session cookie keeps requiring refresh

[jterrace]

Every several days now it seems, the integration fails to set up. It requires going back to the site and getting a new cookie value and entering it in the reconfigure area of the integration.

Is it expected that the cookie has an expiration or are others not having this happen?

[jterrace]

This looks like it's intentional to me. I think the cookies probably expire after a while, and the new flow for authentication requiring a robot challenge seems to be intentionally blocking integrations like this :(

[doobes]

Honestly, the limited functionality of the API doesn't motivate me to jump through these hoops every week.

It's clear then don't want us using the limited capability.

If we want true user control, a third party device will most likely be necessary.

My generator is still under warranty. As soon as that has expired, I'll take a look at alternative ways of external control.

I will firewall the generator off from the internet for now as I don't need/want Generac et al having connectivity to it with no value to me.

Thanks to everyone involved,

[bgiuriceo]

As a subscriber to MobiLink I think I should be allowed access to my data via an api.

[doobes]

Don't disagree, but you will have to address that with generac.

[jterrace]

I wholeheartedly agree and am really disappointed in Generac with how they handled this. I wrote up a post about how I switched to genmon:
https://blog.jeffterrace.com/2025/10/free-from-generac-with-genmon.html

[jr-ratliff]

I just had to reload cookie also. Thanks for working on this. I'm hoping there is port on the generac that somehow someone can figure out local access. Does anyone know of a local login? I am so new to this I'm not sure what's needed or even where to start. But I agree, having to reload a session cookie manually is not what we want.
@jterrace That's an awesome writeup! I wish I had the knowledge to do something like that. I may have to try it one day.

[binarydev]

It does seem like Generac has since added expiration dates to the cookie, with the session key specifically having an expiration timestamp that is only a few hours in the future but that gets refreshed every time a request is made to keep extending the lifetime of the cookie.

Example entry showing Nov 28th @ 5am GMT which is only a couple of hours after I logged in:

I would definitely suggest exploring Genmon if you're tired of playing whackamole with cookies and expiration deadlines! For now they haven't shut us down completely, but they do continue to make it more difficult with every update :/

Since there's nothing I can do, I'll consider this issue unresolvable but will leave it open for folks to be aware of (rather than opening new issues with no context).

[bigbeefyangus]

I was thinking about how yt-dlp and Music Assistant utilize a cookie PO token generator ,specifically this one: https://github.com/Brainicism/bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider

I have no idea how cookies work technically speaking, but could something like this possibly work?

[chipster123]

I wholeheartedly agree and am really disappointed in Generac with how they handled this. I wrote up a post about how I switched to genmon: https://blog.jeffterrace.com/2025/10/free-from-generac-with-genmon.html

@jterrace Nice blog post. Thanks for this.

[pmyers]

@jterrace Excellent blog post. I looked though and it seems like the HAT is sold out, but I did see that they also sell a molex to USB-C adapter, which can then be connected to anything with a USB port (which for me will be an unused RPi3b+). I ordered one and will see if I can make this work. 😊