`k6/websockets` panics on `new WebSocket(...)` in the init context

[mem]

Brief summary

Unlike other network-capable modules (k6/http, k6/ws, k6/grpc), k6/websockets has no guard against being used in the init context (i.e. before any VU state exists). Calling new WebSocket(...) at the top level of a script's module body causes a nil-pointer-dereference panic instead of an error, crashing k6 inspect and k6 run with exit code 109. The deprecated alias k6/experimental/websockets is equally affected, since it wraps the same implementation.

k6 version

v2.2.0

OS

linux

Docker version and image (if applicable)

N/A

Steps to reproduce the problem

import { WebSocket } from 'k6/websockets';

new WebSocket('ws://example.invalid');

export default function () {}

$ k6 run websockets.js
time="2026-08-28T13:12:18-06:00" level=error msg="unexpected k6 panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference\ngoroutine 1 [running]:...

Expected behaviour

k6 doesn't panic

Actual behaviour

k6 panics

[mem]

Most notably this also affects k6 inspect.