Collection Settings

Collection settings let you define configuration once and have it apply to every request in the collection. This keeps shared values — like a base URL header or an auth token — in a single place.

Opening collection settings

Right-click a collection in the Collections panel and choose its settings. The settings open with tabs for headers, authorization, variables, scripts, and docs.

Base headers

Headers defined at the collection level are sent with every request in the collection. Use this for headers that are constant across an API, such as Accept: application/json or a fixed API version header. Individual requests can add their own headers or override an inherited one.

Collection-wide authorization

Set an authorization method once for the whole collection and every request inherits it. This is useful when an entire API uses the same scheme — for example a single Bearer token or AWS SigV4 credentials. Requests that need different credentials can override the collection auth on their own Authorization tab. See Authentication for the available methods.

Collection variables

Collection variables are {{variable}} values scoped to the collection. They are a natural home for things like a base URL or a default page size that every request references. Collection variables sit alongside environment and workspace scopes — see Variables for how the scopes resolve.

Collection scripts

You can attach pre-request and post-response scripts at the collection level. These run for every request in the collection:

Pre-request scripts run before each request is sent — useful for signing, setting dynamic headers, or refreshing a token.
Post-response scripts run after each response arrives — useful for shared assertions or extracting values.

Collection scripts run together with any folder-level and request-level scripts. See Scripting for the scripting API.

The Docs tab

The Docs tab holds free-form Markdown that describes the collection as a whole — its purpose, conventions, and how to use it. This documentation is stored with the collection, so it travels with the files in version control.

Precedence

Settings can be defined at the collection, folder, and request levels. The most specific level always wins:

request  >  folder  >  collection

Setting	Collection level	Request can override?
Headers	Base headers for all requests	Yes — per request
Authorization	Default auth scheme	Yes — per request
Variables	Collection-scoped values	Yes — by a narrower scope
Scripts	Run for every request	Requests add their own; both run