diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/state.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/state.ts
index 2837f95ba02..bbfcb13a208 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/state.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/state.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { relative } from 'pathe'
-import type { ErrorWithDiff, File, Task, TaskResultPack, UserConsoleLog } from '../types'
+import type { File, Task, TaskResultPack, UserConsoleLog } from '../types'
 
 // can't import actual functions from utils, because it's incompatible with @vitest/browsers
 import type { AggregateError as AggregateErrorPonyfill } from '../utils'
@@ -30,9 +30,13 @@ export class StateManager {
 
   catchError(err: unknown, type: string): void {
     if (isAggregateError(err))
-      return err.errors.forEach(error => this.catchError(error, type));
+      return err.errors.forEach(error => this.catchError(error, type))
+
+    if (err === Object(err))
+      (err as Record<string, unknown>).type = type
+    else
+      err = { type, message: err }
 
-    (err as ErrorWithDiff).type = type
     this.errorsSet.add(err)
   }