Deploy flows as actions in Postman Flows

An action is a flow that's deployed in the Postman cloud. Unlike flow modules, which must be run manually, actions can be triggered by external systems like webhooks, third-party apps, or other APIs. Actions are useful for running automations and exposing functionality as an API or as an AI tool for MCP servers.

Actions can process incoming data and return structured responses. Once deployed, an action gets a unique cloud-hosted URL. An action's URL is useful for tasks like automating business logic, handling webhooks, integrating with external services, or powering AI-driven tools on MCP servers.

Local and deployed actions run in the Postman cloud and don't support private APIs.

Actions are available in Postman version 11.42.3 and later.

Create an action

To create a new action, do the following:

1. In the Flows tab, select Create a new folder or flow > Create action. The action appears with a Request block, a placeholder Template block, and a Response block. The Request block's three output ports will send headers, query parameters, and body data received from an external API call.

2. Delete the Template block if you don't need it. Add and connect blocks to create a flow that processes data from one or more of the Request block's output ports.

3. Route data to the Response block's Status Code, Headers, and Body ports. The Response block will update the status code and include routed data in the response's headers and body.

   Learn about how to set up the Request block and Response block.

4. Select Run to test your action locally with scenario data.

Learn more about creating actions with this video tutorial.

Deploy an action

After you create an action you can deploy it to make it publicly available. Deployed actions run on the cloud and have public URLs that can receive requests, process data, and send responses like API endpoints. If you make changes to an action, you must re-deploy it so the changes are available from its URL. To deploy an action to the cloud, do the following:

1. In your action, click Deploy and enter the following:

   • Snapshot - Create a new snapshot of the action or select an existing snapshot. This is the version of the action that will be deployed.

   • Action URL - This path will be added to the domain where the action is deployed. You can use the resulting URL to call the action.

   • Timeout - Sets the amount of time that the action will wait before sending a 408 Request Timeout error if it hasn't finished running. Enter a value between 5 and 30 seconds (inclusive). See Manage long-running actions.

   • Description - Describe the action's purpose and any important details.

2. Click Deploy. The action runs in the Postman cloud at the specified URL, and a summary of the action appears. The summary includes the action's status, URL, and version.

Manage long-running actions

Actions normally send out any data they produce as HTTP response bodies. This holds true for any action that finishes running in less than the Timeout duration. The data flows through the Response block.

The maximum Timeout is 30 seconds. If your action requires longer to run, contact Postman support to request an increase of the maximum timeout value to 60 seconds.

Once the Timeout interval has elapsed, the Response block sends out a 408 Request Timeout error. The action will continue running for up to 60 minutes, at which point it will automatically stop.

If your action requires over 60 seconds to run, it won't be able to send out data from the Response block. Instead, design your action to be asynchronous.

Deploy a new snapshot of an action

If you make changes to your action, you can deploy the new version and create a new snapshot of it.

To deploy a new version of an existing action, do the following:

1. In your action, click Deploy.

2. (Optional) Enter a description of the changes.

3. Click Deploy. The new version of the action is deployed to the original URL and a new snapshot is created.

Deploy a previous snapshot of an action

To revert an action to a previous snapshot, do the following:

1. In your action, click Deploy.

2. Select the dropdown list.

3. Select the snapshot you want to deploy.

4. Click Deploy.

   The local version of your action doesn't automatically restore the snapshot when you deploy it. To learn about restoring snapshots and more, see Version flows with snapshots.

Enforce bearer token authorization for actions

You can configure actions to authorize requests with a bearer token. Bearer tokens make actions more secure by only granting access to requests that include the token.

To require a bearer token for your action, do the following:

1. Create and deploy an action.

2. In the Deploy dialog, click Turn on > Turn on.

   

3. Click Copy to copy the Auth token. You can then share the token with authorized users so they can include it in requests to the action's URL.

   

4. (Optional) Click Regenerate token to create a new token.

Synchronous and asynchronous actions

You can design your actions to be synchronous (sync) or asynchronous (async). In a sync action, all the blocks complete their functions before the action sends a response. An async action sends a response before its blocks finish running.

For example, if an AI block in your action takes several seconds to complete a task, you may choose to send the response first. Async actions are useful when integrating with webhooks from services that expect a quick response, like Slack.

Here's an example of an async action:

In this action, a Validate block checks the request data against a schema. If the request data is valid, the action simultaneously sends a Status Code 200 response and triggers the Create with AI block, which may complete after the action's timeout setting elapses. By making the action async, it can send a response before completing its workflow.