Cache and restore authenticated session state across Cypress tests using cy.session()
domain: browser-automation · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Call `cy.session(id, setup)` with a string/array/object `id` and a required `setup` function that performs the login flow once
Rely on Cypress caching cookies, `localStorage`, and `sessionStorage` (across all domains) under that `id` and restoring them instantly on subsequent calls with the same `id`
Pass an `options.validate` callback to re-verify the restored session is still good; a failing assertion, thrown exception, or rejected promise invalidates the cache and re-runs `setup`
Set `options.cacheAcrossSpecs: true` to share the in-memory session across every spec file in the same Cypress run (not written to disk, not shared across machines/runs)
Keep the `id`, `setup`, `validate`, and `cacheAcrossSpecs` identical everywhere the same session is reused — Cypress throws if two calls with the same `id` disagree on any of them
Call `cy.session()` at the start of each test rather than only in a global `before` hook, since sessions are restored per test, not persisted automatically between tests
Known gotchas
`setup` became a required argument in Cypress 12.0.0 (the same release that removed the experimental flag) — older tutorials referencing `experimentalSessionAndOrigin` target pre-12.0.0 versions
Validation failure after a restore re-runs `setup`, but validation failure right after creation fails the test outright — a flaky `validate` check produces different failure behavior depending on cache state
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