vitest-dev/vitest · error · Error

No projects were found. Make sure your configuration is…

Error message

No projects were found. Make sure your configuration is correct. ${globalConfig.project.length ? `The filter matched no projects: ${globalConfig.project.join(', ')}. ` : ''}The projects definition: ${JSON.stringify(definitions.map(...), null, 4)}.

What it means

After expanding browser instances, benchmarks, and applying the --project filter, if every candidate project is hidden/filtered out and projects were declared, Vitest throws. The message includes the active --project filters and a JSON summary of the projects definition so the user can see what was tried. Skipped for the runtime inject path where filtering is expected.

Solutions

  1. Run without --project to list available project names, then use the exact name.
  2. Check for typos or stale names in your --project filter / scripts.
  3. Ensure your projects definition actually yields the names you expect (see the JSON in the error).
  4. If filtering programmatically, validate names against the declared set first.

Example fix

// before
vitest --project=unit-tests  // no such project
// after - use the real name shown by 'vitest list'
vitest --project=unit
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate --project filters against declared names before running.
function assertFilterMatches(declared: string[], filter: string[]) {
  const missing = filter.filter(f => !declared.includes(f))
  if (missing.length) throw new Error(`--project filter matched nothing: ${missing.join(', ')}. Available: ${declared.join(', ')}`)
}

Type guard

const filterIsSubset = (declared: string[], filter: string[]): boolean =>
  filter.every(f => declared.includes(f))

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: User declares 'projects' (or a workspace file) but the --project CLI filter (globalConfig.project) excludes all of them, leaving no runnable project and throwIfEmpty is true.

Common situations: Passing --project with a name that matches none of the declared projects, a typo in the filter, renamed projects, or filters that became stale after refactoring.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitest-dev/vitest@1fa9837ec2 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/658a306450b9aad7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/vitest/src/node/projects/resolveProjects.ts:202

  const seenNamesSet = new Set(seenNames.keys())

  // Browser instance expansion (per-entry config injection).
  const afterBrowser = expandBrowserInstancesInEntries(globalConfig, baseEntries, seenNamesSet)

  // Benchmark expansion (per-entry config injection, runs over post-browser list).
  // `--benchmark` makes every project run as a benchmark.
  const afterBenchmark = expandBenchmarksInEntries(afterBrowser, seenNamesSet, !!globalConfig.cliOptions.benchmarkOnly)

  // --project filter (applied after expansion so all candidate names are known).
  const filtered = applyProjectFilter(globalConfig, afterBenchmark)

  // If the user declared `projects` (or workspace files) but the filter
  // excluded every candidate, throw with the projects definition included so
  // callers see what was tried. Skipped for the runtime `injectTestProjects`
  // path where filtering injected projects out is expected.
  const filterMatched = filtered.some(entry => !entry.hidden)
  if (throwIfEmpty && definitions && !filterMatched) {
    throw new Error(
      [
        'No projects were found. Make sure your configuration is correct. ',
        globalConfig.project.length ? `The filter matched no projects: ${globalConfig.project.join(', ')}. ` : '',
        `The projects definition: ${JSON.stringify(
          definitions.map((p, index) => typeof p === 'string'
            ? p
            : p instanceof Promise
              ? 'Promise'
              : typeof p === 'function'
                ? p.name
                : ({ name: p.test?.name ?? index })),
          null,
          4,
        )}.`,
      ].join(''),
    )
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 1fa9837ec2)