fix: file reloading mechanism and add profile watch ignores by ZerGo0 · Pull Request #2112 · wxt-dev/wxt

ZerGo0 · 2026-02-11T12:00:58Z

Overview

Fixes flaky dev reload detection where WXT sometimes ignores real source file saves.

Root cause:

Dev watcher used a debounced callback (leading: true, trailing: false) and queued events inside that callback.
With noisy filesystem activity (especially browser profile/cache files), relevant source change events could be dropped.

Changes:

Reworked dev file reload flow in packages/wxt/src/core/create-server.ts to:
- queue every watcher event immediately
- process the queue in a serialized loop
- keep flushing after each debounce window until no new events arrive
Added runner profile watch ignores in packages/wxt/src/core/builders/vite/index.ts so browser profile churn is not watched:
- chromiumProfile
- firefoxProfile
- chromiumArgs --user-data-dir (split and = forms)
- firefoxArgs -profile (split and = forms)
Added a single regression test:
- packages/wxt/src/core/__tests__/create-server.test.ts
- Simulates browser-profile noise event followed by real source change and verifies the source change is detected/reloaded.

Manual Testing

This is pretty hard/annoying to reproduce. The new test is probably the best way of reproducing this: pnpm -C packages/wxt test --run src/core/__tests__/create-server.test.ts

Use a project with browser profile inside project dir (example):
- Chromium: chromiumArgs: ['--user-data-dir=./private/.dev-profile']
- Firefox: firefoxProfile: './private/.dev-firefox-profile'
- My main project does a ton of stuff in indexed dbs, this causes a ton of changes in the browser profile directory
Run pnpm wxt.
Save a real source file while browser is active.
A rebuild should be triggered, but it just doesn't sometimes.

Related Issue

None I think.

netlify · 2026-02-11T12:01:05Z

✅ Deploy Preview for creative-fairy-df92c4 ready!

Name	Link
🔨 Latest commit	`9e4d40d`
🔍 Latest deploy log	https://app.netlify.com/projects/creative-fairy-df92c4/deploys/69903bc287eb4a00080c9707
😎 Deploy Preview	https://deploy-preview-2112--creative-fairy-df92c4.netlify.app
📱 Preview on mobile	Toggle QR Code... Use your smartphone camera to open QR code link.

To edit notification comments on pull requests, go to your Netlify project configuration.

aklinker1

Nice, I really like these changes!

I just woke up and am on mobile, so I'll need to do some manual testing to make sure everything is working later today.

pkg-pr-new · 2026-02-11T14:12:35Z

Open in StackBlitz

@wxt-dev/analytics

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/analytics@2112

@wxt-dev/auto-icons

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/auto-icons@2112

@wxt-dev/browser

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/browser@2112

@wxt-dev/i18n

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/i18n@2112

@wxt-dev/module-react

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/module-react@2112

@wxt-dev/module-solid

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/module-solid@2112

@wxt-dev/module-svelte

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/module-svelte@2112

@wxt-dev/module-vue

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/module-vue@2112

@wxt-dev/runner

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/runner@2112

@wxt-dev/storage

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/storage@2112

@wxt-dev/unocss

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/unocss@2112

@wxt-dev/webextension-polyfill

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@wxt-dev/webextension-polyfill@2112

wxt

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/wxt@2112

commit: 9e4d40d

codecov · 2026-02-11T14:13:48Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 52.50000% with 57 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 76.58%. Comparing base (cf31fbe) to head (9e4d40d).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...ackages/wxt/src/core/utils/create-file-reloader.ts	49.39%	38 Missing and 4 partials ⚠️
packages/wxt/src/core/builders/vite/index.ts	37.50%	11 Missing and 4 partials ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #2112      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   76.03%   76.58%   +0.54%     
==========================================
  Files         113      114       +1     
  Lines        3034     3079      +45     
  Branches      680      691      +11     
==========================================
+ Hits         2307     2358      +51     
+ Misses        643      638       -5     
+ Partials       84       83       -1

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.
📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

ZerGo0 · 2026-02-11T15:22:50Z

I pushed another small change. I don't really like the changes in 0cf79bb but I can't really think of a better way of doing this.

The problem is that it would show potentially wrong files in the "Changed: ..." log line and so on because they all use the "raw"/unfiltered queue. My latest commit fixes that.

