Insomnia can export its collections and workspaces to files. That export is your backup,
your handoff, and — if you're moving to a portable format like .http — your exit ticket.
This guide covers the two export shapes, which one to pick for which job, and the pieces
that don't survive any export.
The two export formats
Insomnia's own format (JSON or YAML). The full-fidelity option: folders, requests, environments, and Insomnia-specific settings. Pick it for backups and for importing into tools that understand Insomnia exports directly (Postman and Bruno both do). Its downside is the point: it's Insomnia-shaped, not a format other clients run natively.
HAR. A neutral HTTP archive containing the request definitions — method, URL, headers, body. Pick it when the destination is a portable format: HAR is what generic converters read, including the free HAR → .http converter.
Exporting in practice
- Find the export action — Insomnia offers export from the workspace/collection menu and from Preferences → Data, depending on version and scope.
- Choose the scope: one collection or the whole workspace. One collection at a time keeps the review manageable.
- Pick the format per the table above — when in doubt, export both: the Insomnia format as a full backup, HAR for conversion.
- Save the files outside any public repository until you've checked them for credentials — exports happily carry live tokens in headers and environment values.
What no export carries over cleanly
- Template tags and chained values (response references, generators) are Insomnia runtime features — an export stores them as tags, but no other client executes them.
- Environment values export with the workspace, secrets included — that's precisely why the credential check above matters.
- GraphQL, gRPC, and WebSocket requests only make sense in a protocol-capable client;
a HAR/
.httppath covers the REST subset.
From export to portable files
If the goal is requests as plain text in Git rather than another app-shaped archive, the
full walkthrough is in
how to migrate from Insomnia to .http files:
HAR (or per-request copy-as-cURL) → browser-side conversion → environments rebuilt as
git-ignored .env files → a pass through the
.http validator.
The result runs in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, CI runners, and Karve — and never needs exporting again, because the file on disk is the collection.
Weighing where to land first? See the Karve vs Insomnia head-to-head and the Insomnia alternatives roundup.