playwright/docs/src/auth.md

id	title
auth	Authentication

Playwright can be used to automate scenarios that require authentication.

Tests written with Playwright execute in isolated clean-slate environments called browser contexts. This isolation model improves reproducibility and prevents cascading test failures. New browser contexts can load existing authentication state. This eliminates the need to login in every context and speeds up test execution.

Note: This guide covers cookie/token-based authentication (logging in via the app UI). For HTTP authentication use [method: Browser.newContext].

Automate logging in

The Playwright API can automate interaction with a login form. See Input guide for more details.

The following example automates login on GitHub. Once these steps are executed, the browser context will be authenticated.

const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://github.com/login');

// Interact with login form
await page.locator('text=Login').click();
await page.locator('input[name="login"]').fill(USERNAME);
await page.locator('input[name="password"]').fill(PASSWORD);
await page.locator('text=Submit').click();
// Verify app is logged in

Page page = context.newPage();
page.navigate("https://github.com/login");
// Interact with login form
page.locator("text=Login").click();
page.locator("input[name='login']").fill(USERNAME);
page.locator("input[name='password']").fill(PASSWORD);
page.locator("text=Submit").click();
// Verify app is logged in

page = await context.new_page()
await page.goto('https://github.com/login')

# Interact with login form
await page.locator('text=Login').click()
await page.locator('input[name="login"]').fill(USERNAME)
await page.locator('input[name="password"]').fill(PASSWORD)
await page.locator('text=Submit').click()
# Verify app is logged in

page = context.new_page()
page.goto('https://github.com/login')

# Interact with login form
page.locator('text=Login').click()
page.locator('input[name="login"]').fill(USERNAME)
page.locator('input[name="password"]').fill(PASSWORD)
page.locator('text=Submit').click()
# Verify app is logged in

var page = await context.NewPageAsync();
await page.GotoAsync("https://github.com/login");
// Interact with login form
await page.Locator("text=Login").ClickAsync();
await page.Locator("input[name='login']").FillAsync(USERNAME);
await page.Locator("input[name='password']").FillAsync(PASSWORD);
await page.Locator("text=Submit").ClickAsync();
// Verify app is logged in

These steps can be executed for every browser context. However, redoing login for every test can slow down test execution. To prevent that, we will reuse existing authentication state in new browser contexts.

Reuse authentication state

Web apps use cookie-based or token-based authentication, where authenticated state is stored as cookies or in local storage. Playwright provides [method: BrowserContext.storageState] method that can be used to retrieve storage state from authenticated contexts and then create new contexts with prepopulated state.

Cookies and local storage state can be used across different browsers. They depend on your application's authentication model: some apps might require both cookies and local storage.

The following code snippet retrieves state from an authenticated context and creates a new context with that state.

// Save storage state into the file.
await context.storageState({ path: 'state.json' });

// Create a new context with the saved storage state.
const context = await browser.newContext({ storageState: 'state.json' });

// Save storage state into the file.
context.storageState(new BrowserContext.StorageStateOptions().setPath(Paths.get("state.json")));

// Create a new context with the saved storage state.
BrowserContext context = browser.newContext(
  new Browser.NewContextOptions().setStorageStatePath(Paths.get("state.json")));

# Save storage state into the file.
storage = await context.storage_state(path="state.json")

# Create a new context with the saved storage state.
context = await browser.new_context(storage_state="state.json")

# Save storage state into the file.
storage = context.storage_state(path="state.json")

# Create a new context with the saved storage state.
context = browser.new_context(storage_state="state.json")

// Save storage state into the file.
await context.StorageStateAsync(new()
{
    Path = "state.json"
});

// Create a new context with the saved storage state.
var context = await browser.NewContextAsync(new()
{
    StorageStatePath = "state.json"
});

Code generation

• langs: js

Logging in via the UI and then reusing authentication state can be combined to implement login once and run multiple scenarios. The lifecycle looks like:

1. Run tests (for example, with npm run test).
2. Login via UI and retrieve authentication state.
   • In Jest, this can be executed in globalSetup.
3. In each test, load authentication state in beforeEach or beforeAll step.

This approach will also work in CI environments, since it does not rely on any external state.

Code generation

• langs: python

Logging in via the UI and then reusing authentication state can be combined to implement login once and run multiple scenarios. The lifecycle looks like:

1. Run tests (for example, with pytest).
2. Login via UI and retrieve authentication state.
3. In each test, load authentication state using autouse=True fixture with scope=function.

This approach will also work in CI environments, since it does not rely on any external state.

Code generation

• langs: csharp

Logging in via the UI and then reusing authentication state can be combined to implement login once and run multiple scenarios. The lifecycle looks like:

1. Run tests (for example, with dotnet test).
2. Login via UI and retrieve authentication state.
3. In each test, load authentication state in SetUp.

This approach will also work in CI environments, since it does not rely on any external state.

Code generation

• langs: java

Logging in via the UI and then reusing authentication state can be combined to implement login once and run multiple scenarios. The lifecycle looks like:

1. Run tests (for example, with mvn test).
2. Login via UI and retrieve authentication state.
3. In each test, load authentication state in @beforeEach or @beforeAll step.

