BrowserStack Local tunnel authentication for protected endpoints

Answer

BrowserStack Local creates a transparent TCP tunnel; it does not inspect, modify, or inject HTTP headers. Therefore any custom authentication (e.g., Authorization, X‑Token) must be added inside the test script that makes the request, not at the tunnel level.

Confirmed facts

• The Binary forwards packets unchanged; no header inspection or injection occurs.
• Available Local options (--key, --local-identifier, --folder, --force-local) do not include a header‑injection flag.
• Tunnel logs show connection metadata only (e.g., "[Local] Connected to BrowserStack") and never header contents.

Likely explanation

Because the tunnel operates at the network layer, it cannot interpret HTTP semantics. The responsibility for adding headers falls to the client that generates the HTTP request—your test code.

Steps needed for this case

1. Start BrowserStack Local with your access key:

./BrowserStackLocal --key <YOUR_ACCESS_KEY>

1. In your test script, set the required header before making the request (method depends on your automation framework).

Example for Selenium/WebDriver (Chrome ≥79) using the Chrome DevTools Protocol:

driver.execute_cdp_cmd('Network.setExtraHTTPHeaders', {
    'headers': {
        'X-Token': 'your-token-value',
        'Authorization': 'Basic ' + b64encode(b'user:pass').decode()
    }
})

If you are using a different language or HTTP client, add the headers directly to the request (e.g., requests.get(..., headers=headers) in Python).

To refine the guidance, please let me know which test framework or language you are using, as the exact header‑setting method varies.