Test suite failed to run

[Ali-Kent]

Hello,
We are currently developing a platform in the tourism and travel sector. We created a monorepo with TurboRepo for the frontend of our mobile and web applications using React/React Native/Next.js. I would like to develop a shared package of UI components for the different applications. I have installed the necessary packages for testing and developing the UI components and configured them as indicated in the examples folder (link) of @testing-library/react-native. However, I can't run the tests; I keep getting the same error. I've tried various strategies, but none of them work. I even sought help from AI like Claude and GPT, but with no results. There's surely something I haven't understood in the installation and configuration of the different packages, so if someone could take a look, that would be great.

Here is the error I get when I run my tests:
turbo test
turbo 2.6.3

• Packages in scope: @sychus/ui
• Running test in 1 packages
• Remote caching disabled
┌─ @sychus/ui#test > cache miss, executing 34b0bb5ddd8392de

@sychus/[email protected] test /home/ali/Projets/tutorials/monorepo/packages/ui
jest

FAIL tests/hello.test.tsx
● Test suite failed to run

Jest encountered an unexpected token

Jest failed to parse a file. This happens e.g. when your code or its dependencies use non-standard JavaScript syntax, or when Jest is not configured to support such syntax.

Out of the box Jest supports Babel, which will be used to transform your files into valid JS based on your Babel configuration.

By default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers.

Here's what you can do:
 • If you are trying to use ECMAScript Modules, see https://jestjs.io/docs/ecmascript-modules for how to enable it.
 • If you are trying to use TypeScript, see https://jestjs.io/docs/getting-started#using-typescript
 • To have some of your "node_modules" files transformed, you can specify a custom "transformIgnorePatterns" in your config.
 • If you need a custom transformation, specify a "transform" option in your config.
 • If you simply want to mock your non-JS modules (e.g. binary assets) you can stub them out with the "moduleNameMapper" config option.

You'll find more details and examples of these config options in the docs:
https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration
For information about custom transformations, see:
https://jestjs.io/docs/code-transformation

Details:

/home/ali/Projets/tutorials/monorepo/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]_@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/react-native/jest/setup.js:16
import '@react-native/js-polyfills/error-guard';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

  at Runtime.createScriptFromCode (../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/jest-runtime/build/index.js:1318:40)

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests: 0 total
Snapshots: 0 total
Time: 0.092 s
Ran all test suites.
 ELIFECYCLE  Test failed. See above for more details.
command finished with error: command (/home/ali/Projets/tutorials/monorepo/packages/ui) /home/ali/.nvm/versions/node/v2
4.1.0/bin/pnpm run test exited (1)
└─ @sychus/ui#test ──
@sychus/ui#test: command (/home/ali/Projets/tutorials/monorepo/packages/ui) /home/ali/.nvm/versions/node/v24.1.0/bin/pnpm run test exited (1)

Tasks: 0 successful, 1 total
Cached: 0 cached, 1 total
Time: 2.244s
Failed: @sychus/ui#test

ERROR run failed: command exited (1)

The package folder structure:

`./packages/ui/
├── babel.config.js
├── eslint.config.mjs
├── jest.config.js
├── jest-setup.ts
├── node_modules
│   ├── @babel
│   │   └── core -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@babel[email protected]/node_modules/@babel/core
│   ├── @callstack
│   │   └── eslint-config -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@callstack+eslint-config@15.0.0_@types[email protected][email protected]_jest@30.2.0_@types[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/@callstack/eslint-config
│   ├── @eslint
│   │   ├── eslintrc -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@eslint[email protected]/node_modules/@eslint/eslintrc
│   │   └── js -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@eslint[email protected]/node_modules/@eslint/js
│   ├── eslint -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/eslint
│   ├── eslint-plugin-testing-library -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected][email protected]/node_modules/eslint-plugin-testing-library
│   ├── expo -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/expo@54.0.30_@babel[email protected]_react-native@0.81.5_@babel+core@7.28.5_@types[email protected][email protected][email protected]/node_modules/expo
│   ├── jest -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/jest@30.2.0_@types[email protected]/node_modules/jest
│   ├── react -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/react
│   ├── react-dom -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/react-dom
│   ├── react-native -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/react-native@0.81.5_@babel+core@7.28.5_@types[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/react-native
│   ├── react-native-web -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]/node_modules/react-native-web
│   ├── react-test-renderer -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/react-test-renderer
│   ├── @testing-library
│   │   └── react-native -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@testing-library[email protected]_jest@30.2.0_@types[email protected][email protected]._943e4cf54da94787e2394f0e2a4fd585/node_modules/@testing-library/react-native
│   ├── @types
│   │   ├── eslint -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@types[email protected]/node_modules/@types/eslint
│   │   ├── jest -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@types[email protected]/node_modules/@types/jest
│   │   └── react -> ../../../../node_modules/.pnpm/@types[email protected]/node_modules/@types/react
│   └── typescript -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/typescript
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── tests
│   └── hello.test.tsx
└── tsconfig.json

