Postman API Development Platform

Postman is a widely used API platform for building, testing, and managing APIs, originally launched as a Chrome browser extension in 2012 by Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti, and Abhijit Kane. Headquartered in San Francisco, Postman has grown to over 30 million users and achieved unicorn status (valued at $5.6 billion in 2021 after a $225 million Series D round). Key features: API client: send HTTP/HTTPS requests using any method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS). Supports request parameters, headers, body formats (raw text, form-data, x-www-form-urlencoded, binary, GraphQL), authorization (API key, Bearer token, Basic auth, OAuth 1.0/2.0, AWS, NTLM), and certificate management. Collections: organize requests into collections for logical grouping. Collections can be versioned, shared, and published. Each request can have pre-request scripts and test scripts written in JavaScript. Environments: manage environment variables for different stages (development, staging, production) with variable scoping (global, environment, collection, local). Variables can be used in request URLs, headers, body, and scripts. Tests: write JavaScript assertions using the Chai.js BDD assertion library and the pm API (pm.test, pm.expect, pm.response). Tests validate response status, headers, body content, JSON structure, and response time. Newman: the CLI collection runner for CI/CD integration, compatible with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Docker. Mock servers: generate mock endpoints from collections to simulate API responses before the backend is built. Monitors: schedule collection runs to monitor API health and uptime. Documentation: auto-generate API documentation from collections with interactive examples. Workspaces: team collaboration with shared collections, environments, and history. API definition: import/export OpenAPI, RAML, WSDL, and GraphQL schemas. JavaScript/Electron. Apache-2.0 (open source portion).