Tutorials

Email Testing in Postman: Wait for a Verification Email

The Devmailr TeamJune 23, 20266 min read

Postman isn’t just for poking endpoints — with a collection and a few test scripts, you can automate a whole email-verification flow: create an inbox, trigger your app, wait for the email, and pull out the code. Here’s how, without leaving Postman.

Set up variables

You’ll call two APIs: your app (to trigger the email) and Devmailr (to create an inbox and read mail). Add collection/environment variables for the base URL devmailr_base = https://api.devmailr.app/api and your secret DEVMAILR_API_KEY.

Request 1 — Create an inbox

request

POST {{devmailr_base}}/mailboxes
Authorization: Bearer {{DEVMAILR_API_KEY}}
Content-Type: application/json

{ "prefix": "pm-{{$timestamp}}" }

In the request’s Tests tab, save the new inbox for later requests:

tests

const inbox = pm.response.json()
pm.collectionVariables.set('mailbox_id', inbox._id)
pm.collectionVariables.set('mailbox_address', inbox.address)

Request 2 — Trigger your app

Send your app’s signup request to the disposable address (use the saved mailbox_addressvariable). Nothing special here — you’re just making your app email that address.

Request 3 — Wait for the email and grab the code

request

GET {{devmailr_base}}/mailboxes/{{mailbox_id}}/wait?has_code=true&timeout=60
Authorization: Bearer {{DEVMAILR_API_KEY}}

tests

const email = pm.response.json()
pm.test('email has a code', function () {
  pm.expect(email.extractedCodes.length).to.be.above(0)
})
pm.collectionVariables.set('otp', email.extractedCodes[0])

Mind the timeout: /wait long-polls up to 60s. Set Postman’s request timeout to 0 (no timeout) or above your wait timeout in Settings, so Postman doesn’t abort the call early.

Request 4 — Verify and clean up

Use the saved otp variable in your verify request, then DELETE {{devmailr_base}}/mailboxes/{{mailbox_id}} to clean up the inbox.

Run it in CI with Newman

Export the collection and run it headless with Newman (Postman’s CLI):

bash

newman run email-flow.postman_collection.json \
  --env-var "DEVMAILR_API_KEY=$DEVMAILR_API_KEY"

Now the verification flow runs on every pipeline, no UI required.

Tips

Use a dynamic variable in the prefix (a timestamp) so parallel runs don’t collide.
Raise Postman’s request timeout above the wait timeout.
For magic links, read email.primaryLink instead of the code.