What's inside that (sometimes chunky) authentication cookie in an ASP.NET Core application? Why is your JWT 4KB and growing? And why does login break the moment you add one more claim?

In this session, we'll crack open tokens and cookies like a forensic investigator. We'll decode JWTs by hand, inspect the ASP.NET Core authentication cookie byte by byte, watch token negotiation happen in real-time with browser DevTools, and debug the kind of auth issues that make you clear all cookies in frustration. Raw bytes, practical debugging, and a few "I had no idea that was in there" moments.

Learn what travels over the wire, what gets stored where, and what to check when things break.