[Bug]: Teardown is not called if test failure and max-failures configured #41713

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1. Yury Semikhatsky (yury-s)

   added

   needs-triage

   on Jul 9, 2026
2. github-actions commented on Jul 9, 2026

   

   github-actionsBot

   on Jul 9, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

   Contributor

   More actions

   Hi, I'm the Playwright bot and I took a first look at this.

   Reproduced on tip-of-tree (npm @next, 1.62.0-alpha-1783623505000). When a run is interrupted by --max-failures, a dependency project's teardown project is skipped — the setup runs, the failing test trips the max-failures limit, and the teardown never gets a chance to run. Confirmed against a stripped-down, network-free version of your repro, so this reproduces on the current code, not just 1.61.0. Looks like a real bug.

   Minimal repro (no network, self-contained)

   playwright.config.ts:

   import { defineConfig } from '@playwright/test';
   export default defineConfig({
     projects: [
       { name: 'setup', testMatch: /global\.setup\.ts/, teardown: 'teardown' },
       { name: 'teardown', testMatch: /global\.teardown\.ts/ },
       { name: 'main', testMatch: /example\.spec\.ts/, dependencies: ['setup'] },
     ],
   });

   tests/global.setup.ts:

   import { test as setup } from '@playwright/test';
   setup('setup', async ({}) => { console.log('SETUP-RAN'); });

   tests/global.teardown.ts:

   import { test as teardown } from '@playwright/test';
   teardown('teardown', async ({}) => { console.log('TEARDOWN-RAN'); });

   tests/example.spec.ts:

   import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
   test('failing', async ({}) => { expect(1).toBe(2); });
   test('passing', async ({}) => { expect(1).toBe(1); });

   Result:

   $ npx playwright test --max-failures=1
   SETUP-RAN
     1 failed
     1 passed          <-- teardown project never ran
   
   $ npx playwright test
   SETUP-RAN
   TEARDOWN-RAN        <-- teardown runs normally without max-failures
     1 failed
     3 passed
   

   What I tried

   • Cloned the linked repro (atavar3z/pw-teardown-bug) and boiled it down to the network-free config above so the trigger is just: setup project → teardown project, a main project that depends on setup, one failing test, run with --max-failures=1.
   • Ran on tip-of-tree @next (1.62.0-alpha-1783623505000). Teardown is skipped only when the run is interrupted by max-failures; without --max-failures the teardown project runs as expected.
   • This is a test-runner behavior and browser-independent — no browser is launched by the setup/teardown projects.

   Here's a self-contained acceptance test in our test-runner style that captures current behavior (the %%teardown assertion is the desired behavior that fails today):

   import { test, expect } from './playwright-test-fixtures';
   
   test('should run teardown when interrupted by maxFailures', async ({ runInlineTest }) => {
     // https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/41713
     const result = await runInlineTest({
       'playwright.config.ts': `
         module.exports = {
           projects: [
             { name: 'setup', testMatch: '**/setup.ts', teardown: 'teardown' },
             { name: 'teardown', testMatch: '**/teardown.ts' },
             { name: 'project', dependencies: ['setup'], testMatch: '**/a.spec.ts' },
           ],
         };`,
       'setup.ts': `
         import { test } from '@playwright/test';
         test('setup', async ({}) => { console.log('\\n%%setup'); });
       `,
       'teardown.ts': `
         import { test } from '@playwright/test';
         test('teardown', async ({}) => { console.log('\\n%%teardown'); });
       `,
       'a.spec.ts': `
         import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
         test('failing', async ({}) => { expect(1).toBe(2); });
       `,
     }, { workers: 1, maxFailures: 1 });
     expect(result.output).toContain('%%setup');
     // Desired: teardown should still run when the run is cut short by maxFailures.
     expect(result.output).toContain('%%teardown');
   });

   This is a first pass, not the final word — the open design question is whether teardown projects should be exempt from the max-failures interruption (same as the earlier report #33214).
3. pradapjackie commented on Jul 10, 2026

   

   Pradap Pandiyan (pradapjackie)

   on Jul 10, 2026

   Contributor

   More actions

   I'd like to work on this. Root cause: after --max-failures, the next phase dispatcher stops immediately, so project teardowns never run. Fix keeps scheduling teardown projects with ignoreMaxFailures. OK to open a PR?
4. Yury Semikhatsky (yury-s)

   self-assigned this

   on Jul 10, 2026
5. Yury Semikhatsky (yury-s)

   added

   v1.62

   on Jul 10, 2026
6. Dmitry Gozman (dgozman)

   removed

   needs-triage

   on Jul 13, 2026
7. Yury Semikhatsky (yury-s)

   added a commit that references this issue on Jul 14, 2026

   fix(test-runner): run teardown projects when maxFailures is reached

   ...

   67fa769
8. Yury Semikhatsky (yury-s)

   closed this as completedin #41737on Jul 15, 2026