mdn / mdn/browser-compat-data

api.URLPattern - Firefox changed the regex engine

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browser:firefox data:api p3
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Description

What type of issue is this?

Incorrect support data (example: BrowserX says "86" but support was added in "40")

What information was incorrect, unhelpful, or incomplete?

In Firefox<149, URLPattern uses rust regex, therefore some syntax e.g. look-around will throw:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1998871

This information is not documented.

What browsers does this problem apply to, if applicable?

Firefox

What did you expect to see?

I think the lack of look-around syntax should be documented, or raise the support version from 142 to 149, that Firefox changed the regex engine for better compatibility: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1984171

Otherwise, the example code will throw in Firefox<149.

Did you test this? If so, how?

Here is a jsbin for testing: https://jsbin.com/tocafidoqa/3/edit?js,console

You should see

true
false
true
false

in fully supported browsers.

Can you link to any release notes, bugs, pull requests, or MDN pages related to this?
Do you have anything more you want to share?

No response

MDN URL

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/URLPattern

MDN metadata
MDN page report details
  • Query: api.URLPattern
  • Report started: 2026-02-20T15:21:50.902Z

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start from the api.URLPattern compatibility entry and verify the Firefox behavior against Bugzilla issues 1998871 and 1984171, using the linked JSBin as a check. Done means the browser compatibility data accurately reflects Firefox versions and documents the look-around syntax limitation so the MDN example is not misleading.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
documentation, web-dev
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
64/100

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