pytest-dev/pytest · error · ValueError

could not find test report matching

Error message

could not find test report matching {inamepart!r}: no test reports at all!

What it means

Thrown by Pytester.RunResult.matchreport() when filtering captured pytest hook reports yields zero matches for the given inamepart/when filter. It means either no tests ran (no reports collected at all) or none matched the node-id fragment you passed. The 'no test reports at all!' wording specifically indicates the values list is empty.

Solutions

Inspect pytester.runpytest().parseoutcomes() to confirm tests actually ran and collected.
Verify the inamepart string is an exact '::'-delimited segment of the test's nodeid (e.g. 'test_foo', not 'foo').
Remove or correct the `when` argument if you only have setup/teardown reports.
Use matchreport with no inamepart to get the single report when only one test exists.

Example fix

// before
rep = reprec.matchreport("test_foo", when="call")
// after
result = pytester.runpytest("-q")
assert result.ret == 0
reprec = result.reprec
reports = reprec.getreports("pytest_runtest_logreport")
assert reports, "no reports collected - did the test run?"
rep = reprec.matchreport("test_foo")

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

reports = reprec.getreports("pytest_runtest_logreport")
if not reports:
    pytest.fail("no test reports collected - did the test run?")
matches = [r for r in reports if 'test_foo' in r.nodeid.split('::')]
assert len(matches) == 1, f"expected 1 match, got {len(matches)}"
rep = reprec.matchreport('test_foo')

Prevention

Inspect getreports() before matchreport() to confirm reports exist.
Use full '::'-delimited nodeid segments, never substrings.
Avoid passing when= unless you know the phase.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling pytester.matchreport('test_foo') after a pytester run where (a) collection failed so no TestReports exist, (b) the test name fragment doesn't appear as a '::'-delimited segment of any captured nodeid, or (c) the `when` filter excludes all reports (e.g. when='call' but only setup reports exist).

Common situations: Writing pytester-based plugin tests; typos in the test function name passed to matchreport; expecting a 'call' phase report when the test errored during setup; calling matchreport before runpytest_inprocess populated the HookRecorder.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pytest-dev/pytest@0d6fbdeffa (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0de2bd5c1e8154f5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/_pytest/pytester.py:374

        inamepart: str = "",
        names: str | Iterable[str] = (
            "pytest_runtest_logreport",
            "pytest_collectreport",
        ),
        when: str | None = None,
    ) -> CollectReport | TestReport:
        """Return a testreport whose dotted import path matches."""
        values = []
        for rep in self.getreports(names=names):
            if not when and rep.when != "call" and rep.passed:
                # setup/teardown passing reports - let's ignore those
                continue
            if when and rep.when != when:
                continue
            if not inamepart or inamepart in rep.nodeid.split("::"):
                values.append(rep)
        if not values:
            raise ValueError(
                f"could not find test report matching {inamepart!r}: "
                "no test reports at all!"
            )
        if len(values) > 1:
            raise ValueError(
                f"found 2 or more testreports matching {inamepart!r}: {values}"
            )
        return values[0]

    @overload
    def getfailures(
        self,
        names: Literal["pytest_collectreport"],
    ) -> Sequence[CollectReport]: ...

    @overload
    def getfailures(
        self,

View on GitHub (pinned to 0d6fbdeffa)