Cypress CLI passes unsupported flags (--no-sandbox, --smoke-test, --ping) to Node.js/Electron on macOS ARM64

[amabrouk-tv]

Current behavior

Current behavior
Cypress fails to start because the CLI adds flags that the bundled Node.js/Electron process does not recognize.
Debug output shows Cypress invoking:

cypress:cli smoke test command:
/Users/<user>/Library/Caches/Cypress/15.2.0/Cypress.app/Contents/MacOS/Cypress --no-sandbox --smoke-test --ping=293

These flags are passed to the Node.js/Electron process instead of the browser, causing an immediate error such as:

error: unknown option '--no-sandbox'

This occurs even after removing caches, reinstalling Cypress, and running npx cypress run directly without Nx.

Desired behavior

Cypress should either:
pass --no-sandbox, --smoke-test, and --ping only to the browser (if needed), or
avoid passing unsupported flags to the main Node.js/Electron process during its smoke test verification.

Test code to reproduce

npm init -y
npm install --save-dev cypress@15.2.0
DEBUG=cypress:* npx cypress run

The same behavior occurs with Cypress 13.15.0, 14.5.4, and 15.2.0.

Test code to reproduce
This occurs with a brand-new project and no test files.
Simply creating an empty project and running the above steps reproduces the error.

DEBUG=cypress__ npx cypress run - Google Docs.pdf

Cypress Version

13.15.0, 14.5.4, 15.2.0 (all tested)

Debug Logs

Key excerpt:
cypress:cli smoke test command:
/Users/<user>/Library/Caches/Cypress/15.2.0/Cypress.app/Contents/MacOS/Cypress --no-sandbox --smoke-test --ping=293
error: unknown option '--no-sandbox'

Other

OS: macOS 15.6.1 (Apple Silicon / ARM64)
System Node version: 20.x
Bundled Cypress Node version: 22.15.1 (per debug output)
Bundled Electron version: 36.4.0
Happens both with and without Nx integration, so Nx is not involved.
Blocks all UI E2E tests and CI/CD runs.

[jennifer-shehane]

@amabrouk-tv It seems you have the ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE environment variable set, which I believe is causing this issue. Can you try unsetting this and see if that works?

[amabrouk-tv]

The issue persists even after unsetting ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE. The problem is that these arguments (--no-sandbox, --smoke-test, --ping=129) are being passed to Cypress from somewhere.

[MikeMcC399]

@amabrouk-tv

Your log file https://github.com/user-attachments/files/22375297/DEBUG.cypress__.npx.cypress.run.-.Google.Docs.pdf doesn't match your steps to reproduce. (If you attach any new log files, please don't convert them to PDF with a portrait page size. Just copy them into a plain text file which is easier to read.)

You may like to try the following to check any basic issues in your environment:

cd $(mktemp -d)
npm install cypress --save-dev
npx cypress verify

Cypress 15.2.0 normally runs successfully against macOS 15 arm64. You can check this in the GitHub Actions workflow:

github-action/actions/workflows/example-basic.yml

[MikeMcC399]

• There is a related open issue Unable to start Cypress with ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 #23636 which describes the problem that Cypress cannot be started on macOS if ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 is set, although the error message for this old Cypress 10.6.0 version was different.

• The instructions to use ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 were removed from the documentation site through PR Remove instructions on running headless tests without Xvfb cypress-documentation#5666, which removed the complete section "Running headless tests without Xvfb" in what is now https://docs.cypress.io/app/continuous-integration/overview

[MikeMcC399]

Also note the Troubleshooting > Run Cypress by itself instructions. I can however only confirm that they work on Ubuntu. I don't personally have access to a local macOS system.

[MikeMcC399]

@amabrouk-tv

The issue persists even after unsetting ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE. The problem is that these arguments (--no-sandbox, --smoke-test, --ping=129) are being passed to Cypress from somewhere.

I can reproduce your issue in a GitHub macos-15 runner image only if I have ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE set. The use of this environment variable is no longer recommended.

Please check that you do not have the variable ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE set and if you are still experiencing the issue, please share your debug logs with the DEBUG=cypress:* environment variable set.