#Collection sharing

Resterm can export a portable, self-contained collection bundle that you can commit to Git and import anywhere else. This is useful when you want a reliable "same inputs, same requests" handoff between developers, CI jobs, or support environments.

A bundle export contains your request files plus the files those requests depend on, such as RTS modules, script includes, payload files, GraphQL query/variables files, gRPC descriptor/message files, and WebSocket send-file payloads. Resterm writes a manifest.json file with per-file checksums, and import verifies those checksums before writing to disk.

##What happens to environment files

Resterm treats environment sharing as an explicit safe template flow:

1. If resterm.env.example.json exists in the workspace, Resterm exports it exactly as written.
2. If only resterm.env.json or rest-client.env.json exists, Resterm generates resterm.env.example.json and replaces every value with REPLACE_ME. In grouped files the group and profile keys and the $default strings are kept as they are, only the values under $shared and the profiles are redacted.
3. If no environment file exists, Resterm still writes an empty resterm.env.example.json so the bundle shape remains predictable.

##Export a collection bundle

The following command exports recursively and names the bundle:

resterm collection export \
  --workspace ./my-api \
  --out ./shared/my-api-bundle \
  --recursive \
  --name "my-api-v1"

A typical bundle directory looks like this:

shared/my-api-bundle/
  manifest.json
  requests.http
  rts/helpers.rts
  payloads/create-user.json
  resterm.env.example.json

You can commit this directory directly to Git and open it in code review like any other project files.

##Import a collection bundle

You can import that bundle into a local workspace with:

resterm collection import \
  --in ./shared/my-api-bundle \
  --workspace ./my-local-api

If you want to inspect the plan before writing, run:

resterm collection import \
  --in ./shared/my-api-bundle \
  --workspace ./my-local-api \
  --dry-run

If destination files already exist and replacement is intentional, you can add --force.

##Pack a bundle into a zip archive

If you want to hand off a single file instead of a directory, you can pack an existing bundle:

resterm collection pack \
  --in ./shared/my-api-bundle \
  --out ./shared/my-api-bundle.zip

This command reads and validates the bundle manifest and payload checksums before writing the archive, so you do not package a partially corrupted bundle by accident.

##Unpack a zip archive back into a bundle directory

You can unpack the archive before importing it:

resterm collection unpack \
  --in ./shared/my-api-bundle.zip \
  --out ./shared/my-api-bundle

Unpack validates archive paths, rejects unsafe entries (for example traversal paths and symlinks), validates checksums against manifest.json, and only then moves the unpacked bundle into place.

##Safety and validation behavior

Export, import, pack, and unpack all enforce path safety and integrity checks. Resterm rejects references that escape the workspace, rejects malicious traversal paths in manifests and archives, rejects symlink escapes, and fails operations if size or checksum validation does not match the manifest.