If you are running a group of tests (whether it be tests in collection or tests in folder), is there somewhere in postman where you can run a initial setup script … a script that will Only run before the test execution starts and will NOT run before each tests (like the pre-request scripts do)?
Ok, so you actually run a group of requests. Not tests.
The pre-request scripts are just that. They run before the request.
A request doesn’t neccessarily need to have tests.
You can also have tests in a pre-request script, as well as in the tests tab.
You can add scripts at the request, folder, or collection level. Using the pre-request scripts to run before a request, and the tests tab to run after the request.
I going to guess that you mean you want to run a single setup script before you run a folder or collection? In which case, it would make sense to put that script in the pre-request script for the first request in the collection or folder which means it should only run once.