26 directories, 8 files
`

babel.config.js :
module.exports = function (api) { api.cache(true); return { presets: ["babel-preset-expo"], }; };

eslint.config.mjs :
module.exports = function (api) { api.cache(true); return { presets: ["babel-preset-expo"], }; };

jest.config.js:
module.exports = { preset: "react-native", moduleFileExtensions: ["ts", "tsx", "js", "jsx", "json"], transformIgnorePatterns: [ "node_modules/(?!(jest-)?react-native|@react-native(-community)?)", ], setupFilesAfterEnv: ["./jest-setup.ts"], };
package.json:
{ "name": "@sychus/ui", "version": "0.0.1", "keywords": [], "license": "SEE LICENSE IN LICENSE", "private": true, "scripts": { "dev": "echo 'do nothing'", "build": "", "lint": "eslint .", "check-types": "tsc --noEmit", "test": "jest" }, "dependencies": { "expo": "catalog:", "react": "catalog:", "react-dom": "catalog:", "react-native": "catalog:", "react-native-web": "catalog:", "@callstack/eslint-config": "^15.0.0" }, "devDependencies": { "@babel/core": "catalog:", "@eslint/eslintrc": "^3.3.3", "@eslint/js": "^9.39.2", "@testing-library/react-native": "catalog:", "@types/eslint": "catalog:", "@types/jest": "catalog:", "@types/react": "catalog:", "eslint": "catalog:", "eslint-plugin-testing-library": "catalog:", "jest": "catalog:", "react-test-renderer": "catalog:", "typescript": "catalog:" } }

tsconfig.json:
{ "extends": "expo/tsconfig.base", "compilerOptions": { "strict": true, "allowJs": false } }

pnpm-worspace.yaml:
packages:

• apps/*
• packages/*

catalog:
'@babel/core': latest
'@testing-library/react-native': latest
'@types/eslint': latest
'@types/jest': latest
'@types/react': latest
eslint: latest
expo: latest
jest: latest
react: "19.1"
react-dom: "19.1"
react-native: "0.81.5"
react-native-web: latest
react-test-renderer: "19.1"
tamagui: latest
typescript: latest
eslint-plugin-testing-library: latest

Is it possible that this is a versioning issue?

[ismaildasci]

the error is because jest doesnt understand jsx/tsx or esm syntax out of the box. in a monorepo with react native, you need proper babel and jest config.

here is what to check:

1. make sure you have babel config in your ui package. you need presets for env, typescript, and react.

2. jest config needs to transform the files. use babel-jest as transformer.

3. for monorepo with turborepo, packages in node_modules might not be transformed. update transformIgnorePatterns to include react-native and testing-library packages.

4. install required deps:

   • babel-jest
   • @babel/preset-env
   • @babel/preset-typescript
   • @babel/preset-react

5. if using esm in package.json, add extensionsToTreatAsEsm to jest config.

6. set testEnvironment to jsdom for react components.

7. common issue in monorepos: symlinked packages. add moduleNameMapper to resolve workspace packages correctly.

if you share your babel.config.js and jest.config.js i can give more specific help.