Connected accounts overview
Connect an account once, and your agents can act in that app without anyone signing in again. A connection is how an agent reads a GitHub repo, searches a Notion workspace, sends Gmail, or looks up an invoice in Xero.
What a connection is
Section titled “What a connection is”A connection is an authorized link between your Alfe organization and an account in another service. Every connection works the same way:
- It has a scope. A connection lives at your organization, a team, a project, or a single agent. The scope decides which agents can use it. See Connection scopes.
- Its credentials are stored encrypted. They never appear in the dashboard.
- You stay in control. You can reconnect it, move most connections to another scope, or disconnect it. See Providers and connection management.
Most providers use OAuth: you approve access on the provider’s own screen, and Alfe never sees your password. A few use another method, such as an API key or a cross-account role. The provider list shows which is which.
Connections, channels, and integrations
Section titled “Connections, channels, and integrations”Alfe separates three things, and each has its own place in the dashboard:
| What it does | Where you set it up | |
|---|---|---|
| Connection | Gives agents access to an external account. | Connections |
| Channel | Lets people message an agent on a platform such as Slack. | The agent’s Channels tab |
| Integration | Installs a capability on an agent, such as news search. | The agent’s Integrations tab |
You don’t install the tools for a connection. Once it’s active, Alfe adds the matching tools to every agent that can see it, and removes them when the last connection for that provider goes away. See How integrations work.
Where you manage connections
Section titled “Where you manage connections”Use the Connections hub in the dashboard at app.alfe.ai or in the desktop app. It’s available for your organization and on each team, project, and agent. Each view shows that scope’s own connections plus the ones it inherits.
An agent can also start an OAuth connection for itself. It generates a one-use link, and you open that link and approve access. See OAuth connect flows.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- Connect an account: follow the steps for an OAuth provider.
- Connection scopes: choose who can use a connection.
- Providers and connection management: see every provider, and reconnect, move, or disconnect a connection.
- Connect an AWS account: give agents the AWS CLI with short-lived credentials.