A connector is how Tines 3B reaches the tools you already use. Slack, GitHub, Jira, Salesforce, your databases, your email, and hundreds of other apps all become things your workflows and chats can act on, without you ever handling a raw API key or wiring up authentication by hand.
A reusable connection to one app
A connector is a saved, configured connection to a single app. It bundles together the app it points at (its type, like Slack or GitHub), a name you choose, the address of the service, and the credentials needed to authenticate. Once you've set one up, it's reusable: the same connector can power many workflows and many chats, so you configure an app once and use it everywhere rather than reconnecting it each time.
Learn how to create a connector here.
Tines 3B ships with a large library of connector types covering popular apps across categories like communication, development, security, and CRM. For anything not in the library, there are generic options too, so a connector can front a custom HTTP API, a database, or an email server just as well as a named product.
Authentication, handled for you
The point of a connector is that it takes care of authentication so you don't have to. Different apps authenticate in different ways, so a connector type can offer several methods to choose from, such as OAuth, an API key, or a database connection string. Whichever you pick, Tines 3B stores the secret securely and encrypted.
At runtime, the magic is that your code never touches those secrets. In a step or a chat, you make a plain, unauthenticated request to the app's API, and Tines 3B injects the right credentials as the request leaves. That keeps sensitive keys out of your workflows entirely while still letting them call the services they need.
A shared resource, governed by access
Connectors are one of Tines 3B's shared resources, which means access to them is controlled the same way as spaces and other scopes. A connector can be viewed, edited, shared, and used, and each of those is a distinct permission. This separation matters: someone can be allowed to use a connector in their workflows without being able to see its credentials or change who else has access.
Because a connector is shared rather than owned by a single workflow, Tines 3B checks that the people working in a space can actually use the connectors that space relies on. It works this out on demand from the current access on both sides, so there's nothing to keep in sync: change who can use a connector, and the next check reflects it.
For more information on how access control works, read here.
Where connectors get used
A connector comes into play in two main places.
In a workflow, you attach a connector to a step, and that step can then call the app.
In chat, a connector lets you ask about and act on your tools directly, pulling from the apps you're connected to.
In both cases, a connector is only available if you have permission to use it, so it never reaches further than you can.
Knowing it works
Setting up a connection is easy to get slightly wrong, so Tines 3B checks your work. Right after you connect, it automatically runs a connection test against the app and reports whether it succeeded or failed, along with a message if something went wrong. That quick feedback means you find out a credential is off before a workflow depends on it, and you can re-run the test any time.