Reference overview
The Reference section covers the tools you can use to integrate Postman into your existing workflow and build on top of Postman’s platform. This includes the Postman API for programmatic access to your Postman resources, the VS Code extension for developing APIs without leaving your editor, and open-source SDKs and libraries for working with Postman’s Collection format. You can use and contribute to Postman’s open-source projects on GitHub.
Postman API
The Postman API gives you programmatic access to your Postman collections, environments, monitors, mock servers, and more. Use it to integrate Postman into your CI/CD pipeline, automate common workflows, and access data stored in your Postman account. You’ll need a Postman API key to authenticate your requests. The Postman API is rate limited.
To get started, see Integrate Postman into your development toolchain.
Postman MCP Server
The Postman MCP Server lets AI agents like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code manage your Postman resources using natural language. The server translates your commands into Postman API calls behind the scenes. You can connect using a remote server over HTTPS or run a local server with STDIO on your own machine.
Postman VS Code extension
The Postman VS Code extension brings Postman’s API development and testing features into Visual Studio Code and other supported editors. You can send requests, manage collections and environments, write test scripts, and run collections without switching between your editor and the Postman app.
To get started, see Install the Postman VS Code extension.
Newman CLI
Newman is Postman’s open-source command-line collection runner. Use it to run and test collections from the command line and integrate them into your CI/CD pipeline. Newman is built with extensibility in mind and supports a range of built-in and custom reporters.
Newman isn’t compatible with the collection v3 format used in Postman v12 and later. If you’re starting a new CI/CD workflow, use the Postman CLI instead. If you have existing Newman workflows, see Migrate to the Postman CLI.
Developer resources
The Developer resources section covers Postman’s open-source SDKs and libraries for working with the Collection format, along with supporting tools:
- Postman Echo service — A public REST API for testing requests and experimenting with Postman features.
- Postman Collection SDK — A JavaScript module for creating, editing, and manipulating Postman Collections programmatically.
- Runtime library — The library that powers Postman’s request-sending functionality.
- Code generators — Generate client code snippets in a variety of languages from your Postman requests.
- API format conversion — Convert OpenAPI, Swagger, RAML, GraphQL, and WSDL specs to Postman Collection format.
- Postman Collection Format schema documentation — The specification that drives collections in Postman.