Selenium currently has no way to make HTTP API calls that share authentication/cookie state with the browser session. This is a significant gap compared to Playwright's APIRequestContext, which is one of the most-used features in modern test automation. This would allow for fast test setups by logging in via API to get auth cookies and using those cookies in the browser to skip slow UI login flows.
### Description The problem this would solve: Selenium currently has no way to make HTTP API calls that share authentication/cookie state with the browser session. This is a significant gap compared to Playwright's APIRequestContext, which is one of the most-used features in modern test automation. Common real-world scenarios that require this: 1. Fast test setup — Log in via API (POST /auth/login) to get auth cookies, then use those cookies in the browser to skip slow UI login flows 2. API + UI hybrid testing — Verify a UI action triggers the correct backend state (e.g., click "Delete" button, then call GET /api/items to confirm deletion) 3. Test data seeding — Create test fixtures via API before browser tests, sharing the same authenticated session 4. Backend assertion — After a browser interaction, assert API responses without opening new pages Today, users must manually extract cookies from driver.get_cookies(), construct a separate requests.Session, and hand