origin

Visit multiple domains of different origin in a single test.

In normal use, a single Cypress test may only run commands in a single origin, a limitation determined by standard web security features of the browser. The cy.origin() command allows your tests to bypass this limitation.

caution

Experimental

The cy.origin() command is currently experimental and can be enabled by setting the experimentalSessionAndOrigin flag to true in the Cypress config.

Enabling this flag does the following:

• It adds the cy.session() and cy.origin() commands, and Cypress.session API.
• It adds the following new behaviors (that will be the default in a future major version release of Cypress) at the beginning of each test:
  • The page is cleared (by setting it to about:blank).
  • All active session data (cookies, localStorage and sessionStorage) across all domains are cleared.
• It supersedes the Cypress.Cookies.preserveOnce() and Cypress.Cookies.defaults() methods.
• Cross-origin requests will no longer fail immediately, but instead, time out based on pageLoadTimeout.
• Tests will no longer wait on page loads before moving on to the next test.

Because the page is cleared before each test, cy.visit() must be explicitly called in each test to visit a page in your application.

Syntax

cy.origin(url, callbackFn)
cy.origin(url, options, callbackFn)

Usage

Correct Usage

const hits = getHits() // Defined elsewhere
// Run commands in secondary origin, passing in serializable values
cy.origin('https://www.acme.com', { args: { hits } }, ({ hits }) => {
  // Inside callback baseUrl is https://www.acme.com
  cy.visit('/history/founder')
  // Commands are executed in secondary origin
  cy.get('h1').contains('About our Founder, Marvin Acme')
  // Passed in values are accessed via callback args
  cy.get('#hitcounter').contains(hits)
})
// Even though we're outside the secondary origin block,
// we're still on acme.com so return to baseUrl
cy.visit('/')
// Continue running commands on primary origin
cy.get('h1').contains('My cool site under test')

Incorrect Usage

const hits = getHits()
// cy.visit() should be inside cy.origin() callback
cy.visit('https://www.acme.com/history/founder')
cy.origin('https://www.acme.com', () => {
  // Fails because origin was visited before cy.origin() block
  cy.get('h1').contains('About our Founder, Marvin Acme')
  // Fails because hits is not passed in via args
  cy.get('#hitcounter').contains(hits)
})
// Won't work because still on acme.com
cy.get('h1').contains('My cool site under test')

Arguments

url (String)

A URL specifying the secondary origin in which the callback is to be executed. This should at the very least contain a hostname, and may also include the protocol, port number & path. Query params are not supported.

This argument will be used in two ways:

1. It uniquely identifies a secondary origin in which the commands in the callback will be executed. Cypress will inject itself into this origin, and then send it code to evaluate in that origin, without violating the browser's same-origin policy.

2. It overrides the baseUrl configured in your global configuration while inside the callback. So cy.visit() and cy.request() will use this URL as a prefix, not the configured baseUrl.

options (Object)

Pass in an options object to control the behavior of cy.origin().

option	description
args	Plain JavaScript object which will be serialized and sent from the primary origin to the secondary origin, where it will be deserialized and passed into the callback function as its first and only argument.

caution

The args object is the only mechanism via which data may be injected into the callback, the callback is not a closure and does not retain access to the JavaScript context in which it was declared. Values passed into args must be serializable.

callbackFn (Function)

The function containing the commands to be executed in the secondary origin.

This function will be stringified, sent to the Cypress instance in the secondary origin and evaluated. If the args option is specified, the deserialized args object will be passed into the function as its first and only argument.

There are a number of limitations placed on commands run inside the callback, please see Callback restrictions section below for a full list.

Yields

• cy.origin() yields the value yielded by the last Cypress command in the callback function.
• If the callback contains no Cypress commands, cy.origin() yields the return value of the function.
• In either of the two cases above, if the value is not serializable, attempting to access the yielded value will throw an error.

