fix(table-core): guard dev-only process.env reads

[Yash121l]

🎯 Changes

Fixes #6078.

The dev-only debug and validation checks in table-core read process.env.NODE_ENV directly, at 14 call sites across 10 files. tsdown.config.ts publishes the ESM build with unbundle: true, no minify and no define, so those raw reads land in dist untouched and throw ReferenceError: process is not defined in any runtime with no process global, such as a browser loading the package through an import map.

I looked at fixing this in the build config instead. A define is the wrong place for it: the package publishes one ESM artifact, so pinning process.env.NODE_ENV at build time would strip every dev warning and make the debug* options no-ops for bundler users too. Doing it properly would mean a dual dev/production build behind export conditions, which is a much larger change than this bug needs.

So each call site now checks typeof process !== 'undefined' before reading process.env.NODE_ENV. The literal process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development' comparison stays in place at every site, so bundlers still substitute it and still drop the dev-only branches. I did not move the check into a shared helper, since that is what stops the branches from being eliminated, as raised on #6555.

#6567 is open for the same issue. It targets beta and uses a shared isDevelopmentEnv() helper, which is the pattern that broke tree-shaking before. This one targets main, keeps the check inline, and adds a regression test.

How I verified it:

• After building, the only process references left anywhere in dist are the guarded ones.
• Running the built dist/index.js in Node after delete globalThis.process constructs a table and returns rows. The same script on main throws ReferenceError: process is not defined.
• Bundling dist/index.js with esbuild using --minify --define:process.env.NODE_ENV='"production"' still eliminates every dev-only branch. None of the warning strings survive. size-limit reports 24.93 kB against the 30 kB budget.
• New test at packages/table-core/tests/unit/core/table/processGlobal.test.ts stubs the process global out and asserts constructTable and table.getColumn do not throw. It fails on main.

@tanstack/table-core passes test:lib (1332 tests), test:types, test:eslint, test:build and build. pnpm test:pr passes for every affected project except the examples/ember/* builds, which require Node 24 and fail the same way on an unrelated branch on my Node 22 machine. I have not run the full pnpm test:e2e, since a table-core change marks every example as affected, so that box is left unchecked and I would rather CI settle it.

✅ Checklist

• I have followed the steps in the Contributing guide.
• I have tested code changes locally with pnpm test and pnpm test:e2e, or these tests do not apply to this pull request.
• I fully understand the code in this pull request, including any code generated with AI assistance.

🚀 Release Impact

• This change affects published code, and I have generated a changeset.
• This change is docs/CI/dev-only (no release).

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed runtime errors in browser and other environments without a global process object.
  • Table operations—including column and row access, filtering, sorting, aggregation, and worker-based row processing—now function reliably in these environments.
  • Development warnings and debugging behavior no longer cause failures when process is unavailable.
  • Published as a patch release for @tanstack/table-core.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 8191698 and 8e62640.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• packages/table-core/tests/unit/core/table/processGlobal.test.ts

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• packages/table-core/tests/unit/core/table/processGlobal.test.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The pull request guards development-only process.env.NODE_ENV checks across @tanstack/table-core. Tests cover core, feature, and worker paths when process is unavailable. A patch changeset records the release.

Changes

Process global guards

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Runtime process guards packages/table-core/src/core/..., packages/table-core/src/features/..., packages/table-core/src/utils.ts, packages/table-core/src/worker/...	Development-only checks now verify that process exists before reading process.env.NODE_ENV.
Runtime guard validation and release metadata packages/table-core/tests/unit/core/table/processGlobal.test.ts, .changeset/guard-process-global.md	Tests cover table construction, row and column lookups, filtering, sorting, aggregation, and worker row-model processing without a global process. The changeset records a patch release for @tanstack/table-core.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 8e626

The process-global guards and regression coverage address the reported browser runtime failure, with no concrete remaining merge risk identified.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description check	✅ Passed	The description explains the problem, motivation, implementation, compatibility considerations, regression coverage, test results, and release impact. It completes the required sections and clearly ex…
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely identifies the main change: guarding development-only process.env reads in table-core.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR satisfies the coding requirement in #6078. It guards 14 development-only process.env.NODE_ENV reads across 10 @tanstack/table-core files with typeof process !== 'undefined'. It preserves …
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes stay within #6078. The source changes prevent missing-process runtime failures. The tests cover the affected guard paths. The changeset records the package patch release. No unrelated be…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 84.62% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 13 functions across 11 files.

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@packages/table-core/tests/unit/core/table/processGlobal.test.ts`:
- Around line 1-36: Add no-process test coverage for the remaining guarded
paths: column construction, missing-row lookup, filtering, sorting, aggregation,
global filtering, and worker processing. Use feature configuration that enables
each relevant core path, stub the process global as undefined before invoking
the representative API, and assert the operation does not throw; retain the
existing tableMemo coverage through assignTableAPIs.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between ce123bc and 8191698.

📒 Files selected for processing (12)

• .changeset/guard-process-global.md
• packages/table-core/src/core/columns/constructColumn.ts
• packages/table-core/src/core/columns/coreColumnsFeature.utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/core/rows/coreRowsFeature.utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/core/table/constructTable.ts
• packages/table-core/src/features/column-filtering/columnFilteringFeature.utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/features/global-filtering/globalFilteringFeature.utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/features/row-aggregation/rowAggregationFeature.utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/features/row-sorting/rowSortingFeature.utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/utils.ts
• packages/table-core/src/worker/createWorkerRowModel.ts
• packages/table-core/tests/unit/core/table/processGlobal.test.ts

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