Use cy.route() to manage the behavior of network requests.

Note: cy.route() assumes you are already familiar with core concepts such as network requests

🚨 Please be aware that Cypress only currently supports intercepting XMLHttpRequests. Requests using the Fetch API and other types of network requests like page loads and <script> tags will not be intercepted or visible in the Command Log. You can automatically polyfill window.fetch to spy on and stub requests by enabling an experimental feature experimentalFetchPolyfill. See #95 for more details and temporary workarounds.

Cypress also has a new experimental route2 feature that supports requests using the Fetch API and other types of network requests like page loads. For more information, check out the cy.route2() documentation.

Syntax

cy.route(url)
cy.route(url, response)
cy.route(method, url)
cy.route(method, url, response)
cy.route(callbackFn)
cy.route(options)

Usage

Correct Usage

cy.route('/users/**')

Arguments

url (String, Glob, RegExp)

Listen for a route matching the specific URL.

response (String, Object, Array)

Supply a response body to stub in the matching route.

method (String)

Match the route to a specific method (GET, POST, PUT, etc).

If no method is defined Cypress will match GET requests by default.

callbackFn (Function)

Listen for a route matching a returned object literal from a callback function. Functions that return a Promise will automatically be awaited.

options (Object)

Pass in an options object to change the default behavior of cy.route(). By default cy.route() inherits its options from cy.server().

Option	Default	Description
delay	0	Delay for stubbed responses (in ms)
force404	false	Forcibly send a 404 status when the XHR does not match any existing cy.route().
headers	null	Response headers for stubbed routes
method	GET	Method to match against requests
onAbort	null	Callback function which fires anytime an XHR is aborted
onRequest	null	Callback function when a request is sent
onResponse	null	Callback function when a response is returned
response	null	Response body when stubbing routes
status	200	Response status code when stubbing routes
url	null	String or RegExp url to match against request urls

You can also set options for all cy.wait()‘s requestTimeout and responseTimeout globally in configuration to control how long to wait for the request and response of a supplied route.

Yields

• cy.route() yields null.

• cy.route() can be aliased, but otherwise cannot be chained further.

Examples

Without Stubbing

If you do not pass a response to a route, Cypress will pass the request through without stubbing it. We can still wait for the request to resolve later.

Wait on XHR GET request matching url

cy.server()
cy.route('**/users').as('getUsers')
cy.visit('/users')
cy.wait('@getUsers')

Wait on XHR’s matching method and url

cy.server()
cy.route('POST', '**/users').as('postUser')
cy.visit('/users')
cy.get('#first-name').type('Julius{enter}')
cy.wait('@postUser')

Setup route to POST to login

Check out our example recipe using cy.route() to POST for login in HTML web forms

Wait on url matching glob

Under the hood Cypress uses minimatch to match glob patterns of url.

This means you can take advantage of * and ** glob support. This makes it much easier to route against dynamic segments without having to build up a complex RegExp.

We expose Cypress.minimatch as a function that you can use in your console to test routes.

Match route against any UserId

cy.server()
cy.route('**/users/*/comments')

// https://localhost:7777/users/123/comments     <-- matches
// https://localhost:7777/users/123/comments/465 <-- does not match

Use glob to match all segments

cy.server()
cy.route('**/posts/**')

// https://localhost:7777/posts/1            <-- matches
// https://localhost:7777/posts/foo/bar/baz  <-- matches
// https://localhost:7777/posts/quuz?a=b&1=2 <-- matches

Override url glob matching options

When we check glob patterns with minimatch, by default Cypress uses sets matchBase to true. You can override this option in cy.server() options.

If you want to permanently override these options you could do so by setting Cypress.Server.defaults().

cy.server({
  urlMatchingOptions: { matchBase: false, dot: true }
})
cy.route(...)

With Stubbing

If you pass a response to cy.route(), Cypress will stub the response in the request.

url as a string

When passing a string as the url, the XHR’s URL must match exactly what you’ve written. You’ll want to use the decoded string and not include any hash encoding (ie. use @ instead of %40).

cy.server()
cy.route('https://localhost:7777/surveys/[email protected]', [
  {
    id: 1,
    name: 'john'
  }
])

url as a RegExp

When passing a RegExp as the url, the XHR’s url will be tested against the regular expression and will apply if it passes.

cy.server()
cy.route(/users\/\d+/, { id: 1, name: 'Phoebe' })

// Application Code
$.get('https://localhost:7777/users/1337', (data) => {
  console.log(data) // => {id: 1, name: "Phoebe"}
})

Response functions

You can also use a function as a response which enables you to add logic surrounding the response.

Functions that return a Promise will automatically be awaited.

const commentsResponse = (routeData) => {
  //routeData is a reference to the current route's information
  return {
    data: someOtherFunction(routeData)
  }
}

cy.route('POST', '**/comments', commentsResponse)

Matching requests and routes

Any request that matches the method and url of a route will be responded to based on the configuration of that route.

GET is the default HTTP method used to match routes. If you want to stub a route with another HTTP method such as POST then you must be explicit about the method.

If a request doesn’t match any route then the behavior depends on the value of the force404 option on the cy.server():

• if force404 is false (the default) then the request will pass through to the server.
• if force404 is true then the response will be a 404.

You can read more about this behavior here.

