Testing Auth0 Email Flows with Playwright

The problem

Auth0's passwordless email flow sends a one-time code to verify identity. Most teams skip E2E testing this flow because intercepting Auth0's emails in CI is complex. ZeroDrop makes it straightforward — generate a disposable inbox, use it as the test email, catch the OTP automatically.

Install

Testing Auth0 passwordless OTP

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import { ZeroDrop } from 'zerodrop-client';

const mail = new ZeroDrop();

test('Auth0 passwordless email OTP', async ({ page }) => {
  const inbox = process.env.TEST_INBOX ?? mail.generateInbox();

  // 1. Navigate to login
  await page.goto('/login');

  // 2. Enter disposable email on Auth0 Universal Login
  await page.fill('[name="username"]', inbox);
  await page.click('[name="action"]');

  // 3. Auth0 sends OTP to inbox
  await expect(page.getByText('code')).toBeVisible({ timeout: 5000 });

  // 4. Catch the OTP — auto-extracted, no regex
  const email = await mail.waitForLatest(inbox, { timeout: 30000 });

  expect(email.otp).not.toBeNull();

  // 5. Enter OTP
  await page.fill('[name="otp"]', email.otp!);
  await page.click('[name="action"]');

  // 6. Should be authenticated and redirected
  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});

Testing Auth0 email verification on signup

test('Auth0 signup email verification', async ({ page }) => {
  const inbox = process.env.TEST_INBOX ?? mail.generateInbox();

  // Sign up with disposable inbox
  await page.goto('/login');
  await page.click('[data-action="sign-up"]');
  await page.fill('[name="email"]', inbox);
  await page.fill('[name="password"]', 'TestPassword123!');
  await page.click('[name="action"]');

  // Auth0 sends verification email
  const email = await mail.waitForLatest(inbox, { timeout: 30000 });

  expect(email.magicLink).not.toBeNull();

  // Click verification link
  await page.goto(email.magicLink!);

  // Should be verified and signed in
  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});

GitHub Actions workflow

name: E2E Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

      - name: Generate test inbox
        id: inbox
        uses: zerodrop-dev/create-inbox@8706a59 # v1.0.0

      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: npx playwright test
        env:
          TEST_INBOX: ${{ steps.inbox.outputs.inbox }}
          AUTH0_DOMAIN: ${{ secrets.AUTH0_DOMAIN }}
          AUTH0_CLIENT_ID: ${{ secrets.AUTH0_CLIENT_ID }}
          AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET: ${{ secrets.AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_URL: ${{ secrets.STAGING_URL }}

RELATED GUIDES