'Uncaught TypeError: Illegal Invocation' when root layout contains body tag
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Stale
- Tech stack
- javascript
Research direction
Start with the linked barebones reproduction and its root +layout.svelte, keeping the wrapping body tag and slot or snippet in place. Reproduce the repaint and inspect the get_next_sibling/sibling stack shown in the logs, then compare behavior after removing the body wrapper. Done means the layout renders without the Illegal Invocation error while retaining its intended content.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Describe the bug
Recently I migrated an old app (Sveltekit 1/ Svelte 3) to Svelte 5 via the migration scripts. That worked great for the most part, but my app would no longer work correctly. It rendered the page initially but quickly repainted it completely blank. In the console it printed the error "Uncaught TypeError: Illegal Invocation" (see logs).
I found the fix/workaround in a Reddit Thread that had the same issue: a wrapping <body> tag inside the root layout +layout.svelte was causing the issue. Removing this wrapping body element fixed the issue.
The issue occurs both when using slots or snippets. It does not occur when you remove the slot/snippet from the layout.
In my original project it also gave me a hydration_mismatch warning before the Illegal Invocation error, though I wasn't able to reproduce that.
Reproduction
https://github.com/BaumianerNiklas/svelte5-illegal-invocation-repro
This is a barebones project created with the sv CLI, with the only change being the layout that was added.
If you remove the wrapping body tag in there, everything works fine.
Logs
chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2346 Uncaught TypeError: Illegal invocation
in root.svelte
at get_next_sibling (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2346:30)
at Module.sibling (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2394:5)
at _layout (+layout.svelte?t=1734871119624:16:15)
at chunk-DIK5XZVB.js?v=4e242971:283:58
at update_reaction (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1308:23)
at update_effect (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1399:21)
at create_effect (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2474:7)
at branch (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2622:10)
at chunk-DIK5XZVB.js?v=4e242971:277:17
at update_reaction (chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1308:23)
get_next_sibling @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2346
sibling @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2394
_layout @ +layout.svelte?t=1734871119624:16
(anonymous) @ chunk-DIK5XZVB.js?v=4e242971:283
update_reaction @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1308
update_effect @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1399
create_effect @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2474
branch @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:2622
(anonymous) @ chunk-DIK5XZVB.js?v=4e242971:277
update_reaction @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1308
update_effect @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1399
process_effects @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1548
flush_queued_root_effects @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1468
process_deferred @ chunk-TFYL3GQY.js?v=4e242971:1505
System Info
System:
OS: macOS 14.6.1
CPU: (6) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8500B CPU @ 3.00GHz
Memory: 6.82 GB / 32.00 GB
Shell: 5.9 - /bin/zsh
Binaries:
Node: 22.9.0 - /usr/local/bin/node
npm: 10.8.3 - /usr/local/bin/npm
Browsers:
Brave Browser: 131.1.73.97
Safari: 17.6
npmPackages:
@sveltejs/adapter-auto: ^3.0.0 => 3.3.1
@sveltejs/kit: ^2.0.0 => 2.14.0
@sveltejs/vite-plugin-svelte: ^4.0.0 => 4.0.4
svelte: ^5.0.0 => 5.15.0
vite: ^5.4.11 => 5.4.11
Severity
annoyance
Additional Information
I am not quite certain if this is a bug, an undocumented breaking change, or something else I am missing.
I could not find any documentation that suggested not using body tags in the root layout like this.
The issue happened after the migration from Svelte 4 to Svelte 5 (though I filed the issue in the Kit repo since it has to do with the layout/routing).
- Dominant language
- JavaScript
- Stars
- 20.8k
- Forks
- 2.3k
- Avg merge
- 1d 16h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 156
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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