E2E Auth Flow Skill

Discovery

Before writing tests, identify:

• Framework — Playwright (preferred) or Cypress; auth storage APIs differ significantly
• Auth mechanism — session cookie, JWT in localStorage, JWT in httpOnly cookie, OAuth/SSO
• Token storage location — determines how to capture and reuse state (localStorage, sessionStorage, httpOnly cookie)
• Protected routes — which pages require auth, which redirect to login when unauthenticated
• Email flows — does password reset require real email interception? (needs Mailhog, Mailtrap, or +alias trick)
• Test user strategy — seeded DB user, or register fresh each run?

Session Reuse — The Core Pattern

Re-logging in before every test is the most common E2E auth mistake. It's slow and it couples every test to the login flow. Instead, authenticate once and save state: