Connectors

Connecting one

1. Open Automations → Connectors, or press the plug button in the flow editor, or the + in the chat box.
2. Pick a ready-made connector and sign in with that app, or choose Add custom connector and paste the MCP server URL.
3. The connector appears in all three places at once. Switch it off there when you want it out of the way; delete it to forget it.

Each connector shows its state: connected a moment ago, never used yet, or could not connect with the reason. A connector whose sign-in expired shows Reconnect; nothing else changes, so your flows and agents keep working once you reconnect.

Keys, your own address, and what Browse lists

• Key connectors. Some services take an API key instead of a sign-in (a few take a login and a password). Paste it in the field the card shows, with the service’s own hint on where to find it; Serenities sends it the way that service expects. The key is checked when you connect: one the service refuses is not saved. When the service answers either way and we cannot tell whether the key is right, it is saved and shown as Key not checked, never as connected; use Update key to try another.
• Your own address. Some services give every account its own address. The card asks for your account name, host or region, and Serenities builds the address from it; private and local addresses are refused.
• Custom connector with a key. Under Add custom connector, pick how the key is sent: a Bearer token, a header (you name it, such as X-API-Key), a query parameter, or a login and password.
• What Browse lists. Browse lists only the connectors you can add today: ones you sign in to, ones that take a key, and ones that need nothing. A few services only accept apps they approved one by one; those are added to Browse once Serenities’ own app there is set up. Any service that offers an MCP address can still be added as a Custom connector. A service that has not verified Serenities’ app yet says so on its card, in plain words, for example that it works with a warning screen until the vendor verifies Serenities.

Where connectors are used

• Chat — the AI can call the connector’s tools while it works for you. Tools that change data ask before running.
• Flows — in the flow editor’s Add Tool panel, the Connectors tab lists your connectors; open one and click a tool to add it as a step. Fill in its fields like any other step, with {{#2.field}} references to earlier steps. A connector step runs when the flow reaches it; there is no approval pause.
• AI agents — give an agent the Connections capability and pick which connectors and tools it may use. The agent lists them with connections_list and calls them with connections_use, asking for your approval before an irreversible action as it does for everything else.
• Functions — an account function and a site’s function see the connections on their own list in ctx.connections.list(), connectors marked kind: 'connector'. The list is empty until you add one: open the function (in Automations, or your site’s Backend Functions), then Access, then “Authorised connections”. The Owner, an Admin or a Developer ticks them.

// Inside a backend or account function
const all = await ctx.connections.list();            // [{ id, name, server, kind: 'app' | 'connector', tools }]
const docs = all.find((c) => c.kind === 'connector' && c.name === 'Team docs');
const result = await ctx.connections.call(docs.id, 'search', { query: 'Q3 launch plan' });

Tools and what they do

Next to each tool you see what kind it is: Reads from the app (search, list, get), Changes data in the app (create, update, send) or Deletes data in the app. The list comes from the app itself. If a connector shows no tools yet, press Refresh tools on it, or use it once in a chat.

How careful the AI is with connected apps

Each connection has its own setting for how much the AI may do with it before asking you. Set it in Access and security → Connectors: for the whole connection, for each group of its tools (Read, Change, Delete), or, under Advanced, for one tool.

• Ask first: every action shows a card with what it wants to do; you press Allow or Deny.
• Ask before changes: reads (search, list, get) run on their own; anything that writes or deletes still asks. Every connection starts this way.
• Don’t ask: everything runs on its own. You still see every action that ran under the reply. Serenities’ own tools start this way.

One exception: in the chat, Serenities’ own actions that spend money, that can’t be undone, that send something to people, or that change something live (a site: publishing or unpublishing it, its pages, its domain, its sign-in, its users and roles, who can open it, its settings and schedules or its payments; who can open a file, folder, table or flow; a share link or a mailhook in use; or turning a flow, function, journey or app on, off or to another version) still show a card first, unless you set that tool or its group to Don’t ask here, or set this chat to Don’t ask, and nothing stricter is set.

On a card, Always allow this tool (for whoever may change the connection) sets that one tool to Don’t ask. In a workspace with members, where the Owner or an Admin chose a setting, only the Owner or an Admin can make the AI ask less there; anyone who may change the connection can make it ask more, and the Owner or an Admin can make the AI stricter for one person. A setting nobody chose shows as the default. Flows and functions never ask: a step or call is allowed or refused. They run as the workspace, so whoever builds one can only wire connectors they may use themselves, and whoever runs it (anyone in the workspace, unless the flow’s “Who can run this flow” narrows it) is passed in only as information. AI agents have their own approval setting, and in a run someone starts, the connection’s setting applies too.

Turning single tools off

On the Connectors page, click a connector to see everything about it: its tools, when you connected it, and buttons to reconnect, refresh the tool list or update its key. Each tool has a switch. Turn a tool off and it stays off: your AI agents and functions are not offered it and cannot call it, and a flow step that uses it stops with a message that says so. Turn it back on and everything that was allowed before works again. Turn the whole connector off with the switch on its row; the heading counts the active ones.

Serenities’ own actions, without connecting to yourself

The first entry in the flow editor’s Connectors tab is Serenities, its tools grouped by area (Sites, Base, Drive, Flows and so on; open an area or search inside it): what the platform can do (sites, pages, tables, files, flows, functions, sharing) as steps. Nothing to sign in to. A flow step runs as your workspace, on your own things only; setting up AI agents and installing apps are not offered as steps (a person does those, in the dashboard, the chat or your own AI). AI agents see the same connection (connections_list shows “Serenities”) only when you give it to them, and use only its tools you allow, inside the sites you granted. A function uses no Serenities tool until you add one: open the function in Automations, then Access, and add it under “Serenities tools this function may use” — then its code calls ctx.connections.call('Serenities', 'tables_createRow', {…}). A function uses your other connected apps the same way: only those listed on its Access tab, none until you add one. A site’s own functions cannot use Serenities tools (they call an account function that you gave those). They can use your other connected apps, but only those ticked under Authorised connections. The chat does not list it because the chat already has these tools built in.

Good to know

• Sign-ins and API keys are encrypted at rest and never shown again, not to you, not to the AI.
• Only servers reachable on the public internet can be connected; private or local addresses are refused.
• A connector is yours alone. A flow that uses one cannot be sold on the marketplace with your connection inside; buyers connect their own.
• built-in connectors still power the built-in apps in the flow editor’s Tools tab. New integrations arrive as connectors.