Why Folders Exist Inside Collections
As a collection grows past a handful of requests, a flat list becomes hard to navigate, so Postman lets you create folders inside a collection to group related requests — for example an 'Auth' folder holding login, refresh, and logout, separate from a 'Users' folder holding CRUD operations. Folders can be nested inside other folders, letting you mirror the structure of a large REST API's resource hierarchy directly in your workspace.
Cricket analogy: Folders are like a cricket board organizing its season into separate competition brackets — Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare, and Syed Mushtaq Ali — each holding its own set of fixtures instead of every match from every format sitting in one giant undifferentiated list.
Folder-Level Scripts and Auth Inheritance
Folders can carry their own pre-request and test scripts that run for every request nested inside them, and they can define auth settings that child requests inherit automatically, so you set a bearer token once at the folder level instead of repeating it on every request inside 'Users'. This inheritance cascades from collection to folder to request, with the most specific level always winning if there's a conflict.
Cricket analogy: Folder-level auth inheritance is like a franchise setting one standard fielding drill for the whole bowling group so every bowler inherits the same warm-up automatically, instead of each bowler being briefed individually before every net session.
// Pre-request script attached to the "Users" folder
// Runs automatically before every request nested inside this folder
pm.request.headers.add({
key: "Authorization",
value: "Bearer " + pm.environment.get("auth_token")
});
pm.request.headers.add({
key: "X-Request-Source",
value: "postman-users-folder"
});Running and Reordering Folders
You can right-click a folder and run just that folder through the Collection Runner, which is useful for re-testing one resource's endpoints without executing the entire collection, and you can drag folders (and requests within them) to reorder execution just like you would with individual requests.
Cricket analogy: Running just one folder is like a team scheduling a net session focused only on spin bowling, without dragging the entire squad through a full-day training camp for every discipline.
Use the folder description field (visible in the collection's documentation view) to explain what a folder's requests do as a group — this becomes part of Postman's auto-generated API documentation when you publish the collection.
Nesting folders more than two or three levels deep makes a collection hard to navigate in the sidebar and slows down teammates trying to find a specific request — prefer a flatter structure with clear naming over deep hierarchies.
- Folders group related requests inside a collection and can be nested to mirror an API's resource hierarchy.
- Folder-level pre-request and test scripts run automatically for every request nested inside them.
- Folders can define auth settings that child requests inherit, cascading from collection to folder to request.
- The most specific level (request) always wins over folder or collection settings if there's a conflict.
- You can run a single folder through the Collection Runner instead of the entire collection.
- Folder descriptions become part of a published collection's auto-generated documentation.
- Deeply nested folders (more than two or three levels) make a collection harder to navigate.
Practice what you learned
1. What is the main purpose of folders inside a Postman collection?
2. If both a folder and a request inside it define conflicting auth settings, which one wins?
3. How can you re-test just one resource's endpoints without running the entire collection?
4. What is a downside of nesting folders too deeply inside a collection?
5. Where can folder descriptions be useful beyond internal organization?
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