Examples

Using dynamic data in a secondary origin

Callbacks are executed inside an entirely separate instance of Cypress, so arguments must be transmitted to the other instance by means of the structured clone algorithm. The interface for this mechanism is the args option.

const sentArgs = { username: 'username', password: 'P@55w0rd!' }
cy.origin(
  'supersecurelogons.com',
  // Send the args here...
  { args: sentArgs },
  // ...and receive them at the other end here!
  ({ username, password }) => {
    cy.visit('/login')
    cy.get('input#username').type(username)
    cy.get('input#password').type(password)
    cy.contains('button', 'Login').click()
  }
)

Yielding a value

Values returned or yielded from the callback function must be serializable or they will not be returned to the primary origin. For example, the following will not work:

Incorrect Usage

cy.origin('https://www.acme.com', () => {
  cy.visit('/')
  cy.get('h1') // Yields an element, which can't be serialized...
}).contains('ACME CORP') // ...so this will fail

Instead, you must explicitly yield a serializable value:

Correct Usage

cy.origin('https://www.acme.com', () => {
  cy.visit('/')
  cy.get('h1').invoke('textContent') // Yields a string...
}).should('equal', 'ACME CORP') // 👍

Navigating to secondary origin with cy.visit

When navigating to a secondary origin using cy.visit(), it is essential to trigger the navigation after entering the origin callback, otherwise a cross-origin error will be thrown.

// Do things in primary origin...

cy.origin('www.acme.com', () => {
  // Visit https://www.acme.com/history/founder
  cy.visit('/history/founder')
  cy.get('h1').contains('About our Founder, Marvin Acme')
})

Here the baseUrl inside the cy.origin() callback is set to www.acme.com and the protocol defaults to https. When cy.visit() is called with the path /history/founder, the three are concatenated to make https://www.acme.com/history/founder.

Navigating to secondary origin with UI

When navigating to a secondary origin by clicking a link or button in the primary origin, it is essential to trigger the navigation before entering the origin callback, otherwise a cross-origin error will be thrown.

// Button in primary origin goes to https://www.acme.com
cy.contains('button', 'Go').click()

cy.origin('www.acme.com', () => {
  // No cy.visit is needed as the button brought us here
  cy.get('h1').contains('ACME CORP')
})

Navigating to multiple secondary origins in succession

Callbacks may not themselves contain cy.origin() calls, so when visiting multiple origins, do so at the top level of the test.

cy.origin('foo.com', () => {
  cy.visit('/')
  cy.url().should('contain', 'foo.com')
})

cy.origin('bar.com', () => {
  cy.visit('/')
  cy.url().should('contain', 'bar.com')
})

cy.origin('baz.com', () => {
  cy.visit('/')
  cy.url().should('contain', 'baz.com')
})

info

A future version of Cypress will allow the use of nested cy.origin() calls.

SSO login custom command

A very common requirement is logging in to a site before running a test. If login itself is not the specific focus of the test, it's good to encapsulate this functionality in a login custom command so you don't have to duplicate this login code in every test. Here's an idealized example of how to do this with cy.origin().

Inefficient Usage

Cypress.Commands.add('login', (username, password) => {
  // Remember to pass in dependencies via `args`
  const args = { username, password }
  cy.origin('my-auth.com', { args }, ({ username, password }) => {
    // Go to https://auth-provider.com/login
    cy.visit('/login')
    cy.contains('Username').find('input').type(username)
    cy.contains('Password').find('input').type(password)
    cy.get('button').contains('Login').click()
  })
  // Confirm we're back at the primary origin before continuing
  cy.url().should('contain', '/home')
})

Having to go through an entire login flow before every test is not very performant. Up until now you could get around this problem by putting login code in the first test of your file, then performing subsequent tests reusing the same session.

However, once the experimentalSessionAndOrigin flag is activated, this is no longer possible, since all session state is now cleared between tests. So to avoid this overhead we recommend you leverage the cy.session() command, which allows you to easily cache session information and reuse it across tests. So now let's enhance our custom login command with cy.session() for a complete syndicated login flow with session caching and validation. No mocking, no workarounds, no third-party plugins!

Cypress.Commands.add('login', (username, password) => {
  const args = { username, password }
  cy.session(
    // Username & password can be used as the cache key too
    args,
    () => {
      cy.origin('my-auth.com', { args }, ({ username, password }) => {
        cy.visit('/login')
        cy.contains('Username').find('input').type(username)
        cy.contains('Password').find('input').type(password)
        cy.get('button').contains('Login').click()
      })
      cy.url().should('contain', '/home')
    },
    {
      validate() {
        cy.request('/api/user').its('status').should('eq', 200)
      },
    }
  )
})

Learn More

How to Test Multiple Origins

In this video we walk through how to test multiple origins in a single test. We also look at how to use the cy.session() command to cache session information and reuse it across tests.

