Cypress Flaky Tests: Causes, Retries and Fixes (2026)

Cypress test flakiness commonly stems from arbitrary fixed waits, network intercepts registered after requests have already fired, non-retryable assertions placed in actions or `.then()` callbacks, shared server-side state, and slow CI environments. The guidance recommends registering intercepts before navigation or triggering actions, replacing time-based waits with aliased network waits and retryable `.should()` assertions, isolating and seeding test data for every test, stubbing backends when testing UI behavior, and setting targeted timeouts rather than increasing global limits. Cypress test retries can be configured separately for CI and interactive development, but should be used sparingly to identify flaky tests rather than conceal them; a test that passes only after retry should be logged, assigned to an owner, and fixed. Reproducing failures through repeated runs, delayed responses, and CI-like conditions helps expose timing issues, while Cypress Cloud and TestMu AI HyperExecute can provide run artifacts, flake detection, parallel execution, retry controls, and test-history insights.

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