Develop locally with Native Git

Once your workspace is connected to your Git project, you can use the following workflow to develop a feature locally. This page focuses on the local branch workflow. For the complete app-based push, pull, and workspace sync flow, see Sync local and cloud elements with Native Git.

Open the service-specific project workspace. This workspace contains your blueprint collection and its pinned environments, and is already connected to your Git repo.
Switch Postman to Local View. This ensures you are editing the local YAML files generated by the Git-backed connection.
(One-time per machine) Set the repo directory. Point Postman to the root of your service’s Git repository. This enables the app to read/write the collection dumps under postman/.
Create a new feature branch from your team’s integration branch (for example, main or develop). Replace <base-branch> with that branch name. From your terminal or Git client:
```
git checkout <base-branch>
git pull
git checkout -b feature/<your-feature>
```
The branch switch is automatically reflected inside the Postman App.
Make API changes in the Postman App. Edit the blueprint collection or its pinned environments from Local View only.

Examples:
- Adding new endpoints
- Updating request structures
- Updating test scripts
- Editing STAGE/BETA environment variables
All edits are saved directly into the Postman Collection V3 YAML files under postman/.

A regular postman workspace push overwrites existing cloud elements with your local copies, so pull any Cloud View edits you want to keep before pushing. It doesn’t delete cloud elements that are missing locally unless you use --push-strategy force-sync.
Commit and push the YAML diff. Your changes will appear as modified .yaml files. Commit the changes and push the feature branch:
```
git add .
git commit -m "Update API blueprint for <feature>"
git push
```
If you use a Git client instead of the terminal, stage the changed files, generate or write a commit message, commit, then publish the branch. The steps are the same, just driven from the client’s UI instead of these commands.
When the branch is ready for review, open a PR and merge it using your team’s release workflow. Once the branch is merged or released, use the CI/CD automation in Automate Native Git with CI/CD to sync the updated cloud workspace.