Notes

Migrating existing tests

Enabling the experimentalSessionAndOrigin flag makes the test-runner work slightly differently, and some test suites that rely on the existing behaviour may have to be updated. The most important of these changes is test isolation. This means that after every test, the current page is reset to about:blank and all active session data (cookies, localStorage and sessionStorage) across all domains are cleared. This change is opt-in for now, but will be standardized in a future major release of Cypress, so eventually all tests will need to be isolated.

Before this change, it was possible to write tests such that you could, for example, log in to a CMS in the first test, change some content in the second test, verify the new version is displayed on a different URL in the third, and log out in the fourth. Here's a simplified example of such a test strategy.

Before

Multiple small tests against different origins

it('logs in', () => {
  cy.visit('https://supersecurelogons.com')
  cy.get('input#password').type('Password123!')
  cy.get('button#submit').click()
})

it('updates the content', () => {
  cy.get('#current-user').contains('logged in')
  cy.get('button#edit-1').click()
  cy.get('input#title').type('Updated title')
  cy.get('button#submit').click()
  cy.get('.toast').type('Changes saved!')
})

it('validates the change', () => {
  cy.visit('/items/1')
  cy.get('h1').contains('Updated title')
})

After switching on experimentalSessionAndOrigin, this flow would need to be contained within a single test. While this practice has always been discouraged we know some users have historically written tests this way, often to get around the same-origin restrictions. But with cy.origin() you no longer need these kind of brittle hacks, as your multi-origin logic can all reside in a single test, like the following.

After

One big test using `cy.origin()`

it('securely edits content', () => {
  cy.origin('supersecurelogons.com', () => {
    cy.visit('https://supersecurelogons.com')
    cy.get('input#password').type('Password123!')
    cy.get('button#submit').click()
  })

  cy.origin('mycms.com', () => {
    cy.url().should('contain', 'cms')
    cy.get('#current-user').contains('logged in')
    cy.get('button#edit-1').click()
    cy.get('input#title').type('Updated title')
    cy.get('button#submit').click()
    cy.get('.toast').type('Changes saved!')
  })

  cy.visit('/items/1')
  cy.get('h1').contains('Updated title')
})

Always remember, Cypress tests are not unit tests.

Serialization

When entering a cy.origin() block, Cypress injects itself at runtime, with all your configuration settings, into the requested origin, and sets up bidirectional communication with that instance. This coordination model requires that any data sent from one instance to another be serialized for transmission. It is very important to understand that variables inside the callback are not shared with the scope outside the callback. For example this will not work:

Incorrect Usage

const foo = 1
cy.origin('somesite.com', () => {
  cy.visit('/')
  // This line will throw a ReferenceError because
  // `foo` is not defined in the scope of the callback
  cy.get('input').type(foo)
})

Instead, the variable must be explicitly passed into the callback using the args option:

Correct Usage

const foo = 1
cy.origin('somesite.com', { args: { foo } }, ({ foo }) => {
  cy.visit('/')
  // Now it will pass
  cy.get('input').type(foo)
})

Cypress uses the structured clone algorithm to transfer the args option to the secondary origin. This introduces a number of restrictions on the data which may be passed into the callback.

Callback restrictions

Because of the way in which the callback is transmitted and executed, there are certain limitations on what code may be run inside it. In particular, the following Cypress commands will throw errors if used in the callback:

• cy.origin()
• cy.intercept()
• cy.session()
• cy.server()
• cy.route()
• Cypress.Cookies.preserveOnce()

It is also currently not possible to use require() or dynamic import() within the callback. Because of this limitation, it cannot use npm packages or other third-party libraries inside the callback, as there is no mechanism to reference them. This functionality will be provided in a future version of Cypress.

While third-party packages are strictly unavailable, it is possible to reuse your own code between cy.origin() callbacks. The workaround is to create a custom Cypress command within the secondary origin in a before block:

before(() => {
  cy.origin('somesite.com', () => {
    Cypress.Commands.add('clickLink', (label) => {
      cy.get('a').contains(label).click()
    })
  })
})

it('clicks the secondary origin link', () => {
  cy.origin('somesite.com', () => {
    cy.visit('/page')
    cy.clickLink('Click Me')
  })
})

Other limitations

There are other testing scenarios which are not currently covered by cy.origin():

• It cannot run commands in a different browser window
• It cannot run commands in a different browser tab
• It cannot run commands inside an <iframe> element

However, <iframe> support is on our roadmap for inclusion in a future version of Cypress.

See also

• Easily test multi-domain workflows with cy.origin
• Custom Commands
• cy.session()
• cy.visit()