development: server test suite not running

[nosc82]

Checklist

[ X ] I have searched budibase discussions and github issues to check if my issue already exists

Hosting

Self
Method: K8s / Self-hosted
Budibase Version: 3.24.0 – latest
App Version: doesn't matter

Describe the bug

After upgrading Budibase to versions 3.24.0–latest, the Budibase server test suite no longer runs. Budibase’s tests are executed in a CommonJS environment, but the Svelte 5 migration pulls in devalue@5.6.2, which is ESM-only.

devalue became ESM-only starting from version 5.0.0 (older devalue versions were not ESM-only).

devalue is not declared directly in Budibase’s package.json, but is pulled in automatically via Svelte. This can be verified with:

npm ls devalue

Output:

└─┬ svelte@5.48.0
└── devalue@5.6.2

When running the Budibase test suite (CommonJS), Node tries to load devalue as CommonJS and fails on ESM syntax:

export { uneval } from './src/uneval.js';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'

As a result, the Budibase tests are broken on 3.24.0–latest due to an ESM-only transitive dependency.

Additionally, this issue is caused by a transitive dependency change introduced with the Svelte 5 upgrade, not by any direct dependency change in Budibase itself. This makes the failure non-obvious and hard to diagnose when running the server test suite.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

1. Checkout Budibase version 3.24.0 – latest
2. Install dependencies (npm install / yarn install).
3. Run the Budibase server test suite using the default project setup.
4. Observe the ESM syntax error originating from devalue.

Expected behavior

Budibase should fix its CommonJS test setup so that transitive ESM-only dependencies introduced via Svelte (such as devalue@5.6.2) do not break the tests.

Additional context

• devalue@5.6.2 is ESM-only; older devalue versions were not ESM-only.
• devalue is introduced indirectly via svelte@5.48.0, not as a direct Budibase dependency.
• The problem occurs in Node.js when CommonJS code attempts to load an ESM-only module without an appropriate loader or build step.

Logs / screenshots

export { uneval } from './src/uneval.js';
^^^^^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'

[PClmnt]

export { uneval } from './src/uneval.js';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'

did you run the tests from within packages/server?

[nosc82]

Yes - I ran the tests from within packages/server (I was inside the directory and executed yarn test there), and also from the repo root.

Inside packages/server -> yarn test → same error

From the repo root -> yarn test → all other test suites (e.g. shared-core, etc.) run successfully, but the failure occurs once the server test suite starts

Not every single server test fails, but a large portion of the server test suite does — specifically those that end up requiring devalue. Roughly ~77% of the test suites are failing.

Also: for every suite that fails, the error is always the same as in the example below (ESM export syntax from devalue):
export { uneval } from './src/uneval.js';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'

5 | * the type from @budibase/types */
6 | export let props

7 | </script>
| ^
8 |
9 | svelte:head
10 |