Postman Knowledge

Reference for Postman concepts and MCP tool selection. Use this context when working with Postman MCP tools to make better decisions.

Core Concepts

Collection: A group of API requests organized in folders. The primary unit of work in Postman. Contains requests, examples, tests, and documentation.
Environment: Key-value pairs (variables) scoped to a context (dev, staging, prod). Used to swap base URLs, auth tokens, and config without changing requests.
Workspace: Container for collections, environments, and specs. Can be personal, team, or public.
Spec (Spec Hub): An OpenAPI or AsyncAPI definition stored in Postman. Can generate collections and stay synced.
Request: A single API call definition (method, URL, headers, body, tests).
Response: A saved example response for a request. Used by mock servers and documentation.
Folder: A grouping within a collection, typically by resource (e.g., "Users", "Orders").
Tags: Labels on collections for categorization and search.
Monitor: A scheduled collection runner that checks API health.
Mock Server: A fake API that serves example responses from a collection.