Fork collections, environments, and Flows in Postman

A fork is a new instance of an element that you can change without making any changes to the parent element. In Postman, you can fork collections, environments, and Flows. Forking enables you to contribute to an element without having Editor access for that element.

Create a fork

To fork a collection, environment, or Flow within a public workspace, you must enable your public profile in your profile settings. For more information on making your profile public, see Making your profile public.

When you fork a Postman Collection, environment, or Flow, you create a copy of it in a different workspace. You must sign in to Postman to create a fork.

To fork an element, do the following:

1. Select the element in the sidebar.

2. In the overview tab that appears, select Fork in the upper right.

   You can also create a fork by hovering over the element in the sidebar and selecting the more actions icon next to its name, then Create a Fork.

3. Enter a label for your fork, and select a workspace to save it to.

4. Select Fork Collection, Fork Environment, or Fork Flow.

   

Postman creates your fork in the selected workspace.

If there are any mocks or monitors associated with the parent element, they aren't linked to the forked element. You must create mocks and monitors specifically for the fork if you need them.

If a collection is in a public workspace that you haven't been added to, you won't be able to send a request within that workspace. To send requests or make changes to a collection, you must fork the collection into a personal workspace or a team workspace that you belong to.

Edit a fork's name or label

To change a forked element's name or label, do the following:

1. Select the fork in the sidebar.
2. In the overview tab that appears, select the fork's name or label to edit it.
3. Select anywhere outside the name or label to save your changes.

View fork information

Fork information shows details about forks and the users who have created them. You will be able to identify the users who are actively consuming and contributing to your APIs.

To view a list of users who have forked a collection, environment, or Flow, select the number next to the fork icon .

To access the list of forks for a collection, environment, or Flow, do the following:

1. Select the fork icon in the right sidebar.

2. Select the fork name under Forks.

   You can also select the user's avatar under Forks to view the user's public profile.

   

Pull updates from a parent element

Forked Flows don't support pulling updates.

You can pull updates from a parent element into a fork without going through the pull request process.

1. Hover over the fork in the sidebar.

2. Select the more actions icon next to its name.

3. Select Pull changes.

4. Review the diff and select Pull changes.

   

To pull updates from a parent element during the pull request process, see Pulling updates during a pull request.

Merge changes from a fork

Forked Flows don't support merging changes.

If you have Editor access on the element, you can merge a fork into the parent element without going through the pull request process. For example, if you’re using forks in a personal workspace to organize your work, you can merge changes in a fork directly back into the parent element. If you're collaborating with others, though, merging directly lacks the safeguards built into the pull request process. Many teams require pull requests as part of their version control workflow.

To merge changes from a fork without opening a pull request, do the following:

1. Hover over the fork in the sidebar.

2. Select the more actions icon next to its name.

3. Select Merge changes.

4. Review the diff and select Merge all changes.

   

5. Select one of the following merge options:

   • Merge changes - Merge the changes into the parent element. This doesn't make any changes to the fork. You must have Editor access to the parent element.
   • Merge changes and update source - Merge the changes into the parent element. Any differences in the parent element are also made to the fork. You must have Editor access to both the parent and forked elements.
   • Merge changes and delete source - Merge the changes into the parent element. After the merge process is complete, Postman deletes the fork. You must have Editor access to both the parent and forked elements.
   

6. Select Merge.

To merge changes during the pull request process, see Merging changes from a pull request.

Resolve conflicts from a fork

Forked Flows don't support resolving conflicts.

A merge conflict happens when you try to merge changes into an updated parent element and Postman isn't able to automatically resolve the differences between the two. If there's a conflict when you try to merge a fork, you'll need to decide how you want to resolve it before continuing.

Merge conflicts can involve changes in more than one workspace.

To resolve a merge conflict from a fork, do the following:

1. Begin the merge process described in Merge changes from a fork.

2. Select Pull the changes for any conflict.

   

3. For each conflict, choose the version you want to include when you merge. Select Keep Source to keep the change on the parent element. Select Keep Destination to keep the change on your fork. You can also select the version you want to keep for each conflict.

   

To keep all changes on your fork, select Keep all changes to source. To keep all changes on the parent element, select Keep all changes to destination.

After you resolve the conflicts, select Pull changes to pull the updates.