ErrorException: Undefined variable $original when running a test

Question

Problem

While running tests using PHPUnit and Orchestra Testbench, I encountered the following error:

ErrorException: Undefined variable $original at 
/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Query/Builder.php:3362

Context

I was developing a Laravel package, and that error appeared when tried to run a test that started by running migrations:

$this->artisan('migrate')->run();

sergio0983 · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-22 22:05:51Z

Cause

The root of the problem is a bug that only exists in the development branch of Laravel 13.x (dev-master or 13.x-dev), which is not yet released at the time of writing.

The reason why Laravel 13 was installed is because:

Testbench 11.x-dev requires laravel/framework:^13.0

My composer.json had "minimum-stability": "dev" without "prefer-stable": true

So when I ran composer require --dev orchestra/testbench, Composer pulled in the latest dev versions of both Testbench and Laravel

Solution

To avoid this kind of issue in your package development environment:

Update your composer.json to include:

"prefer-stable": true,
"minimum-stability": "dev"

This ensures that only stable versions of packages are selected unless absolutely necessary.

Require Testbench again:

composer remove orchestra/testbench
composer require --dev orchestra/testbench

This time, Composer will install the latest stable version of Testbench

Run your tests again — the error should disappear.

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