t.skip does not invoke test.afterEach

'use strict'

const test = require('node:test')

test.afterEach(() => {
  process._rawDebug('!!! afterEach')
})

test('one', (t) => {
  t.assert.ok('one is good')
})

test('two', (t) => {
  if (process.env.TEST_SKIP === 'false') {
    t.assert.ok('two is good')
  } else {
    t.skip('two gets skipped after some logic')
  }
})

I expect that !!! afterEach will be printed twice when this test suite is run. However, on Node.js 20.20.0 and 24.13.0, that is not the case. Instead, the result is:

❯ node index.js
!!! afterEach
✔ one (1.120209ms)
﹣ two (0.08625ms) # two gets skipped after some logic
ℹ tests 2
ℹ suites 0
ℹ pass 1
ℹ fail 0
ℹ cancelled 0
ℹ skipped 1
ℹ todo 0
ℹ duration_ms 5.285417

This is a problem when the test being skipped depends upon logic internal to the test. As an example, we may have a test setup like:

test.beforeEach((ctx) => {
  ctx.testNamespace = {
    foo: 'bar'
    // other more complicated bootstrapping
  }
})

test.afterEach((ctx) => {
  cleanUp(ctx.testNamespace.somethingThatNeedsCleaningAfterEachTest)
})

test('something', (t) => {
  const { foo } = t.testNamespace
  if (foo !== 'bar') return t.skip('reason')
  t.assert.ok('whatever')
})

@jsumners-nr

@jsumners-nr I’m seeing the same behaviour. Looking at the test runner, test.afterEach is only invoked when this.skipped is false.

@cjihrig and @MoLow — is this the intended behaviour? I see you’ve both worked on the test runner.

If this is expected, it may be worth clarifying the docs. They currently state that afterEach() runs even if a test fails, but don’t mention that it does not run when a test is skipped.

Alternatively, should afterEach run when skip() is called from within the test body, and only be skipped when skip is provided as a test option?

Happy to work on this once the intended behaviour is clear.

Alternatively, should afterEach run when skip() is called from within the test body, and only be skipped when skip is provided as a test option?

That would make more sense to me given:

'use strict'

const test = require('node:test')

test.beforeEach((t) => {
  process._rawDebug('!!! beforeEach:', t.name)
})

test.afterEach(() => {
  process._rawDebug('!!! afterEach')
})

test('one', (t) => {
  t.assert.ok('one is good')
})

test('two', (t) => {
  if (process.env.TEST_SKIP === 'false') {
    t.assert.ok('two is good')
  } else {
    t.skip('two gets skipped after some logic')
  }
})

test('three', { skip: true }, () => {})

// ❯ node index.js
// !!! beforeEach: one
// !!! afterEach
// !!! beforeEach: two
// ✔ one (1.0415ms)
// ﹣ two (0.132708ms) # two gets skipped after some logic
// ﹣ three (0.045167ms) # SKIP
// ℹ tests 3
// ℹ suites 0
// ℹ pass 1
// ℹ fail 0
// ℹ cancelled 0
// ℹ skipped 2
// ℹ todo 0
// ℹ duration_ms 4.874333

Since { skip: true } means that the test.beforeEach is not invoked, it is most likely that no clean up needs to happen in test.afterEach. But with t.skip, the test.beforeEach is invoked and therefore has a high likelihood of setting up stuff that needs to be cleaned up after the test. In my opinion, this is a bug.

Regardless, t.skip shouldn't be skipping the containing test - it's just a skip comment for an assertion. The only way to skip a test in my experience is usually to invoke it with .skip() or skip: true in the first place.

Regardless, t.skip shouldn't be skipping the containing test - it's just a skip comment for an assertion. The only way to skip a test in my experience is usually to invoke it with .skip() or skip: true in the first place.

Correct: https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/test.html#contextskipmessage

This issue is:

the test is being invoked
the test issues context.skip to show the test has been skipped internally
the test.afterEach is not invoked because context.skip was invoked

I assert that this is wrong because once the test function has been invoked any beforeEach setup should have its associated afterEach invoked.

This is 100% true; if a before callback ran, the after callback MUST be run to clean things up.

test_runner: run afterEach on runtime skip

@igor-shevelenkov

Thank you for resolving this @igor-shevelenkov.

test_runner: run afterEach on runtime skip

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`t.skip` does not invoke `test.afterEach` #61462

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t.skip does not invoke test.afterEach #61462

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mattskel commented on Jan 22, 2026

jsumners-nr commented on Jan 22, 2026

ljharb commented on Jan 23, 2026

jsumners-nr commented on Jan 23, 2026

ljharb commented on Jan 23, 2026

jsumners-nr commented on Mar 2, 2026

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`t.skip` does not invoke `test.afterEach` #61462