Automate publishing to your Private API Network using the Postman API

You can use the Postman API to programmatically manage your Private API Network’s resources. With it, you can automate the publication of your team’s Private API Network.

Getting started

You can get started by forking the Postman API collection in the Postman Public Workspace. This collection has all the available Private API Network endpoints.

You will also need an API key to use the Postman API. For information, see Generate a Postman API key.

Create a Private API Network folder

This HTTP request creates a folder in your Private API Network. A folder can contain multiple elements, such as workspaces, collections, or APIs.

It’s recommended that you use your Postman Vault to store sensitive data, such as API keys, as vault secrets. Only you can access and use values associated with your vault secrets, and vault secrets aren’t synced to the Postman cloud. If you want to share sensitive data with collaborators, you can store it in an environment as a variable set as sensitive data.

By default, this API creates the folder in the root Home folder of your Private API Network:

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POST /network/private HTTP/1.1
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Host: api.getpostman.com
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Content-Type: application/json
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X-API-Key: {{postman-api-key}}
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Content-Length: 94
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{
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    "folder": {
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        "name": "Billing",
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        "description": "The Billing API."
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    }
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}

The same HTTP request in Postman:

On success, your request’s response will look similar to the following:

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{
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    "id": 1,
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    "parentFolderId": 0,
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    "updatedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "updatedBy": 12345678,
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    "createdBy": 12345678,
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    "createdAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "name": "Billing",
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    "description": "The Billing API.",
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    "type": "folder"
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}

You can also find your new folder in your Private API Network’s root Home directory:

Save the id value in the response. For example, save it as a collection variable called {{folderId}}. You can then use it as the parentFolderId value in other requests, such as adding elements to the folder or subfolders.

Add elements to your Private API Network folder

Your Private API Network folder’s elements (collections, APIs, and workspaces) are links to the original element. If that source element changes, then your Private API Network automatically reflects these changes.

In the following examples, the {{folderId}} variable references the id value returned when you created your Private API Network folder (for example, 1).

Add a collection to a folder

This HTTP request adds a collection to your Private API Network folder.

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POST /network/private HTTP/1.1
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Host: api.getpostman.com
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Content-Type: application/json
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x-api-key: {{postman-api-key}}
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Content-Length: 131
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{
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    "collection": {
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        "id": "12345678-12ece9e1-2abf-4edc-8e34-de66e74114d2",
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        "parentFolderId": {{folderId}}
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    }
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}

The response to this request will look similar to the following:

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{
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    "addedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "addedBy": 12345678,
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    "createdBy": 12345678,
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    "createdAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "updatedBy": 12345678,
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    "updatedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "type": "collection",
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    "id": "12345678-12ece9e1-2abf-4edc-8e34-de66e74114d2",
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    "name": "Billing API Collection",
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    "summary": null,
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    "description": "The Billing API collection.",
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    "href": "https://api.getpostman.com/collections/12345678-12ece9e1-2abf-4edc-8e34-de66e74114d2",
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    "parentFolderId": 1
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}

Add an API to a folder

Before you add an API to your Private API Network folder, first make sure it’s published. Private API Network APIs must have a published version associated with it.

Then, use the following HTTP request to add an API to your Private API Network folder:

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POST /network/private HTTP/1.1
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Host: api.getpostman-beta.com
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Content-Type: application/json
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x-api-key: {{postman-api-key}}
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Content-Length: 115
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{
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    "api": {
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        "id": "5360b75f-447e-467c-9299-12fd6c92450d",
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        "parentFolderId": {{folderId}}
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    }
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}

The response to this request will be similar to the following:

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{
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    "addedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "addedBy": 12345678,
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    "createdBy": 12345678,
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    "createdAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "updatedBy": 12345678,
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    "updatedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "type": "api",
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    "id": "5360b75f-447e-467c-9299-12fd6c92450d",
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    "name": "Billing API",
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    "summary": "The payments and account services API.",
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    "description": null,
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    "href": "https://api.getpostman.com/apis/5360b75f-447e-467c-9299-12fd6c92450d",
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    "parentFolderId": 1
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}

Add a workspace to a folder

This HTTP request adds a workspace to your Private API Network folder:

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POST /network/private HTTP/1.1
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Host: api.getpostman.com
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Content-Type: application/json
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x-api-key: {{postman-api-key}}
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Content-Length: 121
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{
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    "workspace": {
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        "id": "1f0df51a-8658-4ee8-a2a1-d2567dfa09a9",
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        "parentFolderId": {{folderId}}
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    }
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}

The response to this request will be similar to the following:

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{
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    "addedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "addedBy": 12345678,
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    "createdBy": 12345678,
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    "createdAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "updatedBy": 12345678,
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    "updatedAt": "2023-08-03T13:18:25.000Z",
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    "type": "workspace",
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    "id": "1f0df51a-8658-4ee8-a2a1-d2567dfa09a9",
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    "name": "Billing Team Workspace",
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    "summary": "The Billing team's workspace.",
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    "description": "The Billing team's workspace.",
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    "href": "https://api.getpostman.com/workspaces/1f0df51a-8658-4ee8-a2a1-d2567dfa09a9",
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    "parentFolderId": 1
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}