Collections

Collections are the unit of organisation in Restura: a tree of folders and requests, with auth and variables that cascade.

Structure

• Collection — top-level folder. Can carry its own auth, base URL, headers, and variables.
• Folder — nested inside a collection or another folder. Same shape — also carries auth / headers / variables.
• Request — leaf node. Inherits from parents unless overridden.

Inheritance

Anything you set on a folder cascades to every descendant unless that descendant explicitly overrides it. Concretely:

• Auth — Inherit from parent is the default on new requests.
• Headers — additive: parent headers + child headers; child wins on conflict.
• Variables — visible to all descendants; useful for collection-scoped defaults (base_url, team_id).

Drag, duplicate, organise

• Drag requests or folders between locations.
• Duplicate with right-click → Duplicate.
• Rename inline with double-click.
• Sort by name or by drag order.

Sharing

Restura imports and exports OpenCollection natively (see reference) and supports Postman v2.1, Insomnia, Hoppscotch, Bruno, and OpenAPI / Swagger import. Export your work to share with teammates or commit to your repo.

On the desktop client, you can also point Restura at a filesystem-backed workspace and use Git on the directory.

Collection-run evidence

The collection runner records status, timing, assertions, and a safe response-evidence summary in the Runs panel. Choose one retention mode when starting a run:

• Metadata only (the default) stores no body excerpt or hash.
• Failures only keeps a redacted excerpt of failed text responses, capped at 64 KiB each.
• All responses keeps a redacted excerpt of each text response, capped at 16 KiB each.

Restura redacts credential headers, cookies, recognizable secrets, and sensitive diagnostic values before any evidence is saved or exported. Binary/base64 responses are never retained. Evidence is also capped at 2 MiB per run and 20 MiB total; when needed, the oldest evidence is evicted while the run metadata remains visible.

From a saved run you can inspect evidence after reload, export JSON/JUnit/HTML reports, compare it with the most recent run for the same collection, and rerun failed or individual requests. Reruns use the current collection, environment, secrets, security policy, and platform capabilities. If the original run used a CSV or JSON data file, choose it again: input rows are never retained.

Git collaboration on desktop

Open or clone an OpenCollection directory, then open the collection menu and choose Git…. Restura uses your installed Git and its existing SSH agent or credential manager; it does not ask for or store Git credentials.

The Git dialog supports status and diffs, staging, commits, branches, fetch/pull/push, and branch merges:

1. Fetch to refresh remote-tracking branches.
2. Under Branches, select a non-current local or remote branch and choose Merge branch. Restura pins the merge to the commit shown when you selected it, so a moving remote ref cannot silently change the operation.
3. If Git reports conflicts, choose each file under Merge interrupted:
   • OpenCollection YAML gets field-level choices for mapping values. Lists remain atomic, avoiding surprising item-by-item merges.
   • Other text files show base, local, and incoming versions with an editable result.
   • Binary, oversized, and symlink conflicts offer whole-file choices. Submodules must be resolved with Git outside Restura.
4. When all conflicts are resolved, review the merge message and choose Commit merge. This is an ordinary non-fast-forward Git commit, so configured commit hooks and signing still apply.

You can close the dialog or restart Restura during a conflict; reopening Git… reconstructs the merge from Git’s metadata and index. Abort merge restores the exact pre-merge state after confirmation.

Merging requires a clean working tree and an attached branch. Restura will not start a merge during a rebase, cherry-pick, or revert. Pull remains fast-forward-only; use the explicit merge workflow when histories diverge.

See workflows for portable workflows stored alongside collection files.

Related

• Environments — scope variables independently of collections.
• Import & export — formats supported.
• Authentication — set once on the collection, inherit everywhere.