What is a pipeline?
A pipeline is a markdown file in api-docs/flows/ that chains endpoint specs into sequential or parallel steps. Each step can capture values from a response and inject them as variables into later steps auth tokens, resource IDs, pagination cursors, and anything else extracted from a live response.
You can write this markdown by hand, ask an agent to create it, or design it visually in the Web preview flow canvas.
Pipeline frontmatter
Pipeline files use the same frontmatter delimiter as endpoint files, with a required type: pipeline field.
Step syntax
Steps are a numbered ordered list under ## Steps. Each item names the step and points to an endpoint file path relative to api-docs/.
Step directives
Extract a value from the response and save it as a named variable for use in all subsequent steps.Supported capture expression patterns:Use JSONPath-style dot notation for JSON responses. Captured values have the highest variable priority and override all other sources for all later steps in the pipeline. Declare which captured variables from previous steps this step requires.Injected variables are resolved from earlier Capture directives. If the named capture has not happened yet because the producing step hasn’t run or failed Reqbook returns an error before sending the request. Add a pass/fail condition evaluated after the step’s ## Expected response comparison.A failing Assert is treated the same as a failed expected response check. If continue-on-error: false, the pipeline stops at that step.
Sequential vs parallel execution
Sequential (default)
Parallel
Steps run in the order they appear in the ## Steps list.
- If
continue-on-error: false (the default), the pipeline stops at the first failing step and reports which step failed.
- Captured values are available to all steps that appear after the capturing step.
- Use sequential pipelines whenever later steps depend on the results of earlier ones which is true for most real-world flows.
Set parallel: true in the frontmatter to allow Reqbook to run independent steps concurrently.
- A step that uses
Inject always waits for the step that produced the required Capture before it starts.
- Steps with no
Inject dependency may run at the same time as other independent steps.
- Use parallel pipelines for independent setup steps such as seeding multiple test fixtures before a main flow begins.
Prefer a simple rule: if a step injects a captured value, keep it after the step that captures that value. Independent setup steps can run in parallel.
Running a pipeline
Open the flow canvas, select a flow, run it, and inspect each step result. Use the canvas when you are designing captures and connections.
Complete example
Keep pipeline files short and focused on one user journey. A pipeline that tests ten unrelated things is harder to debug when step 7 fails. Prefer one pipeline per scenario.
