reference

Export formats

Exact shape of every SessionCourier export — JSON, Playwright storageState, Netscape cookies.txt, and a runnable curl command.

JSON

For: full-fidelity browser round-trips — export on one machine, import on another (or back into the same browser later). This is the format the import/export guide and the multi-account workflow use for session snapshots.

An array of cookie objects mirroring the Chrome extension cookie shape:

[
  {
    "name": "session",
    "value": "abc123",
    "domain": ".staging.example.com",
    "path": "/",
    "expirationDate": 1789430400,
    "hostOnly": false,
    "httpOnly": true,
    "secure": true,
    "sameSite": "lax",
    "session": false
  }
]

Field notes:

Field	Meaning
`expirationDate`	Expiry as Unix seconds; absent for session cookies
`hostOnly`	`true` when the cookie is bound to the exact host (no leading dot)
`session`	`true` for session cookies that vanish when the browser closes
`sameSite`	Chrome’s lowercase values: `"no_restriction"`, `"lax"`, `"strict"`, `"unspecified"`

Because it uses Chrome’s own field names and casing, this format is not directly consumable by Playwright or Puppeteer — use the storageState export for those.

Playwright storageState

For: starting Playwright browser contexts pre-authenticated, and feeding Puppeteer’s setCookie. The Playwright guide shows the full workflow.

{
  "cookies": [
    {
      "name": "session",
      "value": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs…",
      "domain": ".staging.example.com",
      "path": "/",
      "expires": 1789430400,
      "httpOnly": true,
      "secure": true,
      "sameSite": "Lax"
    }
  ],
  "origins": []
}

Field notes:

expires is Unix seconds in Playwright’s convention; -1 marks a session cookie.
sameSite uses Playwright’s capitalized values: "Strict", "Lax", "None".
origins (localStorage) is empty in the current version — the export carries cookies.
The cookies array is also exactly what Puppeteer’s page.setCookie(...cookies) accepts, so one export serves both tools.

Netscape cookies.txt

For: command-line tools — curl -b, wget --load-cookies, yt-dlp --cookies. See the import/export guide for usage examples.

# Netscape HTTP Cookie File
.staging.example.com	TRUE	/	TRUE	1789430400	session	abc123
#HttpOnly_.staging.example.com	TRUE	/	TRUE	1789430400	refresh_token	xyz789

One cookie per line, seven tab-separated fields:

#	Field	Meaning
1	`domain`	Cookie domain; a leading `#HttpOnly_` prefix marks an HttpOnly cookie
2	`includeSubdomains`	`TRUE` if subdomains match (domain starts with a dot)
3	`path`	Cookie path
4	`secure`	`TRUE` if the cookie is HTTPS-only
5	`expiry`	Expiry as Unix seconds; `0` for session cookies
6	`name`	Cookie name
7	`value`	Cookie value

curl command

For: quick, one-off API calls — a runnable curl command that replays the current cookies against the site.

curl 'https://staging.example.com/' -H 'Cookie: session=abc123; refresh_token=xyz789'

The cookies go on the wire as one literal Cookie request header (-H), so exactly what the browser sends is replayed. The URL scheme is https when any cookie is Secure, else http; a single-site export collapses to one command, while an all-sites export emits one command per host. Only cookie values travel — no domain, path, expiry, or flags — so it can’t round-trip a session; treat it as disposable.