AI has changed the game for developers, helping them code, debug, test, and communicate more efficiently than ever. But here at Postman, we know that true productivity magic comes from high-quality APIs (yes, we’re a bit biased, but hear us out).
APIs power AI’s “thinking,” which means that if your APIs are outdated, error-prone, or hard-to-find (by humans and AI agents), even the smartest AI won’t save you from a productivity doom spiral. That’s why the November edition of the Postman Drop is all about API quality. Dive in for five quick tips that will help save you from 404s all the way down.
Tip 1: Stop context switching with Postman Collections and the VS Code extension
In last month’s edition of the Postman Drop, we talked about how creating a Postman Collection is the single most important thing you can do to accelerate the process of designing, documenting, building, testing, and integrating APIs. That’s one of the many reasons that over 35 million developers love Postman. But they also love VS Code; after all, that’s where they write the actual API code that underlies collections.
But it can be hard to love two things at once, and until recently, developers who love Postman and VS Code had to pivot back and forth between these tools. This context switching broke their flow, forcing them to constantly shift mental gears while putting API quality and long-term productivity in jeopardy. It was like trying to dance to two of your favorite songs at once—frustrating and awkward, but full of potential.
The Postman VS Code extension is like the ultimate remix, blending the beats of Postman and VS Code into one seamless groove. It lets developers organize their HTTP, raw WebSocket, and gRPC requests in Postman Collections without leaving their IDE, run tests, manage environments and variables, and easily debug responses. Plus, they can share their collections directly from VS Code, streamlining API collaboration right where the code comes to life.
Learn more about Postman Collections and the VS Code extension.
Tip 2: See the full picture with response sharing in Slack and Teams
As much as we wish API development was a predictable, straightforward process, in reality it’s full of unexpected twists and turns. Maybe an endpoint doesn’t return the expected response, or an error message is hard to understand. Your teammates are always there to help, but it’s hard for them to lend a hand if they’re missing crucial information and context.
Postman Collections make it easy to send requests and inspect responses, but until now, it was cumbersome to share those responses with others. Developers had to copy and paste responses into their communication tool as plain text, or worse—take screenshots. This process was slow, error-prone, and lacking context, which made collaborative debugging feel like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. Talk about a productivity killer.
That’s why we’re excited to introduce response sharing through our bidirectional integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams. Developers can now share response details with teammates by simply clicking on the “Copy link” button in the response section, and then pasting the link into their preferred communication tool. The link will unfurl, showing a context-rich response that is easy to read. From there, teammates can jump into Postman in a single click to help troubleshoot the issue.
Response sharing in Slack
Response sharing in Teams
Additionally, users with the “Editor” or “Admin” role can now subscribe a Slack channel to changes in a Postman workspace. As team members see automatic notifications come through about new or updated requests, collections, and environments, they can initiate Postman actions—like “Watch,” “Comment,” and “Fork”—directly from Slack. This capability helps teams work more efficiently throughout the API development lifecycle, which ultimately leads to higher-quality APIs. It will soon be available for Microsoft Teams, too.
Learn more about integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Tip 3: Stay on the same page with auto-generated documentation
API documentation plays an essential role in an API’s overall quality, and it’s a key part of effective, complete collections. Well-documented APIs are easier to work with, but docs often fall by the wayside—especially during a tight sprint. Additionally, some teams write documentation in static tools that are decoupled from their APIs and don’t automatically update to reflect changes, which means their documentation is often outdated. For API consumers, working with outdated or incomplete documentation is like trying to bake a cake without a recipe—they’re left guessing the ingredients and hoping for the best.
Here’s the good news: Postman automatically generates documentation for every collection you create. This customizable documentation includes all of the requests in your collection, along with examples, authorization details, and example code. If your API definition changes, the documentation automatically updates to match, instead of going stale in a Confluence document. And if you want a little extra help putting it all together, you can also tap into AI with Postbot to generate request documentation that’s even more detailed.
With these auto-generating documentation features, consumers get all of the information they need, and producers don’t have to spend time writing and maintaining it. It’s a productivity win-win.
Learn more about creating documentation in Postman.
Tip 4: Set your consumers up for success with API documentation templates
Even with auto-generated documentation, making sure your API’s consumers have everything they need can be daunting. Maybe you want to showcase specific use cases for your APIs, or create a catalog of every API component—including requests, tests, authorization details, variables, and examples. But even the best plans have a way of getting sidelined, especially when there are other tasks on your to-do list. It’s a bit like planning a garden—easy to imagine, but tougher to execute.
That’s why Postman offers templates for creating different types of API documentation, like reference documentation, workflow documentation, and blueprint documentation. These templates will give you a jump-start on creating standardized reference materials that serve as a single source of truth for your APIs and their related assets. This way, you can create high-quality documentation without getting caught in the weeds of this this crucial stage in the API lifecycle.
Explore API documentation templates, as well as demoing templates, testing templates, and prototyping templates.
Tip 5: Explore OpenAI APIs on Postman’s Public API Network
So far, this post has covered features that will help your team build high-quality APIs that will keep you productive in the AI era. But more and more, building or integrating AI technology is becoming your day job. According to Postman’s 2024 State of the API Report*, AI-related traffic on the Postman platform has grown by 72.7 percent in the past year (July 2023—June 2024, compared with July 2022—June 2023).
Every day, developers are discovering, testing, and integrating AI APIs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT API, which is one of the thousands of APIs that are available on Postman’s Public API Network. There, you’ll find everything you need to get started—like rundowns of common use cases, authorization instructions, code snippets, and much more. These resources streamline the process of integrating this incredibly powerful API, so you can leverage its productivity-boosting benefits as quickly as possible.
*If you’d like to learn more about trends, practices, and emerging technologies in API development, check out our custom ChatGPT instance for our State of the API Report. This publicly available, specialized GPT has full knowledge of the report’s findings and is ready to answer questions and provide insights.
Stay tuned!
That’s a wrap for this edition of the Postman Drop! We’ll be back next month with more tips, tricks, and product updates, so be on the lookout. But if you can’t wait until then, check out the September and October editions of the Drop. They’re both packed with awesome features to help tide you over.
Got questions, feedback, or stories to share? Leave a comment! Our Product team is excited to connect with you.
Keep it 200,
The Postman Team
Half my day is spent doing this through copy/pasta and screen shots in Slack. The other half is spent doing this through Google Chat. Any plans to add an integration there in the future?
Slack/Teams integration is definitely a 
Love to hear it! Just out of curiosity - what are the 1-2 things that a G-Chat ↔ Postman integration would help you accomplish easier/faster?