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Export Features Guide

Laravel Spectrum can export generated OpenAPI documents to formats that can be imported directly into Postman and Insomnia.

Postman Export​

Basic Export​

php artisan spectrum:export:postman

Default outputs:

  • storage/app/spectrum/postman/postman_collection.json
  • storage/app/spectrum/postman/postman_environment_local.json

Available Options​

  • --output=: Output directory
  • --environments=: Environments to export (comma-separated, default local)
  • --single-file: Embed environments into the collection instead of separate files

Examples​

# Use default output directory
php artisan spectrum:export:postman

# Export to custom directory
php artisan spectrum:export:postman --output=storage/app/exports/postman

# Export multiple environments
php artisan spectrum:export:postman --environments=local,staging,production

# Embed environments into one collection file
php artisan spectrum:export:postman --single-file --environments=local,staging

Insomnia Export​

Basic Export​

php artisan spectrum:export:insomnia

Default output:

  • storage/app/spectrum/insomnia/insomnia_collection.json

Available Options​

  • --output=: Output file path or output directory

When --output is a directory (or ends with /), Laravel Spectrum writes insomnia_collection.json into that directory.

Examples​

# Use default output path
php artisan spectrum:export:insomnia

# Export to explicit file path
php artisan spectrum:export:insomnia --output=storage/app/exports/insomnia/api.json

# Export to directory (filename is appended automatically)
php artisan spectrum:export:insomnia --output=storage/app/exports/insomnia/

Import Procedures​

Importing to Postman​

  1. Open Postman.
  2. Click "Import".
  3. Select postman_collection.json.
  4. Import the corresponding postman_environment_*.json file (unless --single-file was used).
  5. Select your environment and run requests.

Importing to Insomnia​

  1. Open Insomnia.
  2. Go to Application -> Preferences -> Data -> Import Data.
  3. Select From File.
  4. Choose the exported insomnia_collection.json (or your custom output file).

CI Example​

# .github/workflows/export-api.yml
name: Export API Documentation

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  export:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.2'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist

      - name: Export Postman collection
        run: php artisan spectrum:export:postman --environments=local,staging

      - name: Export Insomnia collection
        run: php artisan spectrum:export:insomnia