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Ignore Specific URLs During Page Load

Written by Ines

What Is the Ignored URL List?

Before each step, Thunders waits for a page's network requests to finish so it never acts on a half-loaded page. But some third-party requests — analytics, tracking, chat widgets, ad pixels — never actually finish. When that happens on your site, Thunders can wait the full timeout on every step, slowing your runs down or causing timeout errors.

The Ignored URL List lets you tell Thunders which URLs it should not wait for. The requests still happen — Thunders just doesn't treat them as something the page is waiting on. If a URL you've listed hangs, Thunders stops waiting on it so your test can keep going.

Thunders already ignores a large built-in list of common third-party services (Google Analytics, Intercom, Sentry, ad networks, and many more). This list is for anything specific to your site that isn't already covered.

When to Use It

  • Your tests hit page-load timeouts, and the run logs point to a third-party request that never completes.

  • Your site loads an analytics / tracking / telemetry endpoint that stays open.

  • A chat widget, session-replay, or marketing script keeps the page "busy" even though it doesn't affect what you're testing.

How to Add a URL to Ignore

  1. Open your Test Project → Project Settings → Page Stability Settings tab.

  2. Find the Ignored URL substrings section.

  3. Type the URL (or part of it) you want Thunders to ignore — for example analytics.example.com.

  4. Click Add. It appears as a chip below the field.

  5. Repeat for any other URLs, then click Save.

Your changes apply to all future test runs for this project.

How Matching Works

  • Thunders matches your entry as a substring, anywhere in the request URL, ignoring capitalization. So analytics.example.com matches https://analytics.example.com/collect?id=123.

  • Be as broad or specific as you like: example.com/tracking matches only that path, while example.com matches every request to that domain.

  • No wildcards needed — just enter the part of the URL you want to match. (A leading *. is accepted, but treated the same as without it.)

Remove a URL

  1. Go back to Project Settings → Page Stability Settings.

  2. Click the × on the chip you want to remove.

  3. Click Save.

Tips — What to Avoid

Only ignore requests that don't change what's visible on the page. Good candidates: analytics, tracking, telemetry, ad pixels, chat widgets, and session-replay scripts.

Avoid ignoring:

  • Fonts — your screenshots may render with the wrong font.

  • Your own site's content, scripts, images, or CDN assets.

  • A/B testing or personalization scripts — these change what's on the page.

  • Consent / cookie banners — these can block the page until dismissed.

If you're not sure, don't add it — a short extra wait is much cheaper than a test acting on the wrong page.

Troubleshooting

  • Still timing out: check the exact URL in your run's console / network logs and confirm your entry actually appears inside it (matching is substring-based).

  • A test behaves differently after adding an entry: you may have ignored something that affects the page — remove it, or use a more specific substring.

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