A manual test is a memory, and memories are per person. The same collection run by a machine on every push is a test.
npx newman run api/collection.json
-e api/environments/ci.json
--env-var "token=$API_TOKEN"
--reporters cli,junit
--reporter-junit-export newman-results.xml
# and the exit code, which is what CI reads
The --env-var override is how a secret reaches the run without being in a committed file. JUnit output means the results appear in the pipeline’s test report rather than only in the log, which is what makes a failure legible to somebody who did not write it. Running the same collection against a deployed environment as a smoke test is the second use and is frequently the more valuable one.