PatrykKuniczak · 2026-02-11T21:23:33Z

I'm also have 1 file on which HMR doesn't work and i was about to report it, but i'll check it on your branch, maybe your PR will solve that issue 😄

packages/wxt/src/core/builders/vite/index.ts

aklinker1

Tested, things seem to behave the same way for me. One requested change.

aklinker1 · 2026-02-12T21:49:40Z

packages/wxt/src/core/create-server.ts

 * changes.
 */
-function createFileReloader(server: WxtDevServer) {
+export function createFileReloader(server: WxtDevServer) {


Exporting this here will export the function from the main wxt module as a public API, but I don't want this to be public. Move to another file, maybe in src/core/utils/create-file-reloader.ts, if you want to export and test it.

wxt/packages/wxt/src/core/index.ts

Line 5 in 50d7c1e

export * from './create-server';

wxt/packages/wxt/src/index.ts

Line 9 in 50d7c1e

export * from './core';

Done, had to move a bit more than just createFileReloader.

- Exported `createFileReloader` function to allow external usage. - Improved the file reloading process by implementing a queue worker to handle multiple file changes without dropping events. - Added `getRunnerProfileWatchIgnores` function to dynamically generate ignored paths based on user profiles for Chromium and Firefox. - Updated Vite builder configuration to include these new ignore patterns.

- Introduced `getRelevantDevChangedFiles` to filter out unrelated file changes. - Updated `detectDevChanges` to utilize the new filtering function for improved accuracy. - Modified `createFileReloader` to work with relevant file changes, ensuring only necessary reloads occur. - Enhanced tests to validate the new behavior and ensure proper handling of HTML-only reloads.

Move createFileReloader into an internal core utils file and update create-server/test imports.

PatrykKuniczak · 2026-02-14T09:21:20Z

it's working for Windows also, but it doesn't solve my issue, i'll open new issue about it.

PatrykKuniczak · 2026-02-14T09:35:13Z

packages/wxt/src/core/utils/create-file-reloader.ts

+      try {
+        const { output: newOutput } = await rebuild(
+          allEntrypoints,
+          // TODO: this excludes new entrypoints, so they're not built until the dev command is restarted


Let's fix it or remove if it's outdated

ZerGo0 requested review from Timeraa and aklinker1 as code owners February 11, 2026 12:00

aklinker1 reviewed Feb 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

PatrykKuniczak reviewed Feb 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

packages/wxt/src/core/builders/vite/index.ts Show resolved Hide resolved

aklinker1 requested changes Feb 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

ZerGo0 added 3 commits February 14, 2026 10:09

fix: keep createFileReloader out of the public API

9e4d40d

Move createFileReloader into an internal core utils file and update create-server/test imports.

PatrykKuniczak force-pushed the fix/dev-watch-missed-reloads branch from 41b2084 to 9e4d40d Compare February 14, 2026 09:09

PatrykKuniczak requested changes Feb 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

fix: file reloading mechanism and add profile watch ignores#2112

fix: file reloading mechanism and add profile watch ignores#2112
ZerGo0 wants to merge 3 commits intowxt-dev:mainfrom
ZerGo0:fix/dev-watch-missed-reloads

ZerGo0 commented Feb 11, 2026

Uh oh!

netlify bot commented Feb 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

aklinker1 left a comment

Uh oh!

pkg-pr-new bot commented Feb 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

codecov bot commented Feb 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

ZerGo0 commented Feb 11, 2026

Uh oh!

PatrykKuniczak commented Feb 11, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

aklinker1 left a comment

Uh oh!

aklinker1 Feb 12, 2026

Uh oh!

ZerGo0 Feb 13, 2026

Uh oh!

PatrykKuniczak commented Feb 14, 2026

Uh oh!

PatrykKuniczak Feb 14, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

Uh oh!

Conversation

ZerGo0 commented Feb 11, 2026

Overview

Manual Testing

Related Issue

Uh oh!

netlify bot commented Feb 11, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

✅ Deploy Preview for creative-fairy-df92c4 ready!

Uh oh!

aklinker1 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

pkg-pr-new bot commented Feb 11, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

codecov bot commented Feb 11, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Codecov Report

Uh oh!

ZerGo0 commented Feb 11, 2026

Uh oh!

PatrykKuniczak commented Feb 11, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

aklinker1 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

aklinker1 Feb 12, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ZerGo0 Feb 13, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

PatrykKuniczak commented Feb 14, 2026

Uh oh!

PatrykKuniczak Feb 14, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

netlify bot commented Feb 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading

pkg-pr-new bot commented Feb 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading

codecov bot commented Feb 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading