Laravel Sanctum CSRF Token Mismatch using Thunder Cilent (Testing API)

Question

CSRF Token Mismatch when using Thunder Cilent to test Laravel Sanctum API. Works fine on app, just not when testing API outside app.

Trying to test API with Laravel Sanctum with Thunder Cilent (Think Postman but VSCode extension). However, despite setting the xsrf-token and Cookie, I'm always getting CSRF token mismatch.

Note logging on works fine in the app, it's only the api testing with thundercilent that's failing.

Getting the CSRF Token

GET http://localhost:8000/sanctum/csrf-cookie

Response Cookies
xsrf-token: eyJpdiI6ImN6Q3JLVEQrYnhXVXhyVWFQWC9YQlE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoia2F2aTNjNDU2cTZURHRSSTN5Ny9ETnFJMGZoN0I2dmZ3bTA0UEZ6UjhzdCtCRjRPam9OSW5TWVkzYzAvMTQ0ZEp6b2JvYVdhRWg2TGsrejlkcnYzTGY3eGNFcTRGN253dUUxZjE3YXJBSFlVUHk4aGM5RmVYRWF6UFY2ZGRnYUEiLCJtYWMiOiI4OWU3OGI3MzQ3ZTdiNTNiZDQ2Yjg0ZDE3YWNiYmVhNDQ1NTI0MmI3MTY1NjdlZGI5ZGJlZDJlN2Q5NTc0ZjRhIiwidGFnIjoiIn0%3D
laravel_session: eyJpdiI6IjV6VTV4di9IMXNST1ZvNVh0K1pZelE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiTSsycEVWdjJ1VTc4dU81TVNJWTJ4aTRHOE81WTVHVW1OeU55OEt3cVU3bHc5N090dEdPQy9yZGJsamhOaDUzaFZmZVp0Z2FTeGp4UWJyVFVmSDdnVytTNS9SZTF5c0daak9EZ1I1V0w3aWpjTnVESWtIRmR2QzNGZ1VqWlZHZ2oiLCJtYWMiOiI0Mzg4NGI4MTc5MGQ1MDE1NTUxY2VmNGRmNGFkNjUyYmI1MjUwMTJiODQ4NmY4M2E5OTRlZGRlNTM3NjAzNTg1IiwidGFnIjoiIn0%3D

Logging in

POST http://localhost:8000/login

Body: {
  "email": "example@example.com",
  "password": "password"
}

Raw Headers:

User-Agent: Thunder Client (https://www.thunderclient.com)
Accept: application/json
Referer: http://localhost:3000
xsrf-token: eyJpdiI6ImN6Q3JLVEQrYnhXVXhyVWFQWC9YQlE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoia2F2aTNjNDU2cTZURHRSSTN5Ny9ETnFJMGZoN0I2dmZ3bTA0UEZ6UjhzdCtCRjRPam9OSW5TWVkzYzAvMTQ0ZEp6b2JvYVdhRWg2TGsrejlkcnYzTGY3eGNFcTRGN253dUUxZjE3YXJBSFlVUHk4aGM5RmVYRWF6UFY2ZGRnYUEiLCJtYWMiOiI4OWU3OGI3MzQ3ZTdiNTNiZDQ2Yjg0ZDE3YWNiYmVhNDQ1NTI0MmI3MTY1NjdlZGI5ZGJlZDJlN2Q5NTc0ZjRhIiwidGFnIjoiIn0%3D
Cookie: XSRF-TOKEN=eyJpdiI6ImN6Q3JLVEQrYnhXVXhyVWFQWC9YQlE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoia2F2aTNjNDU2cTZURHRSSTN5Ny9ETnFJMGZoN0I2dmZ3bTA0UEZ6UjhzdCtCRjRPam9OSW5TWVkzYzAvMTQ0ZEp6b2JvYVdhRWg2TGsrejlkcnYzTGY3eGNFcTRGN253dUUxZjE3YXJBSFlVUHk4aGM5RmVYRWF6UFY2ZGRnYUEiLCJtYWMiOiI4OWU3OGI3MzQ3ZTdiNTNiZDQ2Yjg0ZDE3YWNiYmVhNDQ1NTI0MmI3MTY1NjdlZGI5ZGJlZDJlN2Q5NTc0ZjRhIiwidGFnIjoiIn0;laravel_session=eyJpdiI6IjV6VTV4di9IMXNST1ZvNVh0K1pZelE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiTSsycEVWdjJ1VTc4dU81TVNJWTJ4aTRHOE81WTVHVW1OeU55OEt3cVU3bHc5N090dEdPQy9yZGJsamhOaDUzaFZmZVp0Z2FTeGp4UWJyVFVmSDdnVytTNS9SZTF5c0daak9EZ1I1V0w3aWpjTnVESWtIRmR2QzNGZ1VqWlZHZ2oiLCJtYWMiOiI0Mzg4NGI4MTc5MGQ1MDE1NTUxY2VmNGRmNGFkNjUyYmI1MjUwMTJiODQ4NmY4M2E5OTRlZGRlNTM3NjAzNTg1IiwidGFnIjoiIn0%3D; 

I copied how this SO Postman example, but it's not working at all. Thunder Cilent doesn't have pre-run scripts so I can't add cookies that way.

Answer 1

1. Open thunder client, switch to Env and create an environment.
2. Click on the options button of your collection and choose settings.
3. Add a test to your collection by navigating to the Tests tab, then select Set Env Variable, set query to cookie.xsrf-token and value to {{XSRF-TOKEN}}
4. In the Headers tab, add an header named X-XSRF-TOKEN with value {{XSRF-TOKEN | urlDecode}}.
5. Create a request to /sanctum/csrf-cookie to refresh CSRF Token if it expires

This should fix CSRF Token.

Consult docs for more information: https://github.com/rangav/thunder-client-support

Answer 2

Decided just to use token based auth for API testing instead. Much easier then messing around with CSRF cookies.

Notes for my future self.

When testing the Token based auth, you need to set the accept to application/json otherwise it won't work.

If using collections, don't delete the Accept header in the request, just untick the box. Otherwise the request would override the collection header with something else and not work.