vitest-dev/vitest · error · Error

Cannot upload files outside of a test

Error message

Cannot upload files outside of a test

What it means

Thrown by the Playwright upload user-event command when context.testPath is falsy. The upload command resolves file paths relative to the project root and the test file; without a bound test it refuses to read files from disk (also a safety check against arbitrary path uploads outside a test).

Source

Thrown at packages/browser-playwright/src/commands/upload.ts:20

import type { UserEventUploadOptions } from 'vitest/browser'
import type { UserEventCommand } from './utils'
import { assertBrowserFileAccess } from '@vitest/browser'
import { resolve } from 'pathe'
import { getDescribedLocator } from './utils'

export const upload: UserEventCommand<(element: SerializedLocator, files: Array<string | {
  name: string
  mimeType: string
  base64: string
}>, options: UserEventUploadOptions) => void> = async (
  context,
  selector,
  files,
  options,
) => {
  const testPath = context.testPath
  if (!testPath) {
    throw new Error(`Cannot upload files outside of a test`)
  }
  const root = context.project.config.root

  const playwrightFiles = files.map((file) => {
    if (typeof file === 'string') {
      const filepath = resolve(root, file)
      assertBrowserFileAccess(context.project, filepath)
      return filepath
    }
    return {
      name: file.name,
      mimeType: file.mimeType,
      buffer: Buffer.from(file.base64, 'base64'),
    }
  })
  await getDescribedLocator(context, selector).setInputFiles(playwrightFiles as string[], options)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d568f8ce37)

Solutions

1. Call page.upload from inside an it/test body so testPath is set.
2. Move file-upload logic out of global setup and into the test that triggers the upload.
3. For setup-time uploads, drive the <input type=file> via Playwright's setInputFiles directly with absolute paths.

Example fix

// before (setup.ts)
import { page } from '@vitest/browser'
await page.upload(fileInput, ['./fixture.png'])

// after (test file)
import { test } from 'vitest'
import { page } from '@vitest/browser'
test('upload', async () => {
  await page.upload(fileInput, ['./fixture.png'])
})

if (!context.testPath) {
  throw new Error('upload must be called from within a test')
}
await upload(context, selector, files, options)

function inTestFile(c: BrowserCommandContext): c is BrowserCommandContext & { testPath: string } {
  return typeof c.testPath === 'string' && c.testPath.length > 0
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling page.upload(element, files) from global setup, a beforeAll in a non-test module, or any context without a testPath. Also triggered by manually invoking the upload command with a hand-built context.

Common situations: Uploading fixtures from setup files, shared utils imported outside tests, or invoking upload inside worker-scoped hooks that lack a test path.

Related errors

• Cannot take a screenshot without a test path
• Element not found: ${v.element}
• stopChunkTrace cannot be called outside of the test file.
• This command can only be called inside a test file.
• The ${provider.name} provider does not support tracing.

AI-assisted analysis of vitest-dev/vitest@d568f8ce37 (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/3881c5a5d26a259d.json. Report an issue: GitHub.