Import & Export

Migrate from other tools easily. Import from Postman, Insomnia, or cURL, and export your requests as cURL commands.

Import from Insomnia

Mercury can import Insomnia collections in JSON or YAML format.

How to Import

1. In Insomnia, export your collection (File → Export Data)
2. Choose JSON or YAML format
3. In Mercury, click Import in the sidebar (or use the menu)
4. Select your exported file
5. Mercury creates:
   • .json files for each request
   • Folders matching your Insomnia groups
   • .env files for environments

What Gets Imported

Insomnia Item	Mercury Equivalent
Requests	.json files
Request Groups	Folders
Environments	.env.{name} files
Headers	Headers in .json file
Body	Body in .json file
Auth	Auth headers

File Structure After Import

If you import an Insomnia collection with:

• Request group "Users" containing "Get User" and "List Users"
• Request group "Products" containing "Create Product"
• Environment "Development"

Mercury creates:

your-workspace/
├── .env.development
├── users/
│   ├── get-user.json
│   └── list-users.json
└── products/
    └── create-product.json

Import from Postman

Mercury can import Postman Collection v2.1 files (JSON format).

How to Import

1. In Postman, click Export on your collection (or go to File → Export Collection)
2. Choose Collection v2.1 format
3. Save as JSON file
4. In Mercury, click Import Postman... in the Open menu
5. Select your exported file
6. Mercury creates:
   • .json files for each request
   • Folders matching your Postman folder structure
   • .env.{collection-name} file for collection variables

What Gets Imported

Postman Item	Mercury Equivalent
Requests	.json files
Folders	Directories
Collection Variables	.env.{name} file
Headers	Headers in .json file
Body (raw/JSON)	Body in .json file
Query Parameters	URL with query string

File Structure After Import

If you import a Postman collection named "My API" with:

• Folder "Auth" containing "Login" request
• Folder "Users" with subfolder "Admin" containing "List Admins"
• Top-level "Health Check" request
• Collection variables: base_url, token

Mercury creates:

your-workspace/
├── .env.my-api            # Collection variables
├── auth/
│   └── login.json
├── users/
│   └── admin/
│       └── list-admins.json
└── health-check.json

Variable Preservation

Postman variables like {{base_url}} are preserved in the .json files. Define them in your .env file to use them.

Import from cURL

Paste a cURL command to create a request.

How to Import

1. Copy a cURL command from your terminal, browser DevTools, or API docs
2. In Mercury, press ⌘+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows/Linux) in the request panel
3. Mercury parses and fills in the request details

Example

This cURL command:

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer token123" \
  -d '{"name": "John"}'

Becomes:

POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer token123

{"name": "John"}

Supported cURL Flags

Flag	Support
-X, --request	✅ Method
-H, --header	✅ Headers
-d, --data	✅ Body
--data-raw	✅ Body
--data-binary	✅ Body
--json	✅ JSON body + Content-Type header
-u, --user	✅ Basic authentication
-A, --user-agent	✅ User-Agent header
-b, --cookie	✅ Cookie header
-I, --head	✅ HEAD request
-G, --get	✅ Force GET with data
-L, --location	Ignored (Mercury handles redirects)
-k, --insecure	Ignored
-s, --silent	Ignored
--compressed	Ignored

Export as cURL

Convert any request to a cURL command for sharing or CLI use.

How to Export

1. Open a request
2. Right-click → Copy as cURL
3. Or press ⌘+Shift+C (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+C (Windows/Linux)

The cURL command is copied to your clipboard.

Example

This request:

GET https://api.example.com/users
Authorization: Bearer {{API_TOKEN}}
Accept: application/json

Becomes (with variables substituted):

curl -X GET "https://api.example.com/users" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your-substituted-token" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

Variable Substitution

When exporting, Mercury substitutes environment variables with their current values.

File-Based Portability

Since Mercury uses plain .json files, you can also:

Share via Email/Slack

Just send the .json file — anyone with Mercury can open it.

Commit to Git

git add requests/
git commit -m "Add user API endpoints"
git push

Copy Between Projects

cp project-a/users/*.json project-b/users/

Related Features

• Collections — Organizing imported requests
• Environments — Setting up imported environments
• File Format — The .json file specification