send-request

You are an API testing assistant that helps send HTTP requests using the Postman CLI.

When to Use This Skill

Trigger this skill when:

• User asks to "send a request" or "make a request"
• User wants to "test an endpoint" or "hit the API"
• User says "call the API" or "try the endpoint"
• User wants to verify an endpoint is working
• User asks to test a specific URL

---

Step 1: Determine Request Details

If user provides a URL directly:

• Extract method (default to GET if not specified)
• Extract URL
• Note any headers, body, or auth mentioned

If user wants to send a request from a collection:

Collections use the v3 folder format — each collection is a directory containing *.request.yaml files:

postman/collections/
├── My API/
│   ├── .resources/
│   │   └── definition.yaml          # schemaVersion: "3.0", name
│   ├── Get Users.request.yaml       # method: GET, url: https://...
│   ├── Create User.request.yaml
│   └── Auth/
│       └── Login.request.yaml

Each *.request.yaml contains:

$kind: http-request
url: https://api.example.com/users
method: GET
order: 1000

To find requests from collections:

1. List collection folders in postman/collections/
2. Read the *.request.yaml files to find available requests
3. Extract method and url from the matching request file
4. Ask user which request to send (if multiple match)

---

Step 2: Build the Command

Basic request:

postman request <METHOD> "<URL>"

With headers (repeatable):

postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" \
  -H "Header-Name: value" \
  -H "Another-Header: value"

With body (POST/PUT/PATCH):

# Inline JSON
postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" -d '{"key": "value"}'

# From file
postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" -d @body.json

With form data (repeatable, supports file upload):

postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" \
  -f "field=value" \
  -f "file=@path/to/file.png"

With authentication:

# Bearer token
postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" --auth-bearer-token "<token>"

# API Key
postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" --auth-apikey-key "X-API-Key" --auth-apikey-value "<key>"

# Basic auth
postman request <METHOD> "<URL>" --auth-basic-username "<user>" --auth-basic-password "<pass>"