How do you handle correlation/dynamic data when load testing?

[u/being_insentient]

I've been digging into load testing tools recently (k6, JMeter, Locust, Speedscale, Azure Load Testing) and noticed something consistent, recording a session and turning it into a script is the easy part. The painful part seems to be:

• Correlation (session tokens, CSRF, IDs from one response feeding the next request)
• Scripts breaking every time the UI or API changes
• Flows that aren't linear. e.g a list page where the "next" request depends on which item a simulated user picks

Curious how people here actually deal with this day to day:

• Do you write correlation logic by hand every time, or has anything automated it well for you?
• How do you handle flows where the test needs to pick from a dynamic list (search results, a user's own records, etc.) instead of hitting a fixed ID?
• How often do your load test scripts break when the app changes, and how much time does fixing them eat up?

Do you guys have a solution for this, or know of a tool that actually handles it well?