- Introduction
- Installing and updating
- Navigating Postman
- Sending your first request
- Managing your account
- Syncing your work
- Discovering templates
- Creating your first collection
- Creating a workspace
- Setting up your Postman app
- Importing and exporting data
- Troubleshooting app issues
- Building requests
- Authorizing requests
- Receiving responses
- Grouping requests in collections
- Using variables
- Managing environments
- Visualizing responses
- Specifying examples
- Using cookies
- Working with certificates
- Generating client code
- Troubleshooting requests
- Using the Collection Runner
- Scheduling runs with monitors
- Building request workflows
- Importing data files
- Working with your team
- Defining roles
- Requesting access
- Sharing your work
- Your Private API Network
- Commenting on collections
- Versioning APIs
- Using version control
- Using the API Builder
- Managing and sharing APIs
- Validating APIs
- Monitoring your APIs
- Setting up a monitor
- Viewing monitor results
- Monitoring APIs and websites
- Set up integrations to receive alerts
- Running Postman monitors using static IPs
- Troubleshooting monitors
- Monitoring FAQs
- Analyzing with reports
- Documenting your API
- Authoring your docs
- Publishing your docs
- Viewing documentation
- Using custom domains
- Publishing templates
- Publishing to the API Network
- Submission guidelines
- Managing your team
- Purchasing Postman
- Billing
- Configuring team settings
- Utilizing audit logs
- Onboarding checklist
- Migrating data between teams
- Intro to SSO
- Configuring SSO for a team
- Logging in to an SSO team
- Microsoft AD FS
- Custom SAML in Azure AD
- Custom SAML in Duo
- Custom SAML in GSuite
- Custom SAML in Okta
- Custom SAML in Onelogin
- Custom SAML in Ping Identity
- Migrating to the current version of Postman
Setting up your Postman app
Getting to the Settings
In the header of Postman, click the wrench icon and select "Settings" to open the SETTINGS modal. You can also use the keyboard shortcut (CMD/CTRL + ,) to open the modal.
General Settings
Postman tries to minimize the number of settings you have to change, so some defaults are automatically set. You can customize your settings based on your use case.
Request
- Trim keys and values in request body: If you’re using the form-data or url-encoded modes to send data to the server, switching this to "ON" will cause any parameters to be trimmed.
- New Code Generation Mode: If you’re generating code snippets via the Code link, switching this to "ON" enables custom settings by programming language.
- Use next generation URL processing Read more about Encoding your request URLs
- SSL certificate verification (native apps only): Prevents the app from checking validity of SSL certificates while making a request.
- Always open requests in new tab: Set this option to ON to open requests in a new tab. This option is, by default, set to OFF. Which means each time you click a request in the side bar, Postman opens the request in the preview tab.
- Always ask when closing unsaved tabs: If you set this option to OFF, Postman does not prompt you to save changes in your unsaved tabs. By default, this option is set to "ON".
- Language detection: Setting this to JSON will force a JSON rendering, irrespective of the response Content-Type header.
- Request Timeout in ms (0 for infinity): Set how long the app should wait for a response before saying that the server isn’t responding. A value of 0 indicates infinity - Postman will wait for a response forever.
- Max response size: Option to limit the size of response (in Megabytes) that is rendered by Postman. If the limit is exceeded, Postman will inform you that the received response is large (default limit: 50 MB) and provide options to increase the size limit or download the response. Note that rendering large responses can impact app performance.
- Disable Request Validation Switch off request validation if you do not want Postman to attempt to validate your requests.
- Automatically persist variable values: Enabling this will persist the current value of variables to the initial value at the end of every request execution. This option is by default off for new users. For old users upgrading to the newest versions, this option is turned on. These settings apply only when assigning current values using scripts, for instance pre-request or test scripts. For more detail, refer to Using variables.
Working Directory
If you want Postman to persist your file paths, then you must save your files in Postman's default working directory. When you work with files in form-data request bodies and binary file bodies, save them to this directory to let Postman persist your file's path relative to the working directory. This means your files loaded from within the working directory run smoothly across devices if other users use the same files on their devices. It also allows you to run collections that require file uploads with Newman.
Postman flags a warning for files that are not stored in this directory.
However, delimiting the working directory can have some unintended security issues as follows:
- It is against the general principle of security to give system-wide access to a program as it exposes a user's system to all types of threats.
- Restricting the working directory would prevent safety issues arising when files obtained from external/anonymous sources are used. For example, a collection that the user has obtained from the internet. The user may or may not have proper information about the collection and as such may not understand if the collection serves some other hidden function.
- Absolute file path can also be given to postman, but when sharing it may not work for the user it is shared to as absolute paths can vary between systems.
To learn more about this feature, refer to Sending body data.
- Location Path to local directory containing postman files. The default path populated as a placeholder is
~/Postman/files
. - Allow reading files outside working directory: Set this option to ON if you want Postman to read files from outside the Postman working directory. Postman persists your file paths for binary file and form-data request bodies. To learn more about this feature, refer to Sending body data.
You may encounter errors for file reference:
- Mini warning ⚠️ icons will be appear when the specified file reference does not exist or the setting to read it from outside PWD is disabled.
- The Postman console will display a warning for file reading errors. It will also display errors if a collection wants to read a file outside the working directory and the setting for it is disabled.
- For Newman, it will read from the default working directory and can be modified using CLI options. File reading errors are displayed as console errors. You can utilize Newman verbose mode to find more information about these errors.
Headers
- Send no-cache header (recommended): Sending a no-cache header makes sure you get the up-to-date response from your server.
- Send Postman Token header: If an XmlHttpRequest is pending and another request is sent with the same parameters then some browsers returning the same response for both of them. Sending a random token avoids this. This can also help you distinguish between requests on the server side.
- Retain headers when clicking on links: If you click on a link in a response, Postman creates a new GET request with that URL. If you want to retain the headers that you set in the previous request set ON here. This is useful if you are accessing mainly protected resources.
- Automatically follow redirects: Prevent requests that return a 300-series response from being automatically redirected.
- Send anonymous usage data to Postman: Option to disable sending basic anonymous usage data (button clicks and app events) to Postman. Postman feeds usage data into product improvements.
User Interface
- Editor Font Size: Adjust the font size in pixels for the text that appears in Postman. Note that this setting impacts only the Test Scripts, Pre-request Scripts, and Response Pretty View.
- Two-pane view: Toggle between showing the response below, or beside, the request.
- Variable autocomplete: Enable this to turn on autocomplete feature for your variables.
Themes
Pick your pleasure: choose a light or dark theme for Postman.
Keyboard Shortcuts
This is where you can view keyboard shortcuts available for your operating system here.
Data Import / Export
Import and export data in bulk inside Postman. This will overwrite your existing collections and environments so be a little careful. It always helps to take a backup before you are importing other files. Learn more about importing and exporting data in Postman.
Add-ons
Download Newman, Postman's command line companion, to integrate Postman collections with your build system, or run automated tests for your API through a cron job. Learn more about Newman.
Sync
If you are signed in to Postman, your data is synced with the server, making sure you have it all next time you use Postman (and not just locally). You can also manually perform sync using the Sync icon in the header toolbar of Postman. Learn more about syncing.
Certificates
Add and view client certificates on a per domain basis. Learn more about setting certificates.
Proxy
Configure your proxy settings in Postman using this tab. For more information on Proxy, see How to configure proxy in Postman.
Update
Postman's native apps will notify you whenever a version update is available. To force a check for updates, head to the Update tab of the SETTINGS modal. Learn about updating the Postman app.
About
This is where you can verify your current version of the Postman app. There are also some helpful support links to reference.