Actions: Navigation
Navigation actions control the browser itself rather than elements on the page: moving through history, reloading, and managing cookies. They live in the Interact tab of the action picker (⌘K in the visual editor) alongside the interaction actions, and none of them needs a target element.
Summary
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Go Back | Go back to the previous page in browser history |
| Go Forward | Go forward to the next page in browser history |
| Reload Page | Refresh the current page |
| Set Cookie | Set a cookie before the page is used |
Go Back
Navigates back to the previous page, exactly like the browser's back button.
Use it to verify your app survives history navigation — e.g. fill a multi-step form, go back, and assert the entered data is still there.
Go Forward
Navigates forward in browser history (only meaningful after a Go Back).
Use it together with Go Back to test that forward/back round-trips don't lose state or break single-page-app routing.
Reload Page
Refreshes the current page.
Use it to verify persistence: add an item to the cart, reload, and assert the cart still shows it. Also useful for forcing a fresh render after background changes.
Set Cookie
Sets a cookie in the browser session.
- Name: the cookie name.
- Value: the cookie value.
Use it to put the browser into a known state before testing — pre-accepting a consent banner, enabling a feature flag, or setting a locale cookie. (For consent banners specifically, the Auto-dismiss cookie banners setting in Test Settings handles most common banners without extra steps; Set Cookie or a Click step covers fully custom ones.)
Navigating between pages
There's deliberately no "go to URL" step in the middle of a test: navigation should happen the way users do it — by clicking links and buttons with the Click action. The test's starting URL (set when you create the test, editable in Test Settings) determines where the browser begins; everything after that is real user navigation.
This keeps your test honest: if the link to the pricing page disappears from your navbar, a test that "teleports" to /pricing would keep passing while real users are stranded.
Patterns for multi-page flows
- Assert after every page transition. Follow each navigation (a Click on a link, a form submit) with a URL Check or Page Contains so a failed redirect is caught at the step where it happened, not three steps later.
- Use Reload to test persistence between pages of a flow — carts, drafts, session state.
- Use Go Back to test resumability of wizards and checkout funnels.
- Set cookies first. If a flow depends on a cookie, set it at the start of the test, before any interaction steps.
For full walkthroughs of long flows spanning many pages, see Multi-Step Workflows.