Custom Commands and cy.session

Extending cy and caching login

Cypress.Commands.add('login', (email, password) => { ... }), usually in cypress/support/commands.ts, adds cy.login() to every test. In TypeScript, declare the new method on the Cypress.Chainable interface so the editor knows about it. Inside, wrap the login steps in cy.session(id, setup, options): the first time an id is seen, Cypress runs setup and caches the resulting cookies, localStorage and sessionStorage; later calls with the same id restore that cache instead of logging in again. A validate function checks the restored session is still valid, and cacheAcrossSpecs: true shares it between spec files in one run. Because test isolation clears state between tests, call cy.visit after cy.login().

Reusable commands, cached sessions, components in isolation

Larger Cypress suites lean on custom commands, cy.session, component tests and well-organised test data.

A typed login command with cy.session

API login, cached and validated.

// cypress/support/commands.ts
declare global {
  namespace Cypress {
    interface Chainable {
      login(email: string, password: string): Chainable<void>;
    }
  }
}

Cypress.Commands.add('login', (email: string, password: string) => {
  cy.session(
    ['login', email],
    () => {
      cy.request('POST', '/api/login', { email, password })
        .its('status')
        .should('eq', 200);
    },
    {
      validate() {
        cy.request('/api/me').its('status').should('eq', 200);
      },
      cacheAcrossSpecs: true,
    },
  );
});

export {};

// cypress/e2e/settings.cy.ts
beforeEach(() => {
  cy.login(Cypress.env('E2E_USER'), Cypress.env('E2E_PASSWORD'));
  cy.visit('/settings');
});

Commands for intent, not for every click

Good custom commands capture repeated multi-step setup such as login or seeding data. Wrapping single clicks in commands hides what the test is doing.

त्वरित जाँच: What does cy.session do on the second call with the same id?

• Always runs the login form again
• Restores the cached cookies and storage instead of running setup again
• Deletes all cookies permanently
• Skips the test