// setup.ts — throws because DB is down
export default async () => { await db.connect(); };

// after: add graceful error with context
export default async () => {
  try { await db.connect(); }
  catch (e) { throw new Error(`globalSetup DB connection failed: ${e.message}`); }
};

// Validate the global setup file exports a function before running Jest
const fs = require('fs');
function validateGlobalHook(modulePath) {
  if (!fs.existsSync(modulePath)) {
    throw new Error(`globalSetup file not found: ${modulePath}`);
  }
  // dry-load to check it exports a function
  const mod = require(modulePath);
  if (typeof mod !== 'function' && typeof mod.default !== 'function') {
    throw new Error('globalSetup must export a function');
  }
}

function isGlobalHookExport(mod: unknown): mod is (g: unknown, p: unknown) => Promise<void> {
  return typeof mod === 'function' || (typeof mod === 'object' && mod !== null && typeof (mod as any).default === 'function');
}

// In the globalSetup file itself — wrap risky operations
export default async function globalSetup() {
  try {
    await initializeDatabase();
  } catch (error) {
    throw new Error(`globalSetup failed during DB init: ${(error as Error).message}`, { cause: error });
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Configuring `globalSetup` or `globalTeardown` in jest.config.js pointing to a module that either exports a non-function, throws at runtime, fails to connect to a database, or has a top-level syntax/import error. The pretty-format path at line 75 is hit when the thrown value is a frozen or non-standard error whose `message` descriptor is non-writable.

Common situations: Database connection failures in globalSetup, missing environment variables referenced by the hook, a transpile/transform error in the hook file, or the hook module default-exports an object instead of a function. Also triggered by errors thrown with `Object.freeze` on the error object or custom error classes with read-only message.

Related errors

• Shard / requested, but test sequencer in has no shard…
• Watch plugin configuration error
• Attempted to display seed but seed value is undefined
• babel-jest: Babel ignores
• Cannot parse as JSON

AI-assisted analysis of jestjs/jest@8e6d128e4a (2026-08-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2bdc9cebd02597ac. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/jest-core/src/runGlobalHook.ts:75

            await globalModule(globalConfig, projectConfig);
          },
        );
      } catch (error) {
        if (
          isError(error) &&
          (Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(error, 'message')?.writable ||
            Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(
              Object.getPrototypeOf(error),
              'message',
            )?.writable)
        ) {
          error.message = `Jest: Got error running ${moduleName} - ${modulePath}, reason: ${error.message}`;

          throw error;
        }

        throw new Error(
          `Jest: Got error running ${moduleName} - ${modulePath}, reason: ${prettyFormat(
            error,
            {maxDepth: 3},
          )}`,
          {cause: error},
        );
      }
    }
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 8e6d128e4a)