testcontainers/testcontainers-java · warning

No capabilities provided - this will cause an exception in…

Error message

No capabilities provided - this will cause an exception in future versions. Falling back to ChromeOptions

What it means

The deprecated BrowserWebDriverContainer.getWebDriver logs this warning when no capabilities were provided before creating the WebDriver, and silently falls back to ChromeOptions. In future library versions a missing capabilities argument will throw instead of falling back. Tests get a Chrome driver even if they intended another browser.

Solutions

Call withCapabilities(new ChromeOptions()) (or FirefoxOptions etc.) explicitly before getWebDriver().
Migrate off the deprecated BrowserWebDriverContainer to the newer modules/selenium BrowserWebDriverContainer API with explicit capabilities.
If Chrome is intended, keep the fallback but set capabilities explicitly to silence the deprecation path.

Example fix

// before
RemoteWebDriver driver = container.getWebDriver();
// after
container.withCapabilities(new ChromeOptions());
RemoteWebDriver driver = container.getWebDriver();

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (capabilities == null) {
    container.withCapabilities(new ChromeOptions()); // or your desired options
}
RemoteWebDriver driver = container.getWebDriver();

Prevention

Always call withCapabilities(...) before getWebDriver()
Migrate off deprecated BrowserWebDriverContainer.getWebDriver to the modern API
State browser options explicitly even when Chrome is the intent

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getWebDriver() on a BrowserWebDriverContainer without having called withCapabilities(...) (the field 'capabilities' remains null).

Common situations: Upgrading testcontainers code that previously auto-defaulted to Chrome; copy-pasted container setup omitting withCapabilities; relying on the deprecated container without migrating to Selenium 4's remoteWebDriver API.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is deprecated and will be removed" — deprecation warnings for old API names, keywords, and options, and how to migrate before the removal release — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of testcontainers/testcontainers-java@8e549514e3 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/112b1666cdd30457. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/selenium/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/BrowserWebDriverContainer.java:324

            vncRecordingContainer.start();
        }
    }

    /**
     * Obtain a RemoteWebDriver instance that is bound to an instance of the browser running inside a new container.
     * <p>
     * All containers and drivers will be automatically shut down after the test method finishes (if used as a @Rule) or the test
     * class (if used as a @ClassRule)
     *
     * @return a new Remote Web Driver instance
     * @deprecated use {@link #getSeleniumAddress()} instead
     */
    @Deprecated
    public synchronized RemoteWebDriver getWebDriver() {
        if (driver == null) {
            if (capabilities == null) {
                logger()
                    .warn(
                        "No capabilities provided - this will cause an exception in future versions. Falling back to ChromeOptions"
                    );
                capabilities = new ChromeOptions();
            }

            driver =
                Unreliables.retryUntilSuccess(
                    30,
                    TimeUnit.SECONDS,
                    () -> {
                        return Timeouts.getWithTimeout(
                            10,
                            TimeUnit.SECONDS,
                            () -> {
                                return new RemoteWebDriver(getSeleniumAddress(), capabilities);
                            }
                        );
                    }

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