Tour of the window

This page names every part of the ApiWorkbench window, so the other guides make sense. The pictures show a desktop window; the phone layout is described at the end.

The main window

1. 1Rail — Switches the side panel between Collections, Envs and History. Click the active item again to hide the panel.
2. 2Side panel — Shows what the rail item holds. Here: a collection, its folders and its saved requests.
3. 3Request tabs — One tab per open request. The + opens a new tab.
4. 4Environment picker — Chooses the set of variables your requests use.
5. 5Request editor — Where you build the request: method, URL and the tabs below them.
6. 6Splitter — Drag it to give the editor or the response more room.
7. 7Response — What the server answered: status, time, size and the body.
8. 8Workspace actions — Console, Cookies, Import, Export, the light or dark switch and Settings.

The rail

The rail is the narrow strip on the far left. Its top three items choose what the side panel shows.

Item	Side panel shows
Collections	Your saved requests, in collections and folders. See Collections and folders.
Envs	Environments and Globals: sets of variables. See Variables and environments. A green dot on the icon means an environment is active.
History	The last 100 requests you sent. See History.

Click the active item again to hide the side panel and give the editor the full width. Drag the edge of the side panel to make it wider or narrower.

The items at the bottom of the rail act on the whole workspace.

Item	What it does
Console	Opens the Console under the response: every request on the wire, and script output.
Cookies	Opens the cookie manager.
Import	Brings in Postman, OpenAPI, HAR or workspace files. See Import from Postman.
Export	Saves collections and environments to a file. See Export.
Dark / Light	Switches the Teal theme between light and dark.
Settings	Opens Settings.

The top bar

• Request tabs sit on the left. Each tab shows the method and the request name. A small dot after the name means unsaved changes. The + button opens a new HTTP request, and the arrow next to it opens a WebSocket, Socket.IO, MQTT, Server-Sent Events or gRPC tab.
• The environment picker shows the active environment, or No environment. Click it to switch.
• The Focus / Chaos toggle on the far right turns response sounds and effects on or off. Focus is quiet.

The request editor

1. 1Location and name — The collection and folders the request is saved in, then its name. Click the name to rename it.
2. 2Save — Saves your changes. For a new request it reads Save… and asks for a collection.
3. 3Method — GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, QUERY, HEAD or OPTIONS.
4. 4URL — The address the request goes to. Variables and :name segments are allowed.
5. 5Send — Sends the request. It turns into Cancel while a request is running.
6. 6More — Save to collection, runner, load test, code snippet and cURL.
7. 7Editor tabs — Params, Headers, Body, Auth, Scripts, Tests, Captures, Settings and Docs.

The editor tabs hold the parts of a request. A tab's label tells you when it has content: Params (1) counts the rows that are switched on, Auth • Inherit from parent names the auth type, and a dot after Scripts, Settings or Docs means that tab is not empty.

Tab	What goes there	Guide
Params	Query parameters and path variables	Query params and path variables
Headers	Request headers	Headers
Body	The data you send	Request bodies
Auth	How the request proves who you are	Authorization
Scripts	JavaScript before and after the request	Scripts
Tests	Checks on the response	Tests
Captures	Values to save from the response	Captures
Settings	Redirects, certificates, cookies, timeout	Request settings
Docs	A description of the request	Collection docs

The response

1. 1Status — The status code and its meaning. Green is success.
2. 2Time — How long the whole exchange took.
3. 3Size — The size of the response body.
4. 4Body actions — Find in body, save to a file, save as example, save as a Markdown doc, and copy.
5. 5Response tabs — Pretty, Raw, Preview, Headers, Cookies and Tests.
6. 6Body — The response body. Pretty indents and colours JSON.

Before you send anything, this area reads Hit Send to see the response here. Read the response covers every part.

Hover help

Point at a field, tab, button or badge and wait a moment. A card appears with a title, an explanation and often an example. The small question-mark icons next to labels open the same cards. On a touch screen, press and hold.

When you know your way around, turn the cards off: open Settings and switch off Hover help.

Themes

ApiWorkbench has two themes: Teal, in light or dark, and Graphite and orange, which is dark only. The Dark / Light item on the rail switches Teal between its two modes. Choose the theme in Settings.

On a phone or a narrow window

When the window is narrower than 900 pixels or shorter than 600 pixels, ApiWorkbench switches to a single-column layout. This is what you see on a phone.

• App bar. The menu button on the left opens the side panel as a drawer. The environment picker is on the right, followed by the Workspace menu (three dots) with Import (Postman, workspace)…, Export workspace…, Console, Cookies… and Settings….
• Drawer. Three icon buttons at the top switch between Collections, Environments and History. Tapping a request opens it and closes the drawer.
• Request tabs run under the app bar and scroll sideways.
• Bottom bar. Request shows the editor and Response shows the answer. After you send, a badge on Response shows the status code. Tap Response to read it.
• Editor. On a narrow editor the method and the Send button share the first line and the URL takes the line below. Body types scroll sideways as a row of chips.

Everything else works the same way as on a desktop.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keys	Action
Ctrl + Enter	Send the request
Ctrl + S	Save the request to its collection
Ctrl + T	New request tab
Ctrl + W	Close the tab
Ctrl + O	Import
Ctrl + F	Find in the response body

The full list is on Keyboard shortcuts.

Next steps

• Send your first request
• Build a request
• Read the response