This approach will also work in CI environments, since it does not rely on any external state.

API reference

• [method: BrowserContext.storageState]
• [method: Browser.newContext]

Session storage

Rarely, session storage is used for storing information associated with the logged-in state. Session storage is specific to a particular domain and is not persisted across page loads. Playwright does not provide API to persist session storage, but the following snippet can be used to save/load session storage.

// Get session storage and store as env variable
const sessionStorage = await page.evaluate(() => JSON.stringify(sessionStorage));
process.env.SESSION_STORAGE = sessionStorage;

// Set session storage in a new context
const sessionStorage = process.env.SESSION_STORAGE;
await context.addInitScript(storage => {
  if (window.location.hostname === 'example.com') {
    const entries = JSON.parse(storage);
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(entries)) {
      window.sessionStorage.setItem(key, value);
    }
  }
}, sessionStorage);

// Get session storage and store as env variable
String sessionStorage = (String) page.evaluate("JSON.stringify(sessionStorage)");
System.getenv().put("SESSION_STORAGE", sessionStorage);

// Set session storage in a new context
String sessionStorage = System.getenv("SESSION_STORAGE");
context.addInitScript("(storage => {\n" +
  "  if (window.location.hostname === 'example.com') {\n" +
  "    const entries = JSON.parse(storage);\n" +
  "     for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(entries)) {\n" +
  "      window.sessionStorage.setItem(key, value);\n" +
  "    };\n" +
  "  }\n" +
  "})('" + sessionStorage + "')");

import os
# Get session storage and store as env variable
session_storage = await page.evaluate("() => JSON.stringify(sessionStorage)")
os.environ["SESSION_STORAGE"] = session_storage

# Set session storage in a new context
session_storage = os.environ["SESSION_STORAGE"]
await context.add_init_script("""(storage => {
  if (window.location.hostname === 'example.com') {
    const entries = JSON.parse(storage)
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(entries)) {
      window.sessionStorage.setItem(key, key)
    }
  }
})('""" + session_storage + "')")

import os
# Get session storage and store as env variable
session_storage = page.evaluate("() => JSON.stringify(sessionStorage)")
os.environ["SESSION_STORAGE"] = session_storage

# Set session storage in a new context
session_storage = os.environ["SESSION_STORAGE"]
context.add_init_script("""(storage => {
  if (window.location.hostname === 'example.com') {
    const entries = JSON.parse(storage)
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(entries)) {
      window.sessionStorage.setItem(key, key)
    }
  }
})('""" + session_storage + "')")

// Get session storage and store as env variable
var sessionStorage = await page.EvaluateAsync<string>("() => JSON.stringify(sessionStorage)");
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("SESSION_STORAGE", sessionStorage);

// Set session storage in a new context
var loadedSessionStorage = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SESSION_STORAGE");
await context.AddInitScriptAsync(@"(storage => {
    if (window.location.hostname === 'example.com') {
      const entries = JSON.parse(storage);
      for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(entries)) {
        window.sessionStorage.setItem(key, value);
      }
    }
  })('" + loadedSessionStorage + "')");

API reference

• [method: BrowserContext.storageState]
• [method: Browser.newContext]
• [method: Page.evaluate]
• [method: BrowserContext.addInitScript]

Multi-factor authentication

Accounts with multi-factor authentication (MFA) cannot be fully automated, and need manual intervention. Persistent authentication can be used to partially automate MFA scenarios.

Persistent authentication

Note that persistent authentication is not suited for CI environments since it relies on a disk location. User data directories are specific to browser types and cannot be shared across browser types.

User data directories can be used with the [method: BrowserType.launchPersistentContext] API.

const { chromium } = require('playwright');

const userDataDir = '/path/to/directory';
const context = await chromium.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir, { headless: false });
// Execute login steps manually in the browser window

import com.microsoft.playwright.*;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try (Playwright playwright = Playwright.create()) {
      BrowserType chromium = playwright.chromium();
      Path userDataDir = Paths.get("/path/to/directory");
      BrowserContext context = chromium.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir,
        new BrowserType.LaunchPersistentContextOptions().setHeadless(false));
      // Execute login steps manually in the browser window
    }
  }
}

import asyncio
from playwright.async_api import async_playwright

async def main():
    async with async_playwright() as p:
        user_data_dir = '/path/to/directory'
        browser = await p.chromium.launch_persistent_context(user_data_dir, headless=False)
        # Execute login steps manually in the browser window

asyncio.run(main())

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    user_data_dir = '/path/to/directory'
    browser = p.chromium.launch_persistent_context(user_data_dir, headless=False)
    # Execute login steps manually in the browser window

using Microsoft.Playwright;

class Program
{
    public static async Task Main()
    {
        using var playwright = await Playwright.CreateAsync();
        var chromium = playwright.Chromium;
        var context = chromium.LaunchPersistentContextAsync(@"C:\path\to\directory\", new()
        {
            Headless = false
        });
    }
}

Lifecycle

1. Create a user data directory on disk.
2. Launch a persistent context with the user data directory and login the MFA account.
3. Reuse user data directory to run automation scenarios.

API reference

• [BrowserContext]
• [method: BrowserType.launchPersistentContext]