Specify the method

The below example matches all DELETE requests to “/users” and stubs a response with an empty JSON object.

cy.server()
cy.route('DELETE', '**/users/*', {})

Making multiple requests to the same route

You can test a route multiple times with unique response objects by using aliases and cy.wait(). Each time we use cy.wait() for an alias, Cypress waits for the next nth matching request.

cy.server()
cy.route('/beetles', []).as('getBeetles')
cy.get('#search').type('Weevil')

// wait for the first response to finish
cy.wait('@getBeetles')

// the results should be empty because we
// responded with an empty array first
cy.get('#beetle-results').should('be.empty')

// now re-define the /beetles response
cy.route('/beetles', [{ name: 'Geotrupidae' }])

cy.get('#search').type('Geotrupidae')

// now when we wait for 'getBeetles' again, Cypress will
// automatically know to wait for the 2nd response
cy.wait('@getBeetles')

// we responded with 1 beetle item so now we should
// have one result
cy.get('#beetle-results').should('have.length', 1)

Fixtures

Instead of writing a response inline you can automatically connect a response with a cy.fixture().

cy.server()
cy.route('**/posts/*', 'fixture:logo.png').as('getLogo')
cy.route('**/users', 'fixture:users/all.json').as('getUsers')
cy.route('**/admin', 'fx:users/admin.json').as('getAdmin')

You may want to define the cy.route() after receiving the fixture and working with its data.

cy.fixture('user').then((user) => {
  user.firstName = 'Jane'
  // work with the users array here

  cy.route('GET', '**/user/123', user)
})

cy.visit('/users')
cy.get('.user').should('include', 'Jane')

You can also reference fixtures as strings directly in the response by passing an aliased fixture with @.

cy.fixture('user').as('fxUser')
cy.route('POST', '**/users', '@fxUser')

Options

Pass in an options object

cy.server()
cy.route({
  method: 'DELETE',
  url: '**/user/*',
  status: 412,
  response: {
    rolesCount: 2
  },
  delay: 500,
  headers: {
    'X-Token': null
  },
  onRequest: (xhr) => {
    // do something with the
    // raw XHR object when the
    // request initially goes out
  },
  onResponse: (xhr) => {
    // do something with the
    // raw XHR object when the
    // response comes back
  }
})

Simulate a server redirect

Below we simulate the server returning 503 with a stubbed empty JSON response body.

cy.route({
  method: 'POST',
  url: '**/login',
  response: {
    // simulate a redirect to another page
    redirect: '/error'
  }
})

Setup route to error on POST to login

Check out our ‘XHR Web Forms’ example recipe using cy.route() to simulate a 503 on POST to login

Change headers

By default, Cypress will automatically set Content-Type and Content-Length based on what your response body looks like.

If you’d like to override this, explicitly pass in headers as an object literal.

cy.route({
  url: '**/user-image.png',
  response: 'fx:logo.png,binary', // binary encoding
  headers: {
    // set content-type headers
    'content-type': 'binary/octet-stream'
  }
})

Use delays for responses

You can pass in a delay option that causes a delay (in ms) to the response for matched requests. The example below will cause the response to be delayed by 3 secs. This can be useful for testing loading states, like loading spinners, in the DOM before the request responds.

cy.route({
  method: 'PATCH',
  url: '**/activities/*',
  response: {},
  delay: 3000
})

Function

Set the routing options using a callback function

cy.route(() => {
  // ...do some custom logic here..

  // and return an appropriate routing object here
  return {
    method: 'POST',
    url: '**/users/*/comments',
    response: this.commentsFixture
  }
})

Functions that return promises are awaited

cy.route(() => {
  // a silly example of async return
  return new Cypress.Promise((resolve) => {
    // resolve this promise after 1 second
    setTimeout(() => {
      resolve({
        method: 'PUT',
        url: '**/posts/**',
        response: '@postFixture'
      })
    }, 1000)
  })
})

Notes

Debugging

Understanding stubbed vs regular XHRs

Cypress indicates whether an XHR sent back a stubbed response or actually went out to a server in its Command Log

XHRs that display (XHR STUB) in the Command Log have been stubbed and their response, status, headers, and delay have been controlled by your matching cy.route().

XHRs that display (XHR) in the Command Log have not been stubbed and were passed directly through to a server.

Cypress also logs whether the XHR was stubbed or not to the console when you click on the command in the Command Log. It will indicate whether a request was stubbed, which url it matched or that it did not match any routes.

Even the Initiator is included, which is a stack trace to what caused the XHR to be sent.

cy.route() cannot be debugged using cy.request()

cy.request() sends requests to actual endpoints, bypassing those defined using cy.route()

The intention of cy.request() is to be used for checking endpoints on an actual, running server without having to start the front end application.

Matches

Matching origins and non origin URL’s

When Cypress matches up an outgoing XHR request to a cy.route(), it actually attempts to match it against both the fully qualified URL and then additionally without the URL’s origin.

cy.route('**/users/*')

The following XHRs which were xhr.open(...) with these URLs would:

Match:

• /users/1
• http://localhost:2020/users/2
• https://google.com/users/3

Not Match:

• /users/4/foo
• http://localhost:2020/users/5/foo

No matches

Requests that don’t match any routes

You can force requests that do not match a route to return a 404 status and an empty body by passing an option to the cy.server() like so:

cy.server({ force404: true })

You can read more about this here.

Rules

Requirements

• cy.route() requires being chained off of cy.

Assertions

• cy.route() cannot have any assertions chained.

Timeouts

• cy.route() cannot time out.

Command Log

cy.server()
cy.route(/accounts/).as('accountsGet')
cy.route(/company/, 'fixtures:company').as('companyGet')
cy.route(/teams/,   'fixtures:teams').as('teamsGet')

Whenever you start a server and add routes, Cypress will display a new Instrument Log called Routes. It will list the routing table in the Instrument Log, including the method, url, stubbed, alias and number of matched requests:

When XHRs are made, Cypress will log them in the Command Log and indicate whether they matched a routing alias:

When clicking on XHR Stub within the Command Log, the console outputs the following:

See also

• .as()
• cy.fixture()
• cy.server()
• cy.wait()
• Guide: Network Requests
• Recipe: Logging in - XHR Web Forms