I'm encountering a System.NullReferenceException in my Playwright when trying to navigate to a URL fetched from my appsettings.json file. The error occurs at the line await page.GoToAsync(baseUrl). The baseUrl is correctly set in the appsettings.json file, and I've verified that it is being read correctly.

Here is my code:

public static IPlaywright playwright;

public static string baseUrl;

[BeforeTestRun]
public static async BeforetestRun()
{
    
    playwright = await Playwright.CreateAsync();
    baseUrl = CongigReader.GetBaseUrl["BaseURL"];
}

[BeforeScenario]
public async Task BeforeScenario()
{
    var browser = await playwright.Chromium.LaunchAsync(new 
    BrowserTypeLaunchOptions {
        Headless = false,
        Args=new[]  {"--disable-features"}
    });

    var context = await browser.NewContextAsync((new 
        BrowserNewContextOptions
        { IgnoreHTTPSErrors = false        
     });

     var page = await context.NewPageAsync();

     await page.GoToAsync(baseUrl);
}

ConfigReader class:

 public static class ConfigReader
 {
     public static IConfiguration _config;
     
     
     public static IConfiguration ConfigBuilder()
     {
         var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder().SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).AddJsonFile("appsettings.json");
         _config = builder.Build();
         return _config;
     }


     public static string GetBaseUrl(string value)
     {
         
         return ConfigBuilder[value];

     }
 }

Feature File

Feature: Login

@Login
 Scenario: Login operation
    Given I navigate to the application url
    When I enter the login details
    Then I should see application dashboard

My appsettings.json file is as follows:

{
"BaseURL": "my url"
}

Even though my baseUrl is correct and Playwright and browser instance are properly initialized, I keep getting this error:

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

How can I resolve this issue?

I even tried passing the baseURL directly instead of fetching it from appsettings.json, still got the same error.

Stack Trace is as follows:

2025-03-18T13:32:46.7221415Z   Stack Trace:
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7221827Z      at TechTalk.SpecFlow.Infrastructure.TestExecutionEngine.FireEvents(HookType hookType)
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7222293Z    at TechTalk.SpecFlow.Infrastructure.TestExecutionEngine.FireScenarioEvents(HookType bindingEvent)
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7222748Z    at TechTalk.SpecFlow.Infrastructure.TestExecutionEngine.OnStepEnd()
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7223240Z    at TechTalk.SpecFlow.Infrastructure.TestExecutionEngine.ExecuteStep(IContextManager contextManager, StepInstance stepInstance)
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7223819Z    at TechTalk.SpecFlow.Infrastructure.TestExecutionEngine.Step(StepDefinitionKeyword stepDefinitionKeyword, String keyword, String text, String multilineTextArg, Table tableArg)
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7224379Z    at TechTalk.SpecFlow.TestRunner.Given(String text, String multilineTextArg, Table tableArg, String keyword)
2025-03-18T13:32:46.7224939Z    at PlaywrightAutomation.Features.LoginFeature.LoginOperation() in D:\a\1\s\PlaywrightAutomation\Features\Login.feature:line 5