no-node-access reports issue for user event object returned from helper function

[ska-kialo]

Have you read the Troubleshooting section?

Yes

Plugin version

v7.5.4

ESLint version

v9.30.1

Node.js version

v22.16.0

Bug description

We're using a helper function to render components in our tests. This helper also calls userEvent.setup and returns the result as a value called user. Since v7.5.4 (issue also present in v7.6.0) the plugin reports usages of this user object in tests as errors under the testing-library/no-node-access rule, e.g. the following is now an error:

const { user } = renderComponent(<TestComponent />);
await user.click(screen.getByRole('button', { name: 'Click me' }));

Steps to reproduce

Issue only happens when the helper function is imported from another file.

TestUtils.tsx:

import { render } from '@testing-library/react';
import userEvent from '@testing-library/user-event';

export function renderComponent(component: React.ReactElement<any>) {
    const user = userEvent.setup({ advanceTimers: jest.advanceTimersByTimeAsync });

    const { container, rerender, unmount } = render(component);

    return { user, container, rerender, unmount };
}

Component.test.tsx:

import { screen } from '@testing-library/react';
import { useState } from 'react';
import { renderComponent } from './TestUtils';

describe('Component', () => {
    function TestComponent() {
        const [counter, setCounter] = useState(0);
        return (
            <div>
                <div data-testid="counter">{counter}</div>
                <button onClick={() => setCounter((c) => c + 1)}>Click me</button>
            </div>
        );
    }

    it('increments counter on click', async () => {
        const { user } = renderComponent(<TestComponent />);

        // error: Avoid direct Node access. Prefer using the methods from Testing Library testing-library/no-node-access
        await user.click(screen.getByRole('button', { name: 'Click me' }));
        expect(screen.getByTestId('counter')).toHaveTextContent('1');
    });
});

Error output/screenshots

No response

ESLint configuration

import eslint from '@eslint/js';
import eslintPluginTestingLibrary from 'eslint-plugin-testing-library';
import tseslint from 'typescript-eslint';

export default tseslint.config(
    {
        name: 'Base eslint config',
        files: ['**/*.ts', '**/*.tsx', '**/*.js', '**/*.mjs'],
        extends: [eslint.configs.recommended, ...tseslint.configs.recommended, ...tseslint.configs.stylistic],
        settings: {
            react: {
                version: 'detect',
            },
        },
        languageOptions: {
            ecmaVersion: 6,
            parserOptions: {
                warnOnUnsupportedTypeScriptVersion: true,
            },
        },
        rules: {},
    },
    {
        name: 'frontend Tests',
        files: ['frontend/**/*.test.tsx', 'frontend/**/*.test.ts'],
        plugins: {
            'testing-library': eslintPluginTestingLibrary,
        },
        extends: [eslintPluginTestingLibrary.configs['flat/react']],
    }
);

Rule(s) affected

testing-library/no-node-access

Anything else?

No response

Do you want to submit a pull request to fix this bug?

No

[Xelfie]

I can confirm this is still an issue in version 7.6.0. Similar to the description above, I'm seeing false positives with the no-node-access rule when using userEvent in the recommended pattern.

(Quick fix: I have managed to solve this for now by downgrading eslint-plugin-testing-library to v7.5.3)

Plugin version
v7.6.0 (issue present) / v7.5.3 (works correctly)

ESLint version
v8.56.0

Node.js version
v23.1.0

Additional setup details:

• @testing-library/user-event: 14.6.1
• Setup function pattern (similar to what's described here)

Code that triggers false positive:

const setup = () => ({
  user: userEvent.setup(),
  ...render(<Component />)
});

const { user } = setup();
await user.click(screen.getByRole("button", { name: /dismiss/i })); // ❌ Flagged as no-node-access

Error: Avoid direct Node access. Prefer using the methods from Testing Library. (testing-library/no-node-access)

Workaround: Downgrading to eslint-plugin-testing-library@7.5.3 resolves the issue completely.

This appears to be the same root cause - the rule is probably incorrectly identifying userEvent method calls as direct DOM access when the userEvent instance comes from a helper function.