express-to-postman

Generate Postman Collections automatically from your Express.js application routes.

Features

• Auto-detect Express routes including nested routers
• Supports both JavaScript (ESM/CJS) and TypeScript entry files
• Bundles local route modules while externalizing npm dependencies
• Generates a valid Postman Collection v2.1 JSON file
• Groups routes by first URL segment for better organization
• CLI tool with simple usage and flexible input/output options

Installation

Install globally for system-wide use:

npm install -g express-to-postman

Or add as a dev dependency in your project:

npm install --save-dev express-to-postman

Basic Usage

Run the CLI against your Express app entry point:

express-to-postman -i path/to/your/express/app.js -o output/collection.json

• -i, --input — Entry file path for your Express app (must export app)
• -o, --output — Output path for the generated Postman collection JSON (default: postman.collection.json)
• -v, --verbose — Enable verbose logging (default: false)

Detailed Examples

JavaScript (ESM)

Assume your server.js looks like:

import express from 'express';
export const app = express();
app.get('/users', (req, res) => res.json([]));

Generate a collection:

express-to-postman -i ./server.js -o ./users-collection.json

TypeScript

Support for .ts entry files is built-in via on-the-fly transpilation:

import express from 'express';
import router from './routes';
export const app = express();
app.use(router);

express-to-postman -i ./src/app.ts -o postman.json

Advanced Options

• Auto-detect dependencies: Reads your project’s package.json to externalize all npm packages during bundling.
• Custom grouping: Routes are grouped by the first path segment (/users, /comments).
• Verbose logging: Pass -v or --verbose to print intermediate logs and the full generated collection JSON.

Troubleshooting

• Missing dependencies: If the CLI complains it cannot find a package (e.g. express), make sure your app’s root package.json is detected correctly. The CLI searches upward from your entry file for package.json.
• Routes not detected: Verify that your Express app exports a named app and that routes are registered before app.listen().

Configuration

You can also import and use generateCollection() programmatically in Node:

import { generateCollection } from 'express-to-postman';

(async () => {
  await generateCollection(
    './dist/app.js',
    './collection.json',
    true // verbose
  );
})();

License

project License