Postman is a wondrous tool for backend developers. A friend. A single point of truth. Something that stays open alongside our code editor. However, using a graphical interface in a fast-moving work environment may not be productive. Most of us enjoy the most productivity with our keyboard, at our Terminal. So, why not bring Postman as a commandline interface? The project is pretty much in pre-release stage. Ideas/feedbacks are welcome!

Download for Linux, Mac, or Windows - and get started right away!

Usage

Usage: pcli [options] [command]

postman command-line interface

Options:
  --version                         output the version number
  -c, --collection <string>         path to collection
  -h, --headers <string>            header for all requests
  -v, --variables <string>          variable for all requests
  --help                            display help for command

Commands:
  show [options] <resources...>     show details of a resource
  list [options] [resources...]     list resources recursively
  run [options] <resources...>      runs a request
  move [options]                    move a resource under another parent
  rename [options] <resources...>   rename a resource
  reorder [options] <resources...>  reorder a resource under the same parent
  delete <resources...>             remove a resource
  help [command]                    display help for command

Getting Started

Download postman-cli for your platform: Linux, Mac, or Windows. Then let's download/export an example collection, which we can experiment with. You can copy and save this collection json in a file named collection.json, or you can have your own postman collection json file.

Outline

This command prints the outline of a collection. The --depth option controls the recursive depth, and it is Infinity by default.

$ pcli -c collection.json list             
$ pcli -c collection.json list --depth 2 

      col  pcli example
          fol  users
              req  register
              req  login
              req  update
              req  list
              req  remove
          fol  orders
              req  checkout
              req  list
              req  remove

Show

This command prints details of a folder, request, or example. Note that, for brevity, a "resource" refers to a folder, request, or example within a Postman collection. An example of pinpointing a nested resource is $ pcli show users register muadh. Here, users is a folder, register is a request, and muadh is an example. So, the command shows the details of the example named muadh.

$ pcli -c collection.json show users register muadh
                                                   
200 OK
{
  url: { method: 'POST', path: '/users/register' },  
  headers: {
    date: 'Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:34:51 GMT',
    server: 'Apache/2.4.48 (Ubuntu)',
    'content-length': '271',
    'keep-alive': 'timeout=5, max=100',
    connection: 'Keep-Alive',
    'content-type': 'text/html; charset=iso-8859-1'
  },
  body: {
    user: { id: '7a96cbb8045a56d23dc1', fullName: 'Muadh Bin Jabaal' }
  },
  size: { body: 82, header: 210, total: 292 },
  time: null
}

Rename

This command renames a folder, requst, or example. In this example, we're renaming the request login to log-in.

$ pcli -c collection.json rename users login --name log-in

Move

This command moves a folder, request, or example within a collection. In this example, we're moving the request named register from folder users to folder orders.

$ pcli -c collection.json move --from users register --to orders

Delete

This command deletes a folder, request, or example.

$ pcli -c collection.json delete users update

Reorder

This command reorders a folder, request, or example by 1-based index.

$ pcli -c collection.json reorder users list --index 1

Run

This command runs a HTTP request or example. Usually postman variables e.g. {{baseURL}} or {{auth-token}} are used in headers or URLs. Values for them can be provided through the --variables option. Make sure you have an active backend server to process a HTTP request and provide a response. For the purposes of this demo, a simple static backend server is provided in test/server.ts, which you can run by npm run test:backend.

$ pcli -c collection.json run users register muadh
$ pcli --variables '{"server":"localhost:8080"}' -c collection.json run users register          # running request, resolving {{server}}
$ pcli --variables '{"server":"localhost:8080"}' -c collection.json run users register muadh    # running example, resolving {{server}}

200 OK
{
  url: { method: 'POST', path: '/users/register' },  
  headers: {
    date: 'Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:34:51 GMT',
    server: 'Apache/2.4.48 (Ubuntu)',
    'content-length': '271',
    'keep-alive': 'timeout=5, max=100',
    connection: 'Keep-Alive',
    'content-type': 'text/html; charset=iso-8859-1'
  },
  body: {
    user: { id: '7a96cbb8045a56d23dc1', fullName: 'Muadh Bin Jabaal' }
  },
  size: { body: 82, header: 210, total: 292 },
  time: null
}