Does Django Work With Cypress?
Django and Cypress work seamlessly together for end-to-end testing of Django applications with no special integration required.
Quick Facts
How Django Works With Cypress
Django and Cypress are a natural fit because they operate at different layers. Django runs your backend server while Cypress tests your frontend by driving a real browser against it. You simply start your Django development server and point Cypress at `http://localhost:8000`. There's no coupling or special configuration needed—Cypress treats your Django app like any other web application.
The developer experience is excellent: Django handles authentication, database operations, and business logic, while Cypress provides modern E2E testing with time-travel debugging, visual regression testing, and network stubbing. For testing authenticated flows, you can leverage Django's session system directly in Cypress tests using cookies, or create test fixtures via Django's management commands. The main architectural consideration is managing test data—most teams use Django fixtures or factory_boy with Cypress hooks to reset the database between test runs.
This combination is particularly popular in agile teams because it allows frontend developers to write meaningful tests without deep backend knowledge, while backend developers can verify API contracts through user workflows rather than isolated unit tests.
Best Use Cases
Django + Cypress E2E Test Setup
npm install --save-dev cypress// cypress/e2e/auth.cy.js
import 'cypress-django';
describe('Django Authentication', () => {
beforeEach(() => {
cy.task('django:manage', { cmd: 'flush --no-input' });
cy.visit('http://localhost:8000');
});
it('should login successfully', () => {
cy.visit('/login/');
cy.get('input[name="username"]').type('testuser');
cy.get('input[name="password"]').type('password123');
cy.get('button[type="submit"]').click();
cy.url().should('include', '/dashboard/');
cy.get('h1').should('contain', 'Welcome');
});
it('should show validation errors', () => {
cy.visit('/register/');
cy.get('input[name="email"]').type('invalid-email');
cy.get('button[type="submit"]').click();
cy.get('.form-error').should('contain', 'Enter a valid email');
});
});
// cypress.config.js
const { defineConfig } = require('cypress');
module.exports = defineConfig({
e2e: {
baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8000',
setupNodeEvents(on) {
on('task', {
'django:manage': ({ cmd }) => {
require('child_process').execSync(`python manage.py ${cmd}`);
return null;
},
});
},
},
});Known Issues & Gotchas
Django's CSRF protection blocks POST requests from Cypress unless CSRF tokens are properly extracted from forms or cookies
Fix: Either disable CSRF in test environment (set CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS) or extract tokens from form hidden fields before making requests
Database state pollution between tests if Django database isn't reset between Cypress test runs
Fix: Use cy.task() to run Django management commands like `manage.py flush` or integrate factory_boy with Cypress fixtures for clean test data
Timing issues with Django's async views or background tasks completing before assertions run
Fix: Use Cypress's built-in retrying and cy.intercept() to wait for specific API responses from Django endpoints
Alternatives
- •Django + Selenium: More mature but slower, heavy browser overhead, not as good DX as Cypress
- •Django + Playwright: Similar to Cypress, supports multiple browsers, but less opinionated UI and fewer debugging features
- •Django + Pytest + Factory Boy: Unit/integration testing focus, not E2E, doesn't test real browser rendering
Resources
Related Compatibility Guides
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