From 93fda88ed154da092665cebf317d6685be9cb09b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Carson Gross <carson@bigsky.software>
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:11:38 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] handle bad scroll selectors gracefully

---
 src/htmx.js                       | 12 ++++++-----
 test/tests/unit/__issueRequest.js | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/htmx.js b/src/htmx.js
index e75c975e..e0974c98 100644
--- a/src/htmx.js
+++ b/src/htmx.js
@@ -1128,15 +1128,17 @@ var htmx = (() => {
         __handleScroll(swapSpec, target) {
             if (swapSpec.scroll) {
                 let scrollTarget = swapSpec.scrollTarget ? this.__findExt(swapSpec.scrollTarget) : target;
-                if (swapSpec.scroll === 'top') {
-                    scrollTarget.scrollTop = 0;
-                } else if (swapSpec.scroll === 'bottom'){
-                    scrollTarget.scrollTop = scrollTarget.scrollHeight;
+                if (scrollTarget) {
+                    if (swapSpec.scroll === 'top') {
+                        scrollTarget.scrollTop = 0;
+                    } else if (swapSpec.scroll === 'bottom'){
+                        scrollTarget.scrollTop = scrollTarget.scrollHeight;
+                    }
                 }
             }
             if (swapSpec.show) {
                 let showTarget = swapSpec.showTarget ? this.__findExt(swapSpec.showTarget) : target;
-                showTarget.scrollIntoView(swapSpec.show === 'top')
+                showTarget?.scrollIntoView(swapSpec.show === 'top')
             }
         }
 
diff --git a/test/tests/unit/__issueRequest.js b/test/tests/unit/__issueRequest.js
index 6aef41ce..f4c439ce 100644
--- a/test/tests/unit/__issueRequest.js
+++ b/test/tests/unit/__issueRequest.js
@@ -258,6 +258,40 @@ describe('__issueRequest unit tests', function() {
         assert.isTrue(ctx.request.signal.aborted)
     })
 
+    it('does not crash when scroll target selector matches nothing', async function () {
+        let div = createProcessedHTML('<div hx-get="/test" hx-swap="innerHTML scroll:top scrollTarget:#nonexistent"></div>')
+        let ctx = htmx.__createRequestContext(div, new Event('click'))
+
+        ctx.fetch = async () => ({
+            status: 200,
+            headers: new Headers(),
+            text: async () => '<div>Response</div>'
+        })
+
+        let errorFired = false
+        div.addEventListener('htmx:error', () => errorFired = true)
+
+        await htmx.__issueRequest(ctx)
+        assert.isFalse(errorFired)
+    })
+
+    it('does not crash when show target selector matches nothing', async function () {
+        let div = createProcessedHTML('<div hx-get="/test" hx-swap="innerHTML show:top showTarget:#nonexistent"></div>')
+        let ctx = htmx.__createRequestContext(div, new Event('click'))
+
+        ctx.fetch = async () => ({
+            status: 200,
+            headers: new Headers(),
+            text: async () => '<div>Response</div>'
+        })
+
+        let errorFired = false
+        div.addEventListener('htmx:error', () => errorFired = true)
+
+        await htmx.__issueRequest(ctx)
+        assert.isFalse(errorFired)
+    })
+
     it('throws clean error for unknown swap style with no extensions', async function () {
         let div = createProcessedHTML('<div hx-get="/test" hx-swap="foobar"></div>')
         let ctx = htmx.__createRequestContext(div, new Event('click'))