From 6c15719d9b29206b65410e56e7255474890aa6b7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nick <rudbsm@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2026 12:03:34 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] fix: missing file error when --watch used without argument

---
 lib/internal/main/watch_mode.js                | 5 +++++
 test/parallel/test-watch-mode-without-file.mjs | 9 +++++++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 test/parallel/test-watch-mode-without-file.mjs

diff --git a/lib/internal/main/watch_mode.js b/lib/internal/main/watch_mode.js
index 06c2c8602da444..a6052852a9182c 100644
--- a/lib/internal/main/watch_mode.js
+++ b/lib/internal/main/watch_mode.js
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ const { once } = require('events');
 prepareMainThreadExecution(false, false);
 markBootstrapComplete();
 
+if (!process.argv[1]) {
+  process.stderr.write('node: --watch requires specifying a file\n')
+  process.exit(9);
+}
+
 const kKillSignal = convertToValidSignal(getOptionValue('--watch-kill-signal'));
 const kShouldFilterModules = getOptionValue('--watch-path').length === 0;
 const kEnvFiles = [
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-watch-mode-without-file.mjs b/test/parallel/test-watch-mode-without-file.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..543cb5c55b79a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-watch-mode-without-file.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+'use strict';
+
+import { spawnSync } from 'child_process';
+import { strictEqual, match } from "node:assert";
+
+const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, ['--watch'], { encoding: 'utf8' });
+
+strictEqual(result.status, 9);
+match(result.stderr, /--watch requires specifying a file/)