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. See #95 for more details and temporary workarounds.

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)

Set 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)

Set a route by returning an 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 XHR’s a 404 status when the XHR’s do 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.

cy.server()
cy.route('https://localhost:7777/users', [{ id: 1, name: 'Pat' }])

`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 XHR’s

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

XHR’s 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().

XHR’s 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 XHR’s 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 XHR’s 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:

route