> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alpha.new/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Integrations > One catalog of the apps, built-in services and MCP servers your agent and your apps can use. An integration is anything outside your project's code that the agent, or the app it builds, can use: an app such as Gmail or Slack, a service built into every session such as PostgreSQL, or an MCP server that adds tools. The **Integrations** catalog holds all of them in one place, and anything you connect there works in every session you own. To sign in to an app, see [Connect an app](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/connect-apps.md). For hosted or local MCP servers, see [MCP servers](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/mcp-servers.md). To call your connections from the code the agent writes, see [Use integrations in your app](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/in-your-app.md). ![The Integrations dialog, with a close button at its top right. Under the title Integrations, the lede reads: Sign in once and build with it across your sessions, apps and agents. Built-in integrations land in the agent's environment; connectors and MCP servers reach it as tools. Below it are the tabs Connectors (selected), MCPs and Connected, a search box with the placeholder Search — Gmail, Stripe, Notion, maps…, and the dropdowns All auth and All categories. Under them are the sub-tabs Connectors 25 (selected), Built in 6 and Connected 0, with a Refresh button at the right. A three-column grid of cards follows, sorted A to Z: Airtable, arXiv, Browserbase, Cal.com, Cloudflare, E2B, Fireflies, Gmail, Google Calender, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Hacker News, LinkedIn and Mem0, with Netlify, OneDrive and Open Weather Map cut off at the bottom. Each card shows a logo, a blue Verified check, a Connector badge, an API key, OAuth or No auth badge and a one-line description. Cards with API key or No auth show a Connect button; Gmail, the Google apps, LinkedIn and OneDrive, which use OAuth, show Sign in.](https://mintcdn.com/lyzr-15a99e0f/ObBpayiae_4aNgzN/images/integrations/integrations-page-apps.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=ObBpayiae_4aNgzN\&q=85\&s=95d49f200f6c1e8668e97139b0dd8823) The catalog opens on Connectors, where each app offers Sign in or Connect. ## What counts as an integration? Each card names its kind with a coloured badge. Built-in services land in the agent's environment; connectors and MCP servers reach it as tools. | Kind (badge) | What it is | How you connect it | For example | | - | - | - | - | | **Connector** | A ready-made link to an outside app. Each function, such as "Send email", becomes a tool. | **Sign in** or **Connect** on the **Connectors** tab. | Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Jira | | **Built in** | A service in every session's machine. | Nothing to connect. The agent switches it on. | PostgreSQL, User sign-in | | **Remote MCP** | An MCP server hosted on the web, reached through Alpha. | **Sign in** or **Connect** under **MCPs → Remote**, or add one by its address. | Stripe, Notion, Sentry, Linear | | **Local MCP** | An MCP server that runs as a command inside every session's machine. | **Install** under **MCPs → Local**, or add a command. | Context7, Memory, Sequential thinking | Connector and remote MCP sign-ins never enter a session. Sessions and apps hold only a per-session key, never your password or the app's own token. > [!NOTE] > > If you don't see an app or MCP server you expected, it isn't turned on for your Alpha. An [admin](https://docs.alpha.new/admin.md) chooses which apps and hosted MCP servers the catalog offers. ## Browse the catalog The catalog opens as a large dialog over whatever you are doing. It has no address of its own, so there is no Integrations page to bookmark. There are three ways in: | Way in | What opens | | - | - | | **Integrations** in the sidebar | The whole catalog. The row's badge counts what you have connected. | | [`/integrations`](https://docs.alpha.new/reference/slash-commands) in a session or on the home screen | The same dialog. `/integrations gmail` opens it at that entry. | | **Connect** *app* on a card the agent posts in the transcript, such as **Connect Gmail** | Only the entry the agent asked for, with its reason. **Browse all integrations →** opens the rest. | The dialog has three tabs, and each sub-tab shows a count. | Tab | Sub-tabs | | - | - | | **Connectors** | **Connectors** (outside apps), **Built in** and **Connected** | | **MCPs** | **Remote**, **Local** and **Connected**, with **Add server** at the right | | **Connected** | None. It lists everything that is on. | | Control | What it does | | - | - | | Search | Searches the open tab. | | **All auth** | Narrows the cards to **OAuth**, **API key** or **No auth**. | | **All categories** | Narrows the cards to one category on the open tab, such as "Business tools". | | **Refresh** | Loads apps and MCP servers afresh, past the copy Alpha keeps for a few minutes. | Cards are sorted A to Z. Click one to open its detail: what it gives the agent and how to connect it. ## Read a card Every card tells you what a thing is, how it signs in and whether it is on. 1. **Logo.** A server with no mark of its own shows the MCP glyph. 2. **Verified.** Alpha curated it. Servers you add yourself don't get the check. 3. **Type badge.** **Connector**, **Built in**, **Remote MCP** or **Local MCP**. 4. **Auth badge.** **OAuth** (sign in with the app's own account), **API key** (paste a key or credentials) or **No auth** (one click). Built-ins have none. 5. **Action or status.