CLI: Import and export

The nouto import command converts a file from another API tool into a Nouto collection file that nouto run can execute. The nouto export command converts a Nouto collection file to HAR or rewrites it in Nouto format.

Import a file

nouto import <file> [options]

nouto import accepts these options:

Option	Description	Default
--from <format>	Source format. See the table below.	Detected from the file
-o, --output <file>	Output file	<collection-name>.nouto.json in the current directory

The default file name is the collection name in lowercase, with every character other than letters, digits, -, and _ replaced by _. For example, a collection named My API becomes my_api.nouto.json.

Supported formats

Pass one of these values to --from, or let the CLI detect the format:

Format	--from value	Detected when
Postman	postman	The JSON has info.schema containing postman, or info._postman_id
Insomnia	insomnia	The JSON has _type: "export" or __export_format
Hoppscotch	hoppscotch	The JSON is an array whose first item has v and name
Thunder Client	thunder-client	The JSON is an array whose first item has containerId
HAR	har	The JSON has log.version and log.entries
OpenAPI or Swagger	openapi	The JSON has an openapi or swagger field, or the file extension is .yaml or .yml
Bruno	bruno	The file extension is .bru
cURL	curl	The file content starts with curl

A Bruno import reads a single .bru file and creates a collection named Bruno Import with one request. A cURL import creates a collection named Imported from cURL with one request.

Insomnia, Hoppscotch, and Thunder Client exports can contain several collections. The CLI writes each one to its own <collection-name>.nouto.json file. If you pass --output, each collection overwrites the same file and only the last one remains, so leave --output out for these files.

Import examples

Detect the format:

nouto import postman-collection.json

Set the format explicitly:

nouto import spec.yaml --from openapi

Choose the output file:

nouto import postman-collection.json --output my-api.nouto.json

Export a collection

nouto export <collection-file> [options]

nouto export accepts these options:

Option	Description	Default
--to <format>	Target format: nouto or har	nouto
-o, --output <file>	Output file	<collection-name>.nouto.json or <collection-name>.har in the current directory

A HAR export contains one entry per request, with folders flattened. A Nouto export rewrites the collection in the single-collection export format, which is useful for extracting the first collection from a multi-collection export file.

Caution

Without --output, nouto export writes to a file named after the collection. If that name matches the input file, for example when you export my_api.nouto.json for a collection named My API in Nouto format, the command overwrites the input file.

Export examples

Export as HAR:

nouto export my-api.nouto.json --to har --output traffic.har

Rewrite a collection file in Nouto format:

nouto export my-api.nouto.json --output my-api-clean.nouto.json

Convert a Postman collection and run it

Import the Postman file, then run the result:

nouto import postman-collection.json --output my-api.nouto.json
nouto run my-api.nouto.json --reporter junit --output results.xml

Exit codes

nouto import exits with 2 when the input file is missing and with 6 when it can’t detect the format. Both commands exit with 7 for an unsupported --from or --to value. Exit codes lists the other codes.