Contributing: npm start logs error on mac

[LukasFritzeDev]

When I run npm start or npm run serve as describe in Contributing › Building locally this error is logged:

Failed to open browser Vivaldi with AppleScript Error: Command failed: osascript openChrome.applescript "http://localhost:3000/" "Vivaldi"
openChrome.applescript:1089:1099: script error: „Eigenschaft“ kann nicht diesem „Identifier“ folgen. (-2740)

    at genericNodeError (node:internal/errors:983:15)
    at wrappedFn (node:internal/errors:537:14)
    at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:417:12)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1101:16)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (node:internal/child_process:456:11)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at Pipe.<anonymous> (node:net:346:12) {
  code: 1,
  killed: false,
  signal: null,
  cmd: 'osascript openChrome.applescript "http://localhost:3000/" "Vivaldi"',
  stdout: '',
  stderr: 'openChrome.applescript:1089:1099: script error: „Eigenschaft“ kann nicht diesem „Identifier“ folgen. (-2740)\n'
}

The local environment can be started successfully and is open in Safari. So this is not critical. But it does not appear to be good.

---

Installed browsers on the system:

• Safari (default)
• Vivaldi
• Firefox

Dev-Environment

> npm --version
11.15.0

> node --version                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
v22.22.0

[gandie]

Eew. Took a quick look:

node_modules/@docusaurus/core/lib/commands/utils/openBrowser/openBrowser.js:48:                'Vivaldi',

The code behind that finding, responsible for starting correct browser via applescript, seems quite broken 😆

Reading that file, you might be able to silence the error by forcing specific browser via environment. Lovely passage:

[...]
// This code was initially in CRA/react-dev-utils (deprecated in 2025)
// We copied and refactored it
// See https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/pull/10956
// See https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/blob/main/packages/react-dev-utils/openBrowser.js
/* eslint-disable */
const child_process_1 = require("child_process");
const util_1 = require("util");
const open_1 = tslib_1.__importDefault(require("open"));
const logger_1 = require("@docusaurus/logger");
const execPromise = (0, util_1.promisify)(child_process_1.exec);
// Not sure if we need this, but let's keep a secret escape hatch
// CRA/react-dev-utils supported BROWSER/BROWSER_ARGS
const BrowserEnv = process.env.DOCUSAURUS_BROWSER;
const BrowserEnvArgs = process.env.DOCUSAURUS_BROWSER_ARGS
    ? process.env.DOCUSAURUS_BROWSER_ARGS.split(' ')
    : [];
// If we're on OS X, the user hasn't specifically
// requested a different browser, we can try opening
// Chrome with AppleScript. This lets us reuse an
// existing tab when possible instead of creating a new one.
// Copied from https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/blob/main/packages/react-dev-utils/openBrowser.js
[...]