CSF: Fix false positive detection of Zod v4 .meta() as CSF Factory

[kasperpeulen]

Closes #33654

What I did

Fixed a bug where the CSF parser incorrectly identified Zod v4's .meta() method calls as Storybook's CSF Factories meta() function. This caused a BadMetaError when using Zod schemas with .meta() in story files:

BadMetaError: CSF: meta() factory must be imported from .storybook/preview configuration

Root cause: The parser was checking if any .meta() call on an imported variable came from a valid preview path, and throwing an error if not.

Fix: Changed the detection logic to only throw BadMetaError when the variable calling .meta() is specifically named preview. This is the canonical name used in CSF Factories (preview.meta()), so if someone has a variable with this name but imports it from the wrong path, they get a helpful error. For all other variable names (like mySchema from Zod), the .meta() call is silently ignored.

Checklist for Contributors

Testing

The changes in this PR are covered in the following automated tests:

• stories
• unit tests
• integration tests
• end-to-end tests

Manual testing

Caution

This section is mandatory for all contributions. If you believe no manual test is necessary, please state so explicitly. Thanks!

No manual testing required - the fix is fully covered by unit tests that simulate the exact Zod v4 usage patterns from the issue.

Documentation

• Add or update documentation reflecting your changes
• If you are deprecating/removing a feature, make sure to update
  MIGRATION.MD

Checklist for Maintainers

• When this PR is ready for testing, make sure to add ci:normal, ci:merged or ci:daily GH label to it to run a specific set of sandboxes. The particular set of sandboxes can be found in code/lib/cli-storybook/src/sandbox-templates.ts

• Make sure this PR contains one of the labels below:

  Available labels

  • bug: Internal changes that fixes incorrect behavior.
  • maintenance: User-facing maintenance tasks.
  • dependencies: Upgrading (sometimes downgrading) dependencies.
  • build: Internal-facing build tooling & test updates. Will not show up in release changelog.
  • cleanup: Minor cleanup style change. Will not show up in release changelog.
  • documentation: Documentation only changes. Will not show up in release changelog.
  • feature request: Introducing a new feature.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Changes that break compatibility in some way with current major version.
  • other: Changes that don't fit in the above categories.

🦋 Canary release

This PR does not have a canary release associated. You can request a canary release of this pull request by mentioning the @storybookjs/core team here.

core team members can create a canary release here or locally with gh workflow run --repo storybookjs/storybook publish.yml --field pr=<PR_NUMBER>

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Reduce false positives by only flagging incorrect preview-style metadata imports and ignoring unrelated metadata calls from external libraries.

• Tests

  • Added tests ensuring external libraries' metadata chaining is ignored and that preview configuration path detection still validates correctly.

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View your CI Pipeline Execution ↗ for commit 27badf8

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☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2026-01-27 08:18:51 UTC

[nx-cloud]

View your CI Pipeline Execution ↗ for commit 1c98f99

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☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2026-01-27 07:56:59 UTC

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

meta() handling was narrowed: BadMetaError is now thrown only when the call’s root object is named preview (preview-like import). Tests updated to use a preview variable and add cases ensuring unrelated .meta() calls (e.g., from Zod) are ignored and do not trigger CSF parsing errors.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
CSF meta error gate code/core/src/csf-tools/CsfFile.ts	Modified meta() handling to throw BadMetaError only when the call root is preview (preview-like import); other .meta() usages are ignored instead of causing an error.
Tests for preview/meta handling code/core/src/csf-tools/CsfFile.test.ts	Updated tests to use a preview variable and preview.meta(...); added tests asserting unrelated .meta() calls (including chained calls from libraries like Zod) are ignored and do not break CSF parsing.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• CSF: Add Storybook test syntax (Storybook v10) #32455 — Related changes to CSF meta handling in code/core/src/csf-tools/CsfFile.ts, including preview.meta handling and test updates.
• CSF-Factories: Skip non-factory exports instead of throwing error #33550 — Adjusts CsfFile.ts to refine handling of non-CSF meta()/factory patterns and error conditions.
• Core: Fix built-in tags filtering #32526 — Modifies CSF meta factory handling in CsfFile.ts, overlapping with the narrowing of error conditions for meta().

✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

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[storybook-app-bot]

Package Benchmarks

^{Commit: 27badf8, ran on 30 January 2026 at 08:02:28 UTC}

The following packages have significant changes to their size or dependencies:

storybook

	Before	After	Difference
Dependency count	49	49	0
Self size	20.40 MB	20.39 MB	🎉 -10 KB 🎉
Dependency size	16.52 MB	16.52 MB	0 B
Bundle Size Analyzer	Link	Link

@storybook/cli

	Before	After	Difference
Dependency count	183	183	0
Self size	776 KB	775 KB	🎉 -830 B 🎉
Dependency size	67.57 MB	67.56 MB	🎉 -10 KB 🎉
Bundle Size Analyzer	Link	Link

@storybook/codemod

	Before	After	Difference
Dependency count	176	176	0
Self size	30 KB	30 KB	🚨 +63 B 🚨
Dependency size	66.14 MB	66.13 MB	🎉 -10 KB 🎉
Bundle Size Analyzer	Link	Link

create-storybook

	Before	After	Difference
Dependency count	50	50	0
Self size	1000 KB	1000 KB	🚨 +42 B 🚨
Dependency size	36.92 MB	36.91 MB	🎉 -10 KB 🎉
Bundle Size Analyzer	node	node