Connect an app

Sign in to an app or paste its key once, and its tools work in every session you own, your previews and the apps you publish.

Connecting an app links your account on an outside service, such as Gmail, Slack or Notion, to Alpha. You do it once, in Integrations, and the app’s functions become tools for the agent in every session you own, and for the apps and agents it builds. For a hosted server such as Linear or Stripe, see MCP servers. A service with no connector works as a plain key under Secrets.

Nothing is pasted into a message. You sign in or type a key in Alpha’s own forms, and the connection is kept by Alpha and its connector service, never on your session’s machine. If you don’t see an app in the list, it isn’t turned on for your Alpha. Ask your administrator.

Sign in to an app

Most apps connect through the app’s own consent page, which Alpha opens in a small window.

1. Find the app

   Click Integrations in the sidebar. The catalog opens as a dialog on the Connectors tab, where the Connectors sub-tab lists the apps. Type the app’s name in the search box. Inside a session, you can type /integrations gmail in the composer instead, which opens the catalog at that app.

2. Click Sign in

   Click Sign in on the app’s card, or open the card and click Sign in in its panel. A window opens on the app’s consent page, for example Google’s.

3. Approve, and let the window close

   Approve the access. The window’s last page reads “Connected” and “You can close this window and go back to your chat.”, and then closes itself. In Alpha, the app’s card now shows Active.

If a sign-in doesn’t go to plan:

What happens	What Alpha does
Your browser blocks the window	Alpha sends the whole tab to the app’s consent page instead. When you approve, you come back to the page you left, with the same app open.
The sign-in fails	The window reads “The sign-in didn’t complete”, and the panel reads “The connector’s authorization did not complete. Try connecting again.” Click Sign in again.
You take longer than 10 minutes	The sign-in expires and the app isn’t connected. Close the window and click Sign in again.

Connect with a key or extra fields

Some apps ask for a key, account credentials or a few details instead of a consent page. Open the app’s card to see which form it uses. A few apps need nothing at all: their panel reads “No credentials needed — connect it and its functions are available at once.”, and Connect links them straight away.

API key

The panel shows Connect with an API key. Paste the key into API key, then click Connect. As the form says, the key is “Stored by the connector service, never in a session.”

Other apps ask for their key as a labelled field instead. Those use the Extra fields form.

Account credentials

Apps that sign in with an account id and a token, such as Twilio, show Connect with your account credentials. Paste both into Account SID : Auth Token as one value with a colon between them, for example ACxxxxxxxx:your-auth-token. Then click Connect. A value without the colon is refused with “Use the form AccountSid:AuthToken”.

Extra fields

Some apps need details first: Telegram needs your bot token, and Jira needs your site’s subdomain. The panel shows one labelled field for each. Fill them, then click Sign in (which continues to the consent page) or Connect (which connects straight away).

Alpha doesn’t try a key you type against the app when you connect, and Test connection checks only that your account is linked. A wrong key shows up the first time the agent calls one of the app’s tools. Ask the agent to make one small call, such as listing a few items, to check it early.

Test, check or disconnect a connection

Once an app is connected, its card shows Active and its panel reads Connected. The panel says the app’s functions are now in the agent’s tool list and in every app the agent builds. It starts “Signed in with Alpha’s shared client” for an app you signed in to, and “Linked” for any other.

Control	What it does
Test connection	Checks that your account is still linked and active, and prints a green or red line.
Connector scopes	Lists every function the agent gets, with a readable name above its raw name. You can’t switch single functions off.
Refresh (the icon beside Connector scopes, on some apps)	Picks up functions the app has added since.
Disconnect	Removes the connection at once, with no confirmation, and unlinks your account from the connector service too. Every session, preview and published app loses the app until you connect it again.

When do changes reach my sessions?

A connection belongs to your account, so Alpha updates the agent’s tool list everywhere:

Where	When the change arrives
A running session with no turn in progress	Right away.
A running session in the middle of a turn	When that turn ends, so the agent has it from its next turn.
A session that is asleep	When it wakes.
Your previews and published apps	On their next call, because they reach the app through Alpha with the session’s key.

When the agent asks you to connect

When the agent needs an app you haven’t connected, it posts a Connect card in the transcript with its reason. It doesn’t wait: it carries on with the parts that don’t depend on the app, such as logging emails instead of sending them, and finishes its turn.

1. Click Connect Gmail. A small dialog opens for that app alone, with a Why the agent asked box above the usual sign-in or key form. Browse all integrations → opens the full catalog instead.
2. Connect. The dialog closes, and the card changes to “Gmail is connected”.
3. Click Tell the agent to continue. Alpha sends “I connected Gmail in Alpha — its tools are in your tool list now. Continue.” If the agent is still working, the message reads “from your next turn” instead of “now”, and steers the running turn.

Each open request also sits in a tray above the composer, so it stays in reach after the card scrolls away. A row reads “Connect Gmail · the agent asked for it” with a Connect button. Once the app is connected, the row reads “Gmail is connected · tell the agent to carry on” with Continue.

If the tray was showing a request while you connected, Alpha presses Continue for you, once. The × on a row hides it in this browser.

In one session, the agent can’t post a card for the same app twice within 2 minutes, and it never posts one for an app you’ve already connected. People viewing a shared session see the cards without buttons, and no tray.

What if a connection doesn’t work?

Message or symptom	Fix
”The sign-in didn’t complete” in the window, or “The connector’s authorization did not complete. Try connecting again.” in the panel	The sign-in didn’t finish. Click Sign in again, and approve within 10 minutes.
”sign-in is unavailable right now — try again in a moment”	Alpha couldn’t start the sign-in. Wait a moment and click Sign in again.
A red Test connection line ending “connect it again”	The connector service no longer holds an active link to your account. Click Disconnect, then connect again.
”could not reach the tool service — try again in a moment” or “could not reach Composio”	The connector service didn’t answer. Try again shortly.
”Connectors could not be loaded”	Click Refresh at the right of the row under the tabs.
The agent can’t find the app’s tools right after you connected	Its turn was already running. Click Tell the agent to continue, or send your next message.

For problems outside this page, see Troubleshooting and FAQ.

Next steps

Use integrations in your app

The two variables your app and its agents use to call what you connected.

MCP servers

Hosted servers such as Linear and Stripe, or one that runs in every session.

Secrets

For a service with no connector: a key the agent reads from its environment.

Post a weekly summary to Slack

Connect Slack and use it from a routine every Monday.