Add elements to your Private API Network

Your Private API Network is available on Postman Enterprise plans. Adding APIs to your Private API Network requires the API Builder add-on.

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

Super Admins and API Network Managers can add and organize all workspaces and collections in your Private API Network. Team members can be assigned the Folder Manager role at the folder level, giving them permission to add and organize workspaces and collections in specific folders.

If your team has the API Builder add-on, you can also add and organize APIs on your team's Private API Network. Super Admins, API Network Managers, and Folder Managers added to the API Builder add-on can add and organize APIs in your Private API Network based on their permission level.

Organizing with folders

The left 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 Manage folders and elements in your Private API Network.

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

Open your Private API Network.
Select Create Folder in the left sidebar. If you haven't added any elements yet, you can also select Create Folders on the right from your Private API Network's 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 Remove 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 Options > Add folder next to a folder. You can also select a folder in the left 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 Options > Edit folder managers next to a folder. You can also select a folder in the left sidebar, then select Options > Edit folder managers in the upper-right corner.
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 your 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 your Private API Network.

API Editors must be added to the API Builder add-on to request to add APIs.

To add an element to your Private API Network, it must be in a team or public workspace. You can't add an element to your 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 your Private API Network include the latest changes to these elements.

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

You can add elements to your 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 Add to Network in the left sidebar to add elements to the root Home folder. To add elements to a specific folder, select Options > Add elements next to a folder.

You can select a folder in the left sidebar, then 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 your 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 your 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 your Private API Network from the workbench, do the following:

Open the workspace you want to add to your Private API Network.
In the workspace overview, select the Settings tab.
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 your Private API Network from the workbench, do the following:

Open the collection you want to add to your 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.

API Editors must be added to the API Builder add-on to request to add APIs.

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

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

If your team has the API Builder add-on, API Editors added to the API Builder add-on can request to add APIs to your Private API Network. API Network Managers and Folder Managers aren't required to be added to the add-on to review and approve or deny requests.

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 your Private API Network and select Pending requests 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.