[cli] test: reproduce #6803 — codegen runs twice for codegen then codegen watch (failing)

[eddeee888]

Description

This is a checkpoint PR, not a fix. It adds a failing test that proves the behavior reported in #6803 exists in the current code — it does not need to merge, or even go green, before a follow-up fix builds on top of it.

Relates to #6803

What #6803 reports: in the common workflow of running codegen once (to fail fast before compiling) and then codegen watch to keep types up to date while developing, codegen watch itself unconditionally runs a full codegen pass again before it starts watching for file changes — duplicating the run that was just done, with nothing having changed in between.

Confirmed directly in the source, not just from the issue text — packages/graphql-codegen-cli/src/utils/watcher.ts, createWatcher():

stopWatching.runningWatcher = new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
  initialContext.profiler
    .run(() => executeCodegen(initialContext), 'executeCodegen') // <- always runs, unconditionally
    .then(...)
    .then(() => runWatcher(abortController.signal)) // <- only *then* does watching start
    ...

There is no existing option to skip this initial run.

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• This change requires a documentation update
• Checkpoint: failing test proving the reported behavior (see issue-verify/issue-fix workflow below)

How Has This Been Tested?

Added a new test, Watch runs - duplicate initial run (#6803) in packages/graphql-codegen-cli/tests/watcher.run.spec.ts, that directly mirrors the reported workflow rather than any hypothetical fix API:

1. Step 1 — a plain, non-watch generate() call against a schema/documents pair, standing in for the first codegen CLI invocation.
2. Step 2 — a watcher started right after (createWatcher), against the same schema/documents with nothing changed on disk, standing in for the immediately-following codegen watch invocation.

It spies on executeCodegen and asserts the total call count across both steps is 1 (nothing changed, so a second full run is redundant).

Run: pnpm vitest run tests/watcher.run.spec.ts -t "duplicate initial run" inside packages/graphql-codegen-cli.

Captured failure (current behavior — codegen runs a second time regardless):

AssertionError: expected "executeCodegen" to be called 1 times, but got 2 times
 ❯ tests/watcher.run.spec.ts:1055:33
      expect(executeCodegenSpy).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);

This test is left failing on purpose — it's the checkpoint this PR exists to produce, not something to skip or mark pending.

Test Environment:

• OS: Linux
• @graphql-codegen/cli: workspace (unreleased)
• NodeJS: 22

Checklist:

• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works — a failing test proving the reported gap exists (the fix itself is out of scope for this PR)
• New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes — this one is expected to fail until a follow-up fix lands
• I have performed a self-review of my own code

Further comments

This PR is produced by an issue-verify pass and is meant to be picked up directly by a follow-up issue-fix PR, which will implement an actual mechanism for watch mode to skip its redundant initial codegen run and turn this test green. The test intentionally avoids assuming any particular fix API/config shape — it only asserts on the observable symptom (executeCodegen call count).

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_019qAsujZbmFpSQmLQYQiq9Z

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[github-actions]

🚀 Snapshot Release (alpha)

The latest changes of this PR are available as alpha on npm (based on the declared changesets):

Package	Version	Info
@graphql-codegen/client-preset	6.2.0-alpha-20260912122715-29412b5e80207935265bf0239359fe4c78db476f	npm ↗︎ unpkg ↗︎