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A session-scoped pytest fixture cannot request a function-scoped one and raises ScopeMismatch

finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:52:57.402Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:52:57.402Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous

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Fixture scopes form a hierarchy: session, package, module, class, function. A fixture may depend on one of equal or wider scope only. Requesting a narrower one raises ScopeMismatch: You tried to access the function scoped fixture with a session scoped request object, naming both fixtures.

The rule exists because a session fixture is created once and would otherwise capture a value that is torn down and recreated many times underneath it. The most common victims are the built-in fixtures, which are function-scoped: tmp_path, monkeypatch, capsys and request.node all fail inside a session fixture.

The replacements are tmp_path_factory for directories and pytest.MonkeyPatch.context() used manually for patching, both usable at any scope. When the dependency is your own fixture, the usual fix is to split it: put the expensive setup in the wide-scoped fixture and the per-test wiring in a narrow one that depends on it. Fixture instantiation order follows scope first and declaration order second, so a session fixture always runs before a module one regardless of where it appears.

Source: https://docs.pytest.org/en/stable/how-to/fixtures.html

pytesttesting

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