Inherit auth from a parent#

If you set the same token on twenty requests, you have twenty places to update when it changes. Inherited auth fixes that. You define authentication once on a collection or folder, and you leave each request set to inherit. Every request then picks it up. Change the token in one place and the whole collection follows.

Set auth on a collection or folder#

Open the menu on a collection or folder in the Collections tree and select Edit auth. You get the same methods as a request's Auth tab. Select a method, fill it in, and save. A folder can itself inherit and take its auth from its own parent. A collection cannot, because it has no parent.

How a request resolves inherited auth#

A request set to Inherit auth from parent looks up its ancestors for the nearest one that defines a real method. The search runs from the innermost folder outward to the collection. The first ancestor with a concrete method wins. The search skips ancestors set to No auth or to inherit.

A folder can therefore override the collection. If the collection sets a bearer token but one folder sets Basic auth, requests in that folder use Basic and the rest use the token.

If no ancestor defines a method, the app sends an inheriting request without authentication.

What the read-only summary reports#

On an inheriting request, the Auth tab shows a read-only summary of the auth it resolved to: the collection or folder it inherits from, the method, and its fields, with secrets masked. Two other states can appear.

• The request has not been saved yet, so it has no parent to inherit from. Save it to a collection or folder first.
• No parent defines a method, so the app sends the request without authentication.

The summary is read-only, so you change inherited auth in the parent, not in the request.