Call to a member function sendText() on null

[TobiasNagel01]

Hey, I would really appreciate if anyone could help me here. I have a project where I try to install Pest for Browsertests:

Here is the basic test I am trying to run:

it('may welcome the user', function () {
    $page = visit('/');

    $page->assertSee('Welcome');
})->only();

The Problem is, anything I do, I get the following error:

Test Runner Configured
Bootstrap Finished (/var/www/html/vendor/autoload.php)
Event Facade Sealed
Test Suite Loaded (3 tests)
Test Runner Started
Test Suite Sorted
Test Suite Filtered (1 test)
Test Runner Execution Started (1 test)
Test Suite Started (/var/www/html/phpunit.xml, 1 test)
Test Suite Started (Browser, 1 test)
Test Suite Started (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest, 1 test)
Before First Test Method Called (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::setUpBeforeClass)
Before First Test Method Finished:
- P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::setUpBeforeClass
Test Preparation Started (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::__pest_evaluable_it_may_welcome_the_user)
Before Test Method Called (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::setUp)
Before Test Method Finished:
- P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::setUp
Test Prepared (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::__pest_evaluable_it_may_welcome_the_user)
Test Errored (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::__pest_evaluable_it_may_welcome_the_user)
Call to a member function sendText() on null
After Test Method Called (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::tearDown)
After Test Method Finished:
- P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::tearDown
Test Finished (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::__pest_evaluable_it_may_welcome_the_user)
After Last Test Method Called (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::tearDownAfterClass)
After Last Test Method Finished:
- P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest::tearDownAfterClass
Test Suite Finished (P\Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest, 1 test)
Test Suite Finished (Browser, 1 test)
Test Suite Finished (/var/www/html/phpunit.xml, 1 test)
Test Runner Execution Finished

   FAIL  Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest
  ⨯ it may welcome the user                                                                                                                                                                               0.16s  
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────  
   FAILED  Tests\Browser\Project\ProjectTableTest > it may welcome the user                                                                                                                              Error   
  Call to a member function sendText() on null

  at tests/Browser/Project/ProjectTableTest.php:6
      2▕ 
      3▕ it('may welcome the user', function () {
      4▕     $page = visit('/');
      5▕ 
  ➜   6▕     $page->assertSee('Welcome');
      7▕ })->only();
      8▕ 


  Tests:    1 failed (0 assertions)
  Duration: 0.22s

Test Runner Finished
PHPUnit Finished (Shell Exit Code: 2)

When I just run $page = visit('/'); I get no error. As soon as I run ANYTHING on $page, like ->assertSee(), ->screenshot, ->dd(), anything, I get this error message. It should not have anything to do with my page, because I tried to run the test on www.google.com and get the same error. At the same time I can use Pest and Browser Tests without any problems on other projects.

Installed:
PHP 8.4.17
Laravel v11.48.0
Sail v1.53.0
Pest v4.3.2
Pest Browser Plugin v4.2.1
Pest Laravel Plugin v4.0.0

I am completely stuck, if anyone has any Idea how to fix this, I would really appreciate any help.

[shreyanshjain1]

The interesting part here is that visit('/') itself works, but anything that acts on $page afterward crashes.

So I dont think this is really about your app page content.

From the behavior you described, it feels more like the browser/plugin session is being created far enough for visit() to return, but the object behind later interactions (assertSee, screenshot, dd, etc.) is not fully initialized, which is why you hit sendText() on null.

A few things I’d check first:

1. Version mismatch
   Your versions are close, but I’d still suspect some incompatibility between:

   • Pest 4.3.2
   • Browser plugin 4.2.1
   • Laravel plugin 4.0.0

   Since the failure happens in the browser interaction layer, I’d try updating the Pest browser-related packages together to the latest compatible set instead of mixing slightly different minors.

2. Fresh browser/plugin install state
   Since you said it works on other projects, I’d compare:

   • composer.lock
   • installed browser binaries/drivers
   • plugin config / env
     between the working project and this broken one

3. Minimal reproduction in the same project
   Try the smallest possible browser assertion in a brand-new test file, with no app-specific setup, middleware, or custom bootstrapping.

4. Cache / stale vendor state
   I’d also try the boring cleanup path:

   • remove vendor
   • reinstall dependencies
   • clear Laravel caches
   • rerun the browser test

What makes me think this is not a page issue is exactly what you said:

• it happens even on Google
• visit() alone succeeds
• the crash starts only when interacting with $page

So my guess would be:
this is probly a browser-plugin/session-object issue, most likely caused by package compatibility or a broken/stale install in this project, rather than anything inside the tested page itself.

If I were debugging it, I’d start by aligning/updating the Pest browser-related package versions together and comparing them against the project where browser tests still work.