jest/no-standalone-expect

Disallow expect outside of a test or it block

An expect directly in a describe block or at the top of the file isn't part of any test. It runs while the file loads, before the first test starts, so a failure doesn't show up as a failed test. Usually someone forgot the test(..) around it. An expect in a hook such as beforeEach is reported too.

An expect in a function declaration, or in a function assigned to a variable, is allowed, because a test can call that helper. So are expect.extend() and asymmetric matchers such as expect.any(String).

Configure#

Off by default. To turn it on:

bunfig.toml
[lint.rules]
"jest/no-standalone-expect" = "error" # or "warn"

Every option, set to its default:

bunfig.toml
[lint.rules]
"jest/no-standalone-expect" = ["error", {
  additionalTestBlockFunctions = [], # list of strings
}]

Examples#

example.ts2 problems
import { beforeEach, describe, expect } from "@jest/globals";

describe("cart", () => {
  const cart = createCart();
  expect(cart.items).toHaveLength(0);

  beforeEach(() => {
    expect(cart.total).toBe(0);
  });
});
example.tsNo problems
import { describe, expect, test } from "@jest/globals";

function expectEmpty(cart: Cart) {
  expect(cart.items).toHaveLength(0);
}

describe("cart", () => {
  test("starts empty", () => {
    const cart = createCart();
    expectEmpty(cart);
    expect(cart.total).toBe(0);
  });
});

Options#

OptionDefaultWhat it does
additionalTestBlockFunctions[]Names of other functions to treat like test. An expect in a callback passed to one of them is allowed.

Use it for your own wrappers around test, or to allow expect in a hook. A name can have dots.

example.tswith { "additionalTestBlockFunctions": ["beforeEach", "admin.test"] }No problems
import { beforeEach, expect } from "@jest/globals";

beforeEach(() => {
  expect(database.isConnected()).toBe(true);
});

admin.test("can delete a user", () => {
  expect(deleteUser(1)).toBe(true);
});