Cypress changes user during test

[Christian1und0]

This is probably the weirdest issue I have encountered so far. I log in as Administrator (credentials are stored in environment in cypress.json config file), run the following test and mid test I am suddenly logged in as another (non-Administrator) account. The weird thing is this:

• The credentials for the 2nd account are not in the spec file
• The credentials for the 2nd account are not in the login.js
• The credentials for the 2nd account are not in cypress.json

I am going to post the complete code and mark the spot where the change occurs:

import {Login} from "../../pages/login/Login";

const login = new Login()
const body1 = require('../../fixtures/contracts/body_post_client1.json')
const body2 = require('../../fixtures/contracts/body_post_client2.json')
const api_key = require('../../fixtures/contracts/api_test_client1.json')

describe('test POST/client validation', () => {
    beforeEach(function () {
        cy.preserveAllCookiesOnce() //this is a custom command (see below)
    })

    it('STEP 1: log in', () => {
        login.goToLoginPage()
        login.loginCredentials(Cypress.env('userEmail'), Cypress.env('userPass')) //custom function to login as Admin
    })

    it('STEP2: set and save decimal settings', function () {
        cy.visit(Cypress.env('url') + '/index.php?r=tc/tcSettings/index&language=de')
        cy.get('#s2id_TcSettings_cent_price_decimals > a > span').invoke('text').as('cents')
        cy.get('#s2id_TcSettings_cent_price_decimals > a > span > b').click({force:true})
        cy.get('.select2-drop-active > div > input').type('4{Enter}', {force:true})
        cy.get('#s2id_TcSettings_euro_price_decimals > a > span').invoke('text').as('euro')
        cy.get('#s2id_TcSettings_euro_price_decimals > a > span > b').click({force:true})
        cy.get('.select2-drop-active > div > input').eq(1).type('2{Enter}', {force:true})
        cy.contains('Speichern').click({force:true}) //just adjust some settings
    })

    it('STEP3: send POST/client request with incorrect values', function () {
        login.goToLoginPage() //inserted this after the bug to check login status, 
                                               //it just brings me to my default starting page
                                               //so I can see the user that is currently logged in the top right
        cy.request({
            method: 'POST',
            url: Cypress.env('url') + '/service/clients',
            headers: {
                'API-KEY': api_key,
            },
            body: body1,
            failOnStatusCode: false
        })
            .then(response => {
                expect(response.status).to.eq(400)

                expect(response.body.fields).to.contain({
                   "some stuff"
                })
            })
    })
    
    it('STEP4: send POST/client request with correct values', function () {
        login.goToLoginPage() //inserted this to check login status
        cy.request({
            method: 'POST',
            url: Cypress.env('url') + '/service/clients',
            headers: {
                'API-KEY': api_key,
            },
            body: body2,
            failOnStatusCode: false
        })
            .then(response => {
                expect(response.status).to.eq(200)
            })
    })

    it('STEP 5: go to clients page and assert created client', () => {
        cy.visit(Cypress.env('url') + '/index.php?r=client/index&language=de')
        //test some stuff
        })
})

Custom command:

Cypress.Commands.add('preserveAllCookiesOnce', () => {
	Cypress.Cookies.defaults({
		preserve: (cookie) => {
			return true;
		}
	})
})

Now here is what happens:

• At the beginning of Step 3, I can see in my Cypress runner window, that I am still logged in as Admin
• At the beginning of Step 4, I can see that I am now logged in as another account
• Removing the step login.goToLogin() does not matter, the problem remains the same

So how is this possible that I get logged in as a different user mid-test, especially when the credentials for that user are not used anywhere in this test?