What is an HTTP Cookie?

In the simplest terms, an HTTP cookie is a small piece of data stored in user’s web browser while browsing a website. Cookies help track user info such as login status, personal preferences, or browsing activity.

From a developer’s viewpoint, cookies form an essential part of the HTTP protocol and application state management. Cookies consist of name-value pairs where names are unique identifiers. They can be temporary or persist for years. This makes cookies a powerful way to optimize user experience, but it also requires care with regards to security and privacy.

When creating browser automations, it’s important to track cookies properly. While scripting agents like Playwright will transparently handle cookies as a normal browser would, you may find it necessary to handle particular cookies to gain access to certain web pages.

How can BrowserCat help with managing browser cookies?

BrowserCat provides direct websocket access to our headless browser fleet. Using Playwright or Puppeteer, you will be in complete control of browser cookies. This will give you the ability to clone log-in sessions across instances to rapidly automate, test, or crawl your target sites.

In other words, we make the hard parts easy, so that you can focus on what matters most. Take our generously monthly free plan for a spin!