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Cookie

Gin provides helpers to set and read HTTP cookies on the response and request.

`SetCookie` parameters

The c.SetCookie() method signature is:

c.SetCookie(name, value string, maxAge int, path, domain string, secure, httpOnly bool)

Parameter	Description
`name`	The cookie name (key).
`value`	The cookie value.
`maxAge`	Time-to-live in seconds. Set to `-1` to delete the cookie, or `0` to make it a session cookie (deleted when the browser closes).
`path`	The URL path the cookie is valid for. Use `"/"` to make it available site-wide.
`domain`	The domain the cookie is scoped to (e.g., `"example.com"`). Use `"localhost"` during development.
`secure`	When `true`, the cookie is only sent over HTTPS connections. Set this to `true` in production.
`httpOnly`	When `true`, the cookie is inaccessible to client-side JavaScript (`document.cookie`), which helps prevent XSS attacks. Set this to `true` in production.

import (
  "fmt"

  "github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)

func main() {

  router := gin.Default()

  router.GET("/cookie", func(c *gin.Context) {

    cookie, err := c.Cookie("gin_cookie")

    if err != nil {
      cookie = "NotSet"
      c.SetCookie("gin_cookie", "test", 3600, "/", "localhost", false, true)
    }

    fmt.Printf("Cookie value: %s \n", cookie)
  })

  router.Run()
}

Try it

# First request -- no cookie sent, server sets one
curl -v http://localhost:8080/cookie
# Look for "Set-Cookie: gin_cookie=test" in the response headers

# Second request -- send the cookie back
curl -v --cookie "gin_cookie=test" http://localhost:8080/cookie
# Server logs: Cookie value: test

Delete a cookie by setting max age to -1.

c.SetCookie("gin_cookie", "test", -1, "/", "localhost", false, true)

Gin also supports setting cookies using an *http.Cookie, giving access to fields like Expires, MaxAge, SameSite, and Partitioned.

import (
  "net/http"
  "time"
  "github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)

func main() {
  r := gin.Default()
  r.GET("/set-cookie", func(c *gin.Context) {
    c.SetCookieData(&http.Cookie{
      Name:   "session_id",
      Value:  "abc123",
      Path:   "/",
      Domain:   "localhost",
      Expires:  time.Now().Add(24 * time.Hour),
      MaxAge:   86400,
      Secure:   true,
      HttpOnly: true,
      SameSite: http.SameSiteLaxMode,
      // Partitioned: true, // Go 1.22+
    })
    c.String(http.StatusOK, "ok")
  })
  r.Run(":8080")
}

See also

Security headers