# CAPTCHA in automation testing ## What is CAPTCHA? [CAPTCHA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) makes test automation more difficult, as it was specifically designed to prevent automated bots from using your web app. For example, if you have a registration form, it might be protected by [reCAPTCHA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCAPTCHA) to prevent fake account registrations. ## Disable the captcha on test environments There are multiple captcha providers and each has a different way to disable it. For example, if you use reCAPTCHA you need to set a [special "site key"](https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq#id-like-to-run-automated-tests-with-recaptcha.-what-should-i-do). ![Excerpt from the reCAPTCHA documentation](https://3168433179-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MKixgeBPbLvnD0l1eiV%2Fuploads%2FkV5I3kFNTADKQiZc9RmQ%2Frecaptcha%20screenshot.png?alt=media\&token=c0638e49-aa0b-4abf-ab7a-1b5fe2303ed7) ## Allow BugBug to skip CAPTCHA during the automation testing You can implement a special secret flag in your backend code to allow BugBug to skip the captcha. 1. Add a custom header in your project settings with a secret string of your choice 2. On your backend code, add a condition, that the captcha is not required if the request header contains this secret string ![](https://3168433179-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MKixgeBPbLvnD0l1eiV%2Fuploads%2FsjHu2vHLkKdw6eVhkZjL%2Fcustom-headers%20\(1\).png?alt=media\&token=04d3550d-e540-4a2c-9234-d32815579f0e)