Add elements to your Private API Network

The Private API Network is available on Postman Enterprise plans.

Add elements to the Private API Network to help your team discover and use your team's workspaces, collections, and APIs. You can organize related elements into folders.

Super Admins and API Network Managers can manage all folders and elements in your Private API Network. You can assign team members the Folder Manager role at the folder level, giving them permission to manage specific folders and the elements in them.

Organizing with folders

The sidebar navigation displays the folder structure for your Private API Network. API Network Managers can drag elements and subfolders into different folders. You can add descriptions to folders to describe elements within the folders. You can also add Folder Managers to specific folders. To learn more about managing folders, see Managing your Private API Network.

To create a new folder from the Private API Network view, do the following:

Open your Private API Network.
Select the create folder icon in the left sidebar. You can also select Create Folders on the right from the Private API Network overview page.
Give the folder a name.
(Optional) Add Folder Managers to the folder. You can also add Folder Managers to a folder later. To learn more, see Editing Folder Managers.
(Optional) Add more folders. Select Add Folder to add another folder. Select the remove icon next to a folder to remove it.
Select Review.
Review your folders and Folder Managers, and then select Create Folders.

Adding subfolders

To add a subfolder to an existing folder, do the following:

Select the more actions icon next to a folder, then select Add folder. You can also select a folder in the sidebar, then select Create Folder in the upper-right corner.

You can create up to four levels of subfolders in each folder.
Enter a name for the folder. Optionally, you can add a description for the subfolder.
Select Create Folder.

Editing Folder Managers

API Network Managers can assign team members the Folder Manager role, giving them permission to manage specific folders and the elements in them. Folder Managers can also assign other team members the Folder Manager role in folders they have permission to manage.

You can't add Folder Managers to subfolders.

Select the more actions icon next to the folder, then select Edit folder managers. You can also select a folder in the sidebar. Select the more actions icon in the upper-right corner, then select Edit folder managers.
Enter the name, email, or group name you want to assign as a Folder Manager for the folder.
Select Save Changes.

Adding elements

API Network Managers can add elements to the Private API Network. Folder Managers can add elements to folders they have permission to manage. Workspace Editors, Collection Editors, and API Editors must request to add elements to the Private API Network.

To add an element to the Private API Network, it must be in a team or public workspace. You can't add an element to the Private API Network unless all team members have at least view access to the element. Learn more about team roles and permissions.

The collections and APIs you add to the Private API Network include the latest changes to these elements.

When you add a workspace, collection, or API to the Private API Network, it's visible to your Postman team, but isn't visible to partners.

You can add elements to the Private API Network from the workbench and with the Postman API.

Adding elements in your Private API Network

You can add elements from inside your team's Private API Network. Workspace Editors, Collection Editors, and API Editors can request to add elements from your Private API Network.

To add elements from your Private API Network, do the following:

Open your Private API Network.
Select the + icon in the left sidebar to add elements to the root Home folder. To add elements to a specific folder, select the more actions icon next to a folder, then select Add elements.

You can also select Add on the right from the Private API Network overview page. In a Private API Network folder, you can select Add To Folder in the upper-right corner.
Select the collections, APIs, and workspaces you want to add. You can search for elements, and filter elements by tags. Learn more about adding tags to collections, APIs, and workspaces.

If you're adding collections and APIs, you can optionally select environments in their workspace to make sure users have access to environment variables. You can also edit a collection's or API’s environments later.

Not selecting an environment results in a different behavior between collections and APIs. In the case of collections, No Environment is available in the Private Network. But, if No Environment is selected while adding an API, all environments from the same workspace in which the API resides are available.

You can select Added elements in the upper-right corner to show elements already added to the Private API Network. You can select the Collections tab and then Forks in the upper-right corner to show forked collections.

An API's editor must publish a version of the API before you can add it to your Private API Network.

You can select an element's name to open it in its workspace in a new tab.
Select Review.
Review your selections, and then select Add to Network.

Adding a workspace from the workbench

You can add workspaces from the workbench. Workspace Editors can request to add a workspace from the workbench.

To add a workspace to the Private API Network from the workbench, do the following:

Open the workspace you want to add to the Private API Network.
In the workspace overview, select Workspace Settings.
Select Add to Network.

If you're a Folder Manager, select Request to Add. Then select a folder you have permission to manage.
(Optional) Select a folder or create one to keep elements organized.
Select Add workspace.

Adding a collection from the workbench

You can add collections from the workbench. Collection Editors can request to add a collection from the workbench.

To add a collection to the Private API Network from the workbench, do the following:

Open the collection you want to add to the Private API Network.
In the collection overview, select Add to API Network.

If you're a Folder Manager, select Request to Add. Then select a folder you have permission to manage.
(Optional) Select Select Environments to make sure users have access to environment variables. You can also edit a collection's environments later. To learn more, see Editing collections.
(Optional) Select a folder or create one to keep elements organized.
Select Add collection.

Adding an API from the workbench

You can add APIs from the workbench. API Editors can request to add an API from the workbench.

An API's editor must publish a version of the API before you can add it to your Private API Network.

To add an API to the Private API Network from the workbench, do the following:

Open the API you want to add to the Private API Network.
In the API overview, select Add to API Network.

If you're a Folder Manager, select Request to Add. Then select a folder you have permission to manage.

The Add API to the Private API Network modal opens.
(Optional) Select the relevant environment from the dropdown.
(Optional) Select a folder or create one to keep elements organized.
Select Add API.

Publishing specific API versions

Publishing a version creates a static representation of your API that consumers can view on the Private API Network. If your API is connected to a Git repository, you need to publish an API version to update your team or public workspace with the latest changes. When you publish a version, the API's definition and collections are synced to the Postman cloud.

If you publish an API with an API definition that has syntax errors, your API documentation might not display as expected. To learn more about viewing syntax errors, see Viewing syntax errors in your API definition.

Learn more about publishing an API version.

Importing APIs from a code repository

You can make all your existing APIs discoverable on the Private API Network after you import them from a code repository. Learn more about importing an API.

Reviewing requests to add elements

API Network Managers can review requests to add elements to the Private API Network. Folder Managers can review requests to add elements to folders they have permission to manage.

When an Editor requests to add an element to your team's Private API Network, Postman will send you an email and an in-app notification. For the list of all the pending requests, open the Private API Network and select the pending requests icon in the left sidebar.

Pending requests include the element type, the user who submitted the request, the date they submitted it on, a link to view the element in its workspace, the folder they want to add the element to, and an optional note from the requesting user. If the element is an API, pending requests also include syntax errors and rule violations if they're present in the API definition.