How do you test APIs with cy.request?

cy.request is a first-class HTTP client inside Cypress. It does not need a visited page, it does not go through the browser's XHR, and it yields the response for assertions. That makes it useful both for API tests and for setup in UI tests, such as creating a user or authenticating.

describe("orders api", () => {
  it("creates an order", () => {
    cy.request({
      method: "POST",
      url: "/api/orders",
      body: { items: [{ sku: "desk-lamp", quantity: 2 }] },
      headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
    }).then((response) => {
      expect(response.status).to.eq(201);
      expect(response.body).to.have.property("id");
      expect(response.body.items).to.have.length(1);
    });
  });
});

What cy.request is good for

• Contract checks for status, headers and response shape
• Seeding data before a UI test through the real API
• Logging in and reusing the cookie for a UI test
• Checking that a mutation returns the expected resource
• Failing fast when a backend dependency is broken

cy.request does not validate the browser's handling of a response. A UI test still matters for rendering, client validation and error presentation. Use both: request tests for the contract, browser tests for the user journey.