Protocol/scheme-relative URLs should not throw ERR_INVALID_URL errors #62007
Description
Version
v25.6.1
Platform
Darwin redacted.local 25.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:53:05 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.81.4~5/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020 arm64
Subsystem
url
What steps will reproduce the bug?
The following script will reproduce the bug. But simply put, any protocol-relative URL causes the error.
try {
const badUrl = "//nodejs.org/static/images/node-mascot.svg";
console.log("Attempting to parse protocol-relative URL: " + badUrl);
const parsed = new URL(badUrl);
console.log("Success! Parsed URL:", parsed.href);
} catch (error) {
console.error("\\n❌ Error parsing URL:");
console.error("Name:", error.name);
console.error("Code:", error.code);
console.error("Message:", error.message);
}
try {
const goodUrl = "https://nodejs.org/static/images/node-mascot.svg";
console.log("\\nAttempting to parse absolute URL: " + goodUrl);
const parsed = new URL(goodUrl);
console.log("✅ Success! Parsed URL:", parsed.href);
} catch (error) {
console.error("Error:", error.message);
}
How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?
Reproduced every time a protocol-relative URL is used.
What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?
Should parse successfully
What do you see instead?
TypeError - ERR_INVALID_URL - Invalid URL
Additional information
A protocol-relative URL is a common and valid URL format (WHATWG calls them scheme-relative).
https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#scheme-relative-special-url-string