pmctl

pmctl — Postman CLI for API Discovery

pmctl wraps the Postman API to let you browse collections, inspect requests, and resolve environment variables from the terminal. Use it to discover endpoints, construct curl commands, and understand APIs without opening the Postman GUI.

Install: pip install pmctl

Setup

# Add a profile with your Postman API key
pmctl profile add <name> --api-key "PMAK-..." --default

# Set a default workspace (scopes list commands)
pmctl profile set-workspace <workspace-id>

Commands

Collections

pmctl collections list                      # List (scoped to default workspace)
pmctl collections list --all                # All workspaces
pmctl collections show <UID>                # Tree view of all requests

Requests

# List all requests in a collection (flat table: method, name, path, URL)
pmctl requests list -c "Collection Name"

# Fuzzy search (characters matched in order, e.g. "getCmp" matches "get Campaign")
pmctl requests list -c "My API" --search "getUser"

# Show request details (headers, body, query params, path variables)
pmctl requests show "request name" -c "Collection Name"

-c accepts collection name (case-insensitive) or UID. requests show uses case-insensitive substring match. requests list --search uses fuzzy matching (characters in order).

Environments

pmctl environments list                     # List environments
pmctl environments show <name-or-id>       # Show variables
pmctl environments show <name> --full       # Full values (no truncation)

Workspaces

pmctl workspaces list                       # List accessible workspaces
pmctl workspaces list --search "keyword"    # Filter by name

Global Options

• --json — Machine-readable JSON output (pipeable to jq)
• --profile <name> / -p — Use a specific profile instead of default

Workflow: Resolve a Full API URL

Postman requests use {{variable}} placeholders. Resolve them via environments:

# 1. Get the request (shows URL like {{base-url}}/v1/users/:userId)
pmctl requests show "get User" -c "My API" --json

# 2. Resolve the variable
pmctl environments show "Production" --json | jq -r '.values[] | select(.key == "base-url") | .value'

# 3. Combine: replace {{base-url}} with resolved value, :userId with actual ID

Workflow: Construct a curl Command

# Get full request details as JSON
REQ=$(pmctl requests show "create User" -c "My API" --json)

# Extract method, URL, headers, body
echo "$REQ" | jq '.[0].request | {method, url: .url.raw, headers: .header, body: .body.raw}'

# Get environment base URL
BASE=$(pmctl environments show "QA" --json | jq -r '.values[] | select(.key == "base-url") | .value')

Tips

• --json output is pipeable to jq for scripting
• environments show --json returns unmasked secrets — useful for scripting
• Collection names are matched case-insensitively; prefer names over UIDs for readability
• Multiple profiles let you manage separate Postman accounts (personal, work, etc.)