> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.obscura.sh/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.obscura.sh/guides/persist-cookies-and-storage.md).

# Persist cookies and storage

`--storage-dir` persists cookies and localStorage to disk so they survive across runs.

### CLI

```bash
obscura fetch https://example.com --storage-dir ./obscura-data
obscura fetch https://example.com --storage-dir ./obscura-data
```

The second invocation starts with the cookies and localStorage left by the first.

### Server

```bash
obscura serve --storage-dir ./obscura-data
```

All CDP sessions read and write to the same directory. Run separate `obscura serve` processes with different `--storage-dir` paths for isolated profiles.

### Layout

Inside `./obscura-data`:

* `cookies.json`: cookie jar in a stable format with `same_site`, `expires`, `http_only`, `secure`.
* `localStorage/<origin>.json`: one file per origin.

The format is stable. Inspect with `jq`:

```bash
jq '.[] | select(.domain == "example.com")' ./obscura-data/cookies.json
```

### When state is written

* On clean process exit (Ctrl-C, SIGTERM).
* After every navigation completes (CDP `Page.navigate`).
* Manually via CDP `Network.setCookie` and `Network.deleteCookies`.

### Login once, scrape many

```bash
obscura serve --storage-dir ./session-1
```

Drive a login flow once via Puppeteer or Playwright. Stop the server. Subsequent runs against the same `--storage-dir` start logged in.

### Multiple identities

```bash
obscura serve --port 9222 --storage-dir ./identity-a
obscura serve --port 9223 --storage-dir ./identity-b
```

### Clear state

```bash
rm -rf ./obscura-data
```


---

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