[Bug]: toMatchAriaSnapshot gets stuck when it needs to create a new file with timeout 0

[raythurnvoid]

Version

1.51.1

Steps to reproduce

1. Clone https://github.com/raythurnvoid/playwright-aria-snapshot-bug
2. npm i
3. npx playwright test --ui
4. Run the only test

Expected behavior

Playwright should create the new snapshot even if the timeout is 0 or very high and it should not get stuck.

Actual behavior

In this test playwright will get stuck at await expect.soft(page.getByRole('navigation')).toMatchAriaSnapshot

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('Aria Snapshot Bug', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');

  await expect.soft(page.getByRole('navigation')).toMatchAriaSnapshot({
    name: 'navigation.aria.yml',
    timeout: 0
  });
});

Stopping the test will allow playwright to finally create the aria snapshot file, setting a small timeout (eg: 100) also works to let playwright continue without getting stuck and create the file.

Additional context

No response

Environment

System:
    OS: Windows 11 10.0.26100
    CPU: (32) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900HX
    Memory: 40.85 GB / 63.74 GB
  Binaries:
    Node: 23.5.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    Yarn: 1.22.22 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\yarn.CMD
    npm: 11.0.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
    pnpm: 10.7.0 - ~\AppData\Local\pnpm\pnpm.CMD
  IDEs:
    VSCode: 0.48.6 - c:\Users\rt0\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor\resources\app\bin\code.CMD
  Languages:
    Bash: 5.1.16 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\bash.EXE
  npmPackages:
    @playwright/test: ^1.51.1 => 1.51.1

[Skn0tt]

Setting timeout: 0 means that it indefinitely waits until the assertion passes. If it never passes, it will stall until the test timeout (30s by default) fails the test. That's exactly the behaviour i'm getting with your repro.

I think everything's working as intended here. Could you elaborate on what you're trying to achieve by setting timeout: 0?

[raythurnvoid]

Is not coherent with toMatchSnapshot and toHaveScreenshot they both work fine with timeout 0.

I use timeout: 0 as a default value when working in ui mode because it allows me to debug easily while implementing tests, this would force me to keep in mind that toMatchAriaSnapshot is the only API that requires a special value

I'm doing this along side with updateSnapshots: 'all' when i work on local. I would expect the aria snapshot file to be just created if doesn't exists or to be replaced if it already exists not to get stuck forever until i manually stop the test.

[Skn0tt]

I tried convincing the rest of the team to add an exception in #35476, but we decided that it's not worth the incosistency with the other expectations. If you change your workflow to set timeout: 1 on the specific expectation for the first run, you should be fine.

[raythurnvoid]

Thank you very much!