resolveInstance logs spurious ERROR for LOG+POST when no instance is tracked

[dprevost-LMI]

Environment

• @wdio/browserstack-service: 9.36.1 (also reproduced on 9.35.1)
• webdriverio: 9.31.3, Mocha, CLI/gRPC flow, App Automate Android

Bug

A console.log/console.error outside the tracked test/hook window
(e.g. global setup, teardown, between specs) triggers:

ERROR @wdio/browserstack-service/cli: resolveInstance: unable to resolve/create instance for testFrameworkState=TestFrameworkState.LOG hookState=HookState.POST
ERROR @wdio/browserstack-service/cli: trackEvent: instance not found for testFrameworkState=TestFrameworkState.LOG hookState=HookState.POST

Run still passes. Log event is silently dropped.

Minimal reproduction

wdio.conf.ts:

export const config: WebdriverIO.Config = {
  services: ['browserstack'],
  before: function () {
    // Config-level `before` — runs once, before any Mocha `before all`.
    // No TestFrameworkState instance exists yet at this point.
    console.log('global setup');
    // ^ triggers the two ERROR lines above
  },
  specs: ['./test/specs/**/*.ts'],
  // ...rest of your wdio config
};

test/specs/example.test.ts:

describe('Suite', () => {
  it('passes', () => {
    expect(true).toBe(true);
  });
});

Run with wdio run wdio.conf.ts against BrowserStack. The before()
hook's console.log fires before the CLI tracker has created any
instance, reproducing the error on every run.

Root cause

packages/browserstack-service/src/cli/frameworks/wdioMochaTestFramework.ts
→ resolveInstance(). Only creates/reuses an instance for NONE,
INIT_TEST, or a PRE hook. LOG+POST matches none of these, so
instance stays null and both resolveInstance() and trackEvent()
log at error. Introduced in 7d6f822 (Jul 2026).

Trigger: logPatcher.ts patches console.log/console.error
process-wide, routed via insights-handler.ts appendTestItemLog() —
not scoped to an active test.

Suggested fix

Downgrade to logger.debug for TestFrameworkState.LOG in both
resolveInstance() and trackEvent():

// resolveInstance()
instance = TestFramework.getTrackedInstance()
if (!instance) {
    if (testFrameworkState === TestFrameworkState.LOG) {
        logger.debug(`resolveInstance: no active instance for LOG event (hookState=${hookState})`)
    } else {
        logger.error(`resolveInstance: unable to resolve/create instance for testFrameworkState=${testFrameworkState} hookState=${hookState}`)
    }
    return null
}

// trackEvent()
const instance = this.resolveInstance(testFrameworkState, hookState, args)
if (instance === null) {
    if (testFrameworkState !== TestFrameworkState.LOG) {
        logger.error(`trackEvent: instance not found for testFrameworkState=${testFrameworkState} hookState=${hookState}`)
    }
    return
}

Missing instance is expected here, not a tracking failure — behavior
(returns null, drops the log event) is unchanged, only the log
severity changes.

Verification

Applied the above patch locally against the installed 9.36.1 package and
ran the same spec on real BrowserStack App Automate (Android) sessions:

• Before fix: https://automation.browserstack.com/builds/nptdrdidu6gpyzhtsmgmng0tuwjepriyv7yxy58o — both ERROR lines present
• After fix: https://automation.browserstack.com/builds/s1bqon9bhvigxjbfe4akl6zugovpnmcpqgwqa9rh — no ERROR lines, identical pass result (2 passing, 1 skipped)

Expected

debug-level (or no log) when no instance exists for a LOG event,
not error.

[dprevost-LMI]

Here is the full package.json for our e2e test package for reference:

devDependencies

{
  "@faker-js/faker": "9.9.0",
  "@litehex/node-vault": "1.0.4",
  "@types/argparse": "1.0.38",
  "@types/google-libphonenumber": "7.4.30",
  "@types/mocha": "10.0.10",
  "@types/twilio": "3.19.3",
  "@wdio/appium-service": "9.31.3",
  "@wdio/browserstack-service": "9.35.1",
  "@wdio/cli": "9.31.3",
  "@wdio/globals": "9.31.3",
  "@wdio/local-runner": "9.31.3",
  "@wdio/logger": "9.29.1",
  "@wdio/mocha-framework": "9.31.2",
  "@wdio/spec-reporter": "9.31.2",
  "@wdio/types": "9.31.2",
  "allure-commandline": "2.43.0",
  "allure-js-commons": "2.15.1",
  "appium": "2.19.0",
  "appium-uiautomator2-driver": "4.2.8",
  "appium-webdriveragent": "10.2.1",
  "appium-xcuitest-driver": "9.9.6",
  "argparse": "1.0.10",
  "axios": "1.16.0",
  "ci-info": "4.3.0",
  "es-toolkit": "1.39.8",
  "eslint": "9.39.2",
  "eslint-plugin-check-file": "^3.3.0",
  "eslint-plugin-sort-class-members": "1.21.0",
  "eslint-plugin-unicorn": "^48.0.0",
  "eslint-plugin-wdio": "9.9.1",
  "google-libphonenumber": "3.2.42",
  "jest-extended": "6.0.0",
  "jwt-decode": "4.0.0",
  "mocha": "11.8.0",
  "strip-ansi": "7.1.0",
  "tsx": "4.20.4",
  "twilio": "5.8.0",
  "typescript": "5.9.2"
}

resolutions

{
  "mocha": "11.8.0"
}

Note the version gap between @wdio/browserstack-service (9.35.1) and @wdio/cli / @wdio/globals / @wdio/local-runner (9.31.3) — this may be related to the mismatch mentioned in our internal Slack thread.