** See the table below. | Corner reads | Meaning | Click it to | | - | - | - | | **Sign in** | Not connected; uses OAuth. | Open the app's sign-in in a popup, or open its detail first when it needs more from you. | | **Connect** | Not connected; takes a key, extra fields or nothing. | Connect at once, or fill in its form in the detail. | | **Install** | A curated local MCP server. | Install it in every session you own. | | **Disconnected** | A remote server whose access was revoked. | Open its detail to remove it and add it again. | | Pill **Active**, green dot | Connected, or installed and on. | Open its detail to test, disconnect or switch it off. | | Pill **Off**, grey dot | A local server switched off. | Open its detail to switch it on. | When a remote server's sign-in has expired and can't be refreshed, its detail reads "Sign in again". Built-in cards show nothing in the corner, because they are always there. ## Use the built-in services **Connectors → Built in** lists the six services every session's machine already has. The agent switches each one on when your project needs it. ![The Integrations dialog on the Connectors tab, with the sub-tabs Connectors 25, Built in 6 (selected) and Connected 0, the All auth and All categories dropdowns and a Refresh button. Six cards sit in a three-column grid, sorted A to Z: Alpha tools, GitHub, Headless browser, Image generation, PostgreSQL and User sign-in. Each card shows its logo, a blue Verified check, a grey Built in badge and a one-line tagline, most of them cut short: Alpha tools' begins Every connected provider and MCP server, callabl, GitHub's Clone repos, push, open pull requests — the GitHu, Headless browser's The agent's own Chromium, for checking its work, PostgreSQL's The session's own database, browsable in the Dat and User sign-in's Google or email accounts for the app's users, host, while Image generation's reads in full Hero images, icons and illustrations from a prompt. No card shows a button or a status pill.](https://mintcdn.com/lyzr-15a99e0f/ObBpayiae_4aNgzN/images/integrations/integrations-page-builtin.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=ObBpayiae_4aNgzN\&q=85\&s=db7d8149741942dace348a405fee1c41) Built in: six services, with no sign-in and no button. | Service | What the agent gets | How it's switched on | | - | - | - | | [**PostgreSQL**](https://docs.alpha.new/workspace/database.md) | The session's own database: `DATABASE_URL` and the `PG*` variables. | The agent starts it when your app stores data; the **Database** tab opens. | | [**User sign-in**](https://docs.alpha.new/workspace/app-sign-in.md) | Google or email accounts for your app's users: `FORGE_OIDC_ISSUER`, `FORGE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID`, `FORGE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET`. | The agent turns it on when your app needs accounts; the **Auth** tab opens. | | **Image generation** | Hero images, icons and illustrations from a prompt, saved into the project. | The agent runs Alpha's image generator. No variables. | | **Headless browser** | Its own Chromium, to check its pages and read the web. | Always on, as browser tools. | | [**Alpha tools**](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/in-your-app.md) | Everything you connected, callable from the agent, your app and its agents: `FORGE_TOOLS_URL`, `FORGE_TOOLS_API_KEY`. | Always set, in every shell and published app. | | [**GitHub**](https://docs.alpha.new/github/connect.md) | An authenticated `git` and `gh`: `GITHUB_TOKEN`, `GH_TOKEN`. | You connect it in a session's **GitHub** tab (**+** → **GitHub**), not here. | Click a built-in to see what the agent works from: a **Built into Alpha** box, a **What the agent gets** list of its variables for those that set any, and a collapsed **What the agent will follow** section. Expand it to read, word for word, the recipe the agent follows for that service. ## Where does a connection reach? A connection belongs to your account, not to one session. Sign in to Gmail once and every session you own can use it. | Where | How it reaches your connections | | - | - | | The agent, in every session you own | As tools in its tool list. | | Your app in the [Preview](https://docs.alpha.new/workspace/preview.md) | Through the session's key, in `FORGE_TOOLS_URL` and `FORGE_TOOLS_API_KEY`. | | Apps you [publish](https://docs.alpha.new/publish/publish-your-app.md) | The same two variables, set on the published app. | | An app you export and run elsewhere | Paste the two lines from the session's key into its `.env`. | Connections belong to your account alone. Other people's sessions never get them, even when you [share a session](https://docs.alpha.new/sharing.md) with them. ### When do changes take effect? Connecting, disconnecting or revoking something updates every running session of yours. If the agent is mid-turn, the change waits for that turn to end, so the new tools arrive with your next message. ### Check what's on The **Connected** tab lists every connector you signed in to and every MCP server that is on. Built-in services never appear there. Its count matches the badge on the sidebar's **Integrations** row. With nothing on, the tab reads "Nothing connected yet — sign in to a connector or install an MCP server." ## What if a service isn't listed? It still works. Search for it, and when nothing matches the catalog says so: "A service that isn't here still works as a plain secret — the agent will name the variable." Ask the agent to use the service. When it needs a key it posts a card in the transcript, such as "The agent needs `HARBOR_WEATHER_API_KEY`", with an **Add HARBOR\_WEATHER\_API\_KEY** button that saves the key as a [secret](https://docs.alpha.new/secrets.md). The agent then reads it as an environment variable. If the service offers an MCP server, you can also add it yourself under **MCPs → Add server**, as described in [MCP servers](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/mcp-servers.md). > [!WARNING] > > Never paste a key into the composer. Anything typed in the composer lands in the session's transcript, and Alpha warns you when your message looks like it holds one. Add keys under [Secrets](https://docs.alpha.new/secrets.md) or connect the app here. ## Next steps > **[Connect an app](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/connect-apps.md)** > > Sign in with the popup, connect with a key, test a connection and answer the agent's Connect card. > **[MCP servers](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/mcp-servers.md)** > > Install Context7, sign in to Stripe or Notion, or add a server of your own by URL or command. > **[Use integrations in your app](https://docs.alpha.new/integrations/in-your-app.md)** > > Find the session's key, copy its two `.env` lines and rotate it if it leaks. > **[Secrets](https://docs.alpha.new/secrets.md)** > > For a service with no connector: store its key once and every session gets it. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.