Afraaz Afraaz
Writing Jan 15, 2026 1 min read

Auth Is Easy Until It Isn’t

essions, cookies, HTTPS, and the bugs nobody warns you about.

Login works on localhost.
It breaks in production.

That’s the story every developer eventually lives.

HTTPS, cookies, SameSite, redirects, proxies — authentication stops being code and starts being context.
Most issues aren’t logic bugs.
They’re environment lies.

Once I stopped blaming my code and started understanding the request lifecycle, auth stopped feeling magical and started feeling mechanical.

There’s comfort in that.
Machines are honest — if you ask the right questions.

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