Connectors hub: browse, connect, sync, and rotate
The Developer → Connectors page is where you take a connector from “listed in a catalog” to “wired to your workspace.” It supports two connector families, and the walkthrough below covers both:- Automation connectors — Zapier, Make, and n8n app-definition downloads pre-wired to your tenant (covered endpoint-by-endpoint in the download guide).
- CDP catalog connectors — SaaS/cloud-app sources, destinations, enrichment providers, file and event-bus sources, and BI tools, discovered from the provider-aware catalogs documented in the CDP connector catalogs guide.
1. Catalog view — filter to the connector you want
The hub opens on the catalog. Every catalog view gives you the same three filters, so a workspace with dozens of connectors stays browsable:- Category — the connector’s domain (CRM, billing, support, e-commerce, marketing, analytics, advertising) with a per-category count in parentheses.
- Search — free text against the connector name and the objects it syncs (“tickets”, “invoices”) — not just the display name.
- Maturity badge — every card carries an honest maturity pill: Live for connectors with a wired backend today, beta for a live transport with metadata gaps, and coming soon where no activatable backend exists yet. Connect without depending on the badge — a
coming soonconnector still validates a config, it just routes to a Request access CTA instead of a connect flow.
2. Pick a connector — read the detail before you connect
Each catalog card shows the connector’s name, a category and an auth type (OAuth or API key), and the objects it syncs (for example: contacts, opportunities, tickets) with a+N more overflow when the list is long. Scan that object list before you connect — importing a connector that syncs the wrong objects for your use case is the most common miswire.
For automation connectors, the same card content lives in your downloaded definition file, so you can review the triggers and actions in your editor before you import it into Zapier, Make, or n8n.
3. Import and attach the credential
CDP catalog connectors open a Connect dialog. It runs a side-effect-free validation step first: you fill the connector’s config fields (client id, subdomain, API key), pick Validate configuration, and the hub checks your form against the connector’s field spec without storing anything and without reaching the provider — the echo back is credential-redacted. Fixing a typo at this step costs nothing. Then the flow splits by auth type:- OAuth — choose Connect source and the hub hands you to the provider’s hosted consent screen (routed through Nango’s hosted connect UI). Complete the handshake there; the OAuth token lands in the credential broker, never in Orbit’s app database.
- API key — the hosted connect screen collects the key in the same way. Either way, the connect form’s credential never persists in the hub — it travels once to the broker and renders back redacted everywhere after.
dv_live_sk_…) into the tool’s connection field — the file itself never embeds a key. Create the key first under Settings → API Keys.
4. Pick the sync cadