cypress-automation

Quick Route

Discovery Questions

Check .agents/qa-project-context.md first -- if it exists, use it and skip questions already answered there.

1. Component testing, E2E, or both? Component testing mounts individual components in isolation; E2E tests the full app through the browser. Most projects need both. Component testing requires a framework-specific mount (React, Vue, Angular, Svelte).
2. Cypress Cloud? Cloud provides parallelization, flake detection, analytics, Test Replay, and the AI add-on. If the team uses it, configure projectId and the record key. If not, everything runs locally or in CI without Cloud.
3. TypeScript? Strongly recommended and the default here -- Cypress supports it natively. All examples use TypeScript.
4. Framework and bundler? React + Vite, Next.js + Webpack, Vue + Vite, Angular -- component-testing config depends on this.
5. Cross-origin auth? If login redirects to a separate domain (SSO, OAuth provider), you need cy.origin. Note it now so the login command is built for it.
6. Existing suite or fresh start? If migrating, start with the flakiest or most critical tests, not a big-bang rewrite (see test-migration).

Core Principles

1. Commands Are Enqueued, Not Executed Immediately

The single most important concept. Cypress commands (cy.get, cy.click, cy.type) do not execute when called -- they are added to a queue and run serially, asynchronously. You cannot use async/await with Cypress commands, and you cannot store the return value in a variable.

// WRONG -- this looks synchronous but is not
const button = cy.get('[data-testid="submit"]'); // button is a Chainable, not an element
button.click(); // works only by accident, via chaining

// CORRECT -- chain commands; use .then() when you need a value
cy.get('[data-testid="submit"]').click();

cy.get('[data-testid="price"]').invoke('text').then((text) => {
  const price = parseFloat(text.replace('$', ''));
  expect(price).to.be.greaterThan(0);
});

2. Retry-ability Is Built-In (For Queries, Not Actions)

Cypress automatically retries queries (cy.get, cy.find, cy.contains) and assertions until they pass or time out. It does not retry actions (cy.click, cy.type, cy.select):

• cy.get('.loading').should('not.exist') waits for the indicator to disappear
• cy.get('.item').should('have.length', 5) waits for 5 items
• cy.click() executes once -- if the element is not actionable, it fails

3. Network Control with cy.intercept

cy.intercept intercepts HTTP requests at the network layer -- stub responses, wait for requests to complete, assert on request bodies. Mastering it is the difference between flaky and stable tests. Always wait on a network alias or a DOM assertion, never a fixed cy.wait(ms).

4. Isolation: Each Test Starts Clean

Every it() runs in fresh browser state -- Cypress clears cookies, localStorage, and sessionStorage between tests by default. Tests must not depend on other tests' state or order. Use beforeEach for shared setup, not inter-test dependencies.

5. Data Attributes for Test Selectors

Use data-testid, data-cy, or data-test. They survive CSS refactors, class renames, and localization. Configure the preferred attribute in cypress.config.ts.

Project Structure & Configuration

Standard layout splits e2e/, component/, fixtures/, and support/, with cypress.config.ts at the root configuring both runners. Key config choices: baseUrl from env (never hardcode for CI), explicit viewport, retries.runMode: 2 for CI, and the framework/bundler pair under component.devServer. Component specs live under cypress/component/**/*.cy.tsx.

See references/config-and-commands.md for the directory tree, the complete cypress.config.ts, and the tsconfig.json additions.

Custom Commands

Custom commands encapsulate repeated actions behind a clean, typed API. Common commands: login (via cy.session + API, not UI), a getByTestId selector shorthand, and assertion helpers like shouldShowToast. Declare them in cypress/support/index.d.ts (declare namespace Cypress { interface Chainable { ... } } with JSDoc @example) so they get autocomplete and compile-time checking.

cy.session needs a validate() callback. cy.session caches cookies/localStorage/sessionStorage automatically, but without validate() the cached session is never re-verified -- a stale or expired token silently reuses a dead session. Always pass a validate() that hits an authenticated endpoint (e.g. cy.request('/api/me').its('status').should('eq', 200)).

Retryable lookups use Cypress.Commands.addQuery(), and the callback must be a non-arrow function () {} -- Cypress binds this to apply the command timeout, so an arrow function silently breaks retry-ability. (Intercept handlers are the opposite: (req) => {} is fine there because they do not use this.)

See references/config-and-commands.md for the full command definitions, the validate() callback, the addQuery example, and the TypeScript declarations.

cy.intercept Patterns

cy.intercept covers the full network-control surface:

• Stub a response — return canned data with { statusCode, body }, then cy.wait('@alias').
• Spy without stubbing — cy.intercept('POST', '/api/orders').as('createOrder'), then assert on interception.request.body and interception.response?.statusCode.
• Conditional responses — drive a closure with callCount to simulate polling (202 → 200). The handler arrow function (req) => { ... } is correct here.
• Network errors — { statusCode: 500 }, { forceNetworkError: true }, or req.reply({ delay }) for slow responses.
• Modify real responses — req.continue((res) => { ...; res.send(); }).
• Fixture-backed — { fixture: 'api-responses/checkout-success.json' }.

Register the intercept before the action that triggers the request, or the alias never matches.

See references/intercept-patterns.md for runnable code for each, plus cross-origin flows.

Component Testing

Component testing mounts a single component in a real browser without running the full app -- faster than E2E, more visual feedback than unit tests. Use cy.mount(<Component .../>), pass cy.stub()/cy.spy() for callbacks, and assert with the same cy.contains/cy.get chain you use in E2E. Never use cy.visit in a component test. For Vue, use cy.mount(Component, { props: { ... } }).

See references/component-and-fixtures.md for a full React ProductCard component-test suite.

Data-Driven Testing with Fixtures

Three layers, depending on where the data comes from:

• Static fixtures — cy.fixture('users').as('users') for JSON that rarely changes; read it via this.users in a beforeEach(function () { ... }).
• Dynamic data via cy.task — register Node-side tasks in setupNodeEvents for API calls or DB seeding that must run outside the browser (task bodies run in Node, so fetch there is Node's global fetch, not a Cypress API).
• Environment-specific config — merge a per-environment baseUrl map in setupNodeEvents, selected by --env ENVIRONMENT=....

See references/component-and-fixtures.md for the fixture, cy.task seeding, and env-config code.

Cross-Origin Flows

For legitimate redirects to another domain (SSO, OAuth providers, a separate auth host), wrap the commands that run on the other origin in cy.origin. This replaced the old chromeWebSecurity: false / experimentalSessionAndOrigin escape hatches -- do not disable web security to work around a redirect. This is distinct from third-party payment iframes (Stripe/PayPal), which you stub with cy.intercept and never reach into.

See references/intercept-patterns.md (Cross-Origin Flows) for the cy.origin example.

CI Integration

Action version: pin to cypress-io/github-action@v7 (latest 7.2.0, May 2026). v7 runs under Node 24 and is the current major; use @v6 only on a Node 20 runner (the legacy branch).

Cypress / Node support: Current is Cypress 15.x, which supports Node 20, 22, and 24 (Node 18 and 23 dropped). Node 20 removal is a future Cypress 16 / action-v7.2 concern tracking the Node 20 EOL (2026-04-30), not something Cypress 15 did.

• With Cypress Cloud: set projectId, run npx cypress run --record --key $CYPRESS_RECORD_KEY, and parallelize across a container matrix (fail-fast: false) for flake detection, Test Replay, and analytics.
• Without Cloud: use cypress-io/github-action@v7 with build/start/wait-on, and upload cypress/screenshots + cypress/videos as artifacts on failure.

See references/ci-recipes.md for both complete GitHub Actions workflows.

Cypress AI (paid Cloud add-on, GA 2026) ships Auto Heal (selector self-healing), AI Test Generation, and AI Bug Triage. Now GA and worth knowing: cy.prompt (English-to-test authoring with runtime self-healing) and Cloud MCP (GA May 2026, free on all Cloud plans) — an MCP server that feeds recorded-run errors, stack traces, and Test Replay links to your AI assistant. This overlaps test-reliability (selector healing), ai-bug-triage (failure clustering), and ai-test-generation (authoring). If the team is already on Cypress Cloud, buying the add-on may be cheaper than building the equivalent -- flag it during framework selection.

Anti-Patterns

1. cy.wait(milliseconds) for Synchronization

// BAD
cy.get('[data-testid="submit"]').click();
cy.wait(3000);

// GOOD -- wait for network
cy.intercept('POST', '/api/submit').as('submit');
cy.get('[data-testid="submit"]').click();
cy.wait('@submit');

Only acceptable for throttle/debounce testing. Everything else waits on a network alias or a DOM assertion.

2. Conditional Testing Based on DOM State

Do not check $body.find(selector).length > 0 to conditionally act. Control state deterministically -- stub the API that drives the conditional element.

3. CSS Selectors Over Data Attributes

cy.get('.btn.btn-primary > span') breaks on every CSS refactor. Use cy.getByTestId('submit') or cy.contains('button', 'Place Order').

4. Sharing State Between Tests

Module-level let orderId set in one it() and read in another creates order-dependent, parallel-unsafe tests. Each test sets up its own data via cy.request or cy.task in beforeEach.

5. Testing Third-Party Iframes

Do not reach into Stripe/PayPal iframes. Mock the payment API with cy.intercept and assert on your own UI.

6. Not Using cy.session() for Login (or Omitting validate())

UI login in every test is slow and fragile. Use cy.session to authenticate via API once and cache it -- with a validate() callback so an expired token does not silently reuse a dead session.

7. Arrow Function in addQuery

A custom query written with addQuery('name', (arg) => { ... }) silently loses its retry timeout because Cypress needs this. Use function (arg) { ... }.

8. Running All Tests Serially in CI

Parallelize once the suite exceeds 5 minutes -- Cypress Cloud, cypress-split, or manual sharding across a CI matrix.

Failure Modes

Verification

Prove the suite runs before calling it done:

• npx cypress verify — confirms the Cypress binary is installed and runnable.
• npx cypress run --spec "cypress/e2e/<file>.cy.ts" — should exit 0 (headless, in CI mode).
• npx cypress run --component --spec "cypress/component/<File>.cy.tsx" — component specs exit 0.
• npx tsc --noEmit — custom-command declarations in index.d.ts compile against the test files.

Done When

• cypress.config.ts exists with a baseUrl from env (not hardcoded localhost in CI) and explicit viewportWidth/viewportHeight; npx cypress verify passes.
• Custom commands extracted to cypress/support/commands.ts with TypeScript declarations in cypress/support/index.d.ts; npx tsc --noEmit exits 0.
• The login command uses cy.session with a validate() callback.
• No cy.wait(<number>) for synchronization in the suite (grep -rn "cy.wait([0-9]" cypress/ returns nothing except documented throttle/debounce cases).
• Component specs live under cypress/component/**/*.cy.tsx and run with npx cypress run --component exiting 0.
• E2E specs pass in CI (npx cypress run exits 0) with either a recorded Cypress Cloud run (parallel) or local video/screenshot artifacts uploaded on failure.

Reference Files (in references/)

• config-and-commands.md — Project directory tree, full cypress.config.ts, and custom commands (cy.session + validate(), the non-arrow addQuery) with TypeScript declarations.
• intercept-patterns.md — Every cy.intercept recipe (stub, spy, conditional/polling, error simulation, response modification, fixture-backed) plus cross-origin flows with cy.origin.
• component-and-fixtures.md — React component-test suite plus data-driven testing (static fixtures, cy.task seeding, env-specific config).
• ci-recipes.md — GitHub Actions workflows with and without Cypress Cloud, on @v7, with parallelization and artifact upload.

Related Skills

• playwright-automation — Use instead of this skill when the suite is Playwright, not Cypress. Same E2E goals, different runner and API.
• test-reliability — Go here for runtime per-test flake healing, self-healing locators, and quarantine. This skill writes stable tests; that one repairs failing ones.
• selector-drift-recovery — Bulk-regenerate broken selectors after a UI refactor or redesign; this skill is for authoring, not mass repair.
• test-migration — Converting Selenium/other suites to Cypress.
• ci-cd-integration — Pipeline templates for running Cypress in GitHub Actions / GitLab CI, parallelization, and artifact management.
• visual-testing — Visual regression to complement Cypress functional tests; Cypress has no built-in pixel comparison.
• unit-testing — Jest/Vitest for logic that needs no browser; Cypress component tests fill the gap between unit and E2E.
• test-data-management — Seeding, managing, and cleaning up the test data Cypress tests consume.
• qa-project-context — The project context file capturing framework choices, CI platform, and conventions.