Auth Inheritance

Auth inheritance lets you set credentials once on a collection or folder instead of configuring them on every request individually. Requests can inherit from their parent, use their own credentials, or send no auth at all.

Inheritance Model

Auth flows down the hierarchy:

Collection
  └── Folder
        └── Request

Each level can either inherit from its parent or override with its own configuration. A request at the bottom of the chain resolves auth by walking up to the nearest ancestor that has auth configured.

Auth Modes

Each request and folder has an Auth mode selector with three options:

Mode	Behavior
Inherit	Use the auth configured on the nearest parent (folder or collection)
Own	Use the auth configured directly on this request or folder
None	Send no auth, even if the parent has auth configured

Setting Collection Auth

1. Right-click a collection in the sidebar and open its settings.
2. Click the Auth tab.
3. Select an auth type and fill in the credentials.

All requests and folders inside the collection default to Inherit mode and will use these credentials.

Setting Folder Auth

Folders can override the collection’s auth for a subset of requests:

1. Right-click a folder and open its settings.
2. Click the Auth tab.
3. Set the mode to Own, then configure the auth type and credentials.

Requests inside the folder inherit from the folder. The collection’s auth is not used for requests in that folder.

Request-Level Override

Individual requests can also switch to Own mode to use different credentials than their parent, or to None to skip auth entirely for that request.

Nested Folders

Inheritance works through any number of nesting levels. A request in a deeply nested folder walks up the chain until it finds an ancestor with Own mode configured, or reaches the collection root.

Collection (Bearer token: collection-token)
  └── Folder A (Inherit → uses collection token)
        └── Folder B (Own: Basic auth)
              └── Request 1 (Inherit → uses Folder B's Basic auth)
              └── Request 2 (Own: API Key → uses its own key)
              └── Request 3 (None → sends no auth)

Variable Support in Inherited Auth

Inherited credentials support {{variable}} syntax the same as request-level auth. Define the token once in an environment variable, reference it in the collection’s auth configuration, and all inheriting requests use the resolved value automatically.

Postman Compatibility

Postman collection auth and folder auth are preserved during import. Collections and folders with auth configured in Postman import as Own mode in Nouto. Requests that inherit from their parent in Postman import as Inherit mode.