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localStorage's behaviour when no or invalid --localstorage-file provided #60303

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#61333
#60351
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localStorage's behaviour when no or invalid --localstorage-file provided#60303
#61333
#60351
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web-standardsIssues and PRs related to web-platform APIs and standards compliance.

Description

@Renegade334
Renegade334
opened on Oct 17, 2025

Prior to #57666, accessing the global localStorage would throw an error if --localstorage-file was invalid at the point of lazy initialisation.

Now, it provides an empty proxy object which responds undefined to all property access. This is neither spec-compliant nor straightforwardly observable.

Looking at the PR, it seems like this was an attempt to avoid throwing warnings in the test suite if simply testing for the presence of the global variable. It seems to me like the better approach would be for the tests to be changed (eg. by checking for the flag instead), and for the implementation to be kept sane.

A couple of options would be:

  • Implement mcollina's original proposal, and have the getter warn and return undefined if the storage cannot be initialised.
  • The localStorage global getter is allowed to throw a DOMException in the spec if the storage cannot be safely initialised, which is more abrupt, but arguably more consistent with the web.

Activity

  1. ssalbdivad commented on Oct 19, 2025

    @ssalbdivad
    ssalbdivad
    on Oct 19, 2025

    I believe this is breaking ArkType's CI for node 25:

    https://github.com/arktypeio/arktype/actions/runs/18625450435/job/53103115467?pr=1522

  2. odewdney commented on Oct 21, 2025

    @odewdney
    odewdney
    on Oct 21, 2025

    how can we silently test for a working localStorage? it used to be a test for a defined localStorage in a try block, now that returns true, but if we try to access localStorage, it prints a warning to the console. and now we also need to test for eg localStorage.getItem is defined to see if its a real implementation.

    why make the object available if there is no file supplied to back it.

  3. inoyakaigor commented on Oct 23, 2025

    @inoyakaigor
    inoyakaigor
    on Oct 23, 2025

    Just updateted onto 25 and got an error in my test cases because of localstorage.getItem is undefined.
    Here is some BaseApiService which is just layer above axios.
    A code is:

    Image

    If I set flag --no-webstorage everything works fine – getItem is exists:

    Image

    But if I run tests as usual, I get an error because of this:

    Image

  4. inoyakaigor commented on Oct 23, 2025

    @inoyakaigor
    inoyakaigor
    on Oct 23, 2025

    @danielmbrasil because of you implemented this changes could you please have a look into this problem? Thank you in advance!

  5. ssalbdivad commented on Oct 25, 2025

    @ssalbdivad
    ssalbdivad
    on Oct 25, 2025

    In case anyone is looking for a workaround, I'm currently using this:

    // workaround for a bug in Node 25 that creates localStorage as an empty proxy,
// leading to @typescript/vfs eventually throwing when it sees that it is not
// undefined and tries to call `getItem`:

// https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/60303

// this can be removed once the bug is addressed in Node
if (!globalThis.localStorage.getItem)
	globalThis.localStorage = undefined as never

  6. JakobJingleheimer commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @JakobJingleheimer
    JakobJingleheimer
    on Oct 28, 2025
    Member

    I think should be the second option: throw on failed initialisation.

  7. RafaelGSS commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @RafaelGSS
    RafaelGSS
    on Oct 28, 2025
    Member

    Throw on failed initialization seems a follow-up semver-major PR. I'd first add a warning starting on v25, and on v26 throw the DOM Exception.

    cc: @mcollina @cjihrig wdyt?

  8. Renegade334 commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @Renegade334
    Renegade334
    on Oct 28, 2025
    MemberAuthor

    Throw on failed initialization seems a follow-up semver-major PR.

    Note that the implementation is still marked as unstable, so this isn't necessarily mandatory.

  9. mcollina commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @mcollina
    mcollina
    on Oct 28, 2025
    SponsorMember

    @RafaelGSS, we should fix this how we think it's best. It's experimental and iterate on it until v26.

  10. mcollina commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @mcollina
    mcollina
    on Oct 28, 2025
    SponsorMember

    Implement #57666 (comment), and have the getter warn and return undefined if the storage cannot be initialised.

    I second this.

  11. RafaelGSS commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @RafaelGSS
    RafaelGSS
    on Oct 28, 2025
    Member

    We had a brief discussion at the release channel, and it seems we are going to release v25.1.0 without this patch (@aduh95 doesn't have bandwidth to postpone the release), and I can work on v25.2.0 with this patch (throwing the error).

    cc: @nodejs/releasers

  12. cjihrig commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @cjihrig
    cjihrig
    on Oct 28, 2025
    Contributor

    @RafaelGSS that SGTM.

  13. JakobJingleheimer commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @JakobJingleheimer
    JakobJingleheimer
    on Oct 28, 2025 · Hidden as resolved

  14. RafaelGSS commented on Oct 28, 2025

    @RafaelGSS
    RafaelGSS
    on Oct 28, 2025 · Hidden as resolved
  15. nodejs-github-bot
    closed this as completedin #60351on Oct 31, 2025

  16. 25 remaining items

  17. J12934
    added 2 commits that reference this issue on Mar 31, 2026

    Disable --no-webstorage for node.js 25 in ci

    a297f35

    Disable --no-webstorage for node.js 25 in ci

    66082e5
  18. bkimminich
    added a commit that references this issue on Apr 1, 2026

    Disable --no-webstorage for node.js 25 in ci

    e0a48f8
  19. ataibarkai
    added 2 commits that reference this issue on May 17, 2026

    fix(web-inspector): make jsdom own localStorage cleanly on Node 25+

    60da838

    fix(web-inspector): make jsdom own localStorage cleanly on Node 25+

    8b01b1c
  20. xiaohanyu
    added a commit that references this issue on Jun 9, 2026

    fix: silence the boring localStorage warnings

    e495605
  21. Dere-Wah
    added 3 commits that reference this issue on Jun 11, 2026

    docs(client): attribute the broken localStorage global to Node 25+, n…

    e97e708

    docs(client): attribute the broken localStorage global to Node 25+, n…

    530031e

    fix(client): tolerate non-functional localStorage on Node 25+ (SSR) (#35

    789fe05
  22. Pokled
    added a commit that references this issue on Jul 20, 2026

    fix(ssr): guard localStorage with browser, not typeof (Node 22.4+ cra…

    0ea8d7a
  23. JSONbored
    added 2 commits that reference this issue on Jul 21, 2026

    fix(test): pin miner-ui jsdom localStorage over Node 26's broken glob…

    c7d48ca

    fix(test): pin loopover-ui + ui-kit jsdom localStorage over Node 26's…

    d6477bf
  24. lililixxx1
    added a commit that references this issue on Aug 21, 2026

    fix(web): vitest setupFiles 替换 Node 25 残缺原生 localStorage

    8857963
  25. yueguobin
    added a commit that references this issue on Oct 16, 2026

    ci: disable Node native webstorage on Node >= 25

    11efac5
  26. grossmj
    added a commit that references this issue on Oct 16, 2026

    Bump jsdom to 30.1.3, drop Node 20 (EOL) and add Node 26 (#1869)

    3c6cbab
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