Cypres reloads when config file is updated despite setting `watchForFileChanges: false`

Current behavior

This is really similar to this closed issue. Cypress doesn’t watch my spec files for changes, but it does watch my configs.

Desired behavior

cypress should not watch any files for changes.

Test code to reproduce

start a test with watchForFileChanges: false and make a change to a cypress.config.js or any of it’s requirements.

Cypress Version

10.0.3

Other

my full defineConfig looks like this. though i doubt the settings are stepping over each other

...
module.exports = defineConfig({
  env: {
    // some stuff here
  },
  chromeWebSecurity: false,
  watchForFileChanges: false,
  viewportWidth: 1280,
  viewportHeight: 720,
  videoUploadOnPasses: false,
  e2e: {
    baseUrl,
    setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
      // log printer
      const log_printer_options = {
        outputRoot: config.projectRoot + "/cypress/",
        printLogsToFile: "always",
        // Used to trim the base path of specs and reduce nesting in the
        // generated output directory.
        specRoot: path.relative(config.fileServerFolder, config.specPattern.split("*")[0]),
        outputTarget: {
          "logs|txt": "txt",
        },
        // these defaults are not being handled as expected in plugin, setting explicitly until fixed upstream
        commandTrimLength: 2000,
        defaultTrimLength: 2000,
      };
      require("cypress-terminal-report/src/installLogsPrinter")(on, log_printer_options);
    },
    experimentalSessionAndOrigin: true,
  },
});

[jcom000]

even if i’m not checking out. it’s still annoying to make trival changes to my config, like a comment, and then watch my test progress disappear. that’s why i opted into watchForFileChanges: false in the first place. If this is all still intended, then I guess I’d convert this ticket to a feature request for a watchForAllFileChanges option

[jcom000]

Yeah just as I thought. a few issues with run --headed.

• I lose your wonderful UI
• I also lose the ability to click on sidebar items and interact with them through the console output
• I have to be really fast in order to interact with a debugger statement

not a good dev experience.

One other thing. How come y’all change behavior when the config is broken? It’s like sometimes you watch for changes, and sometimes you explicitly ask for me to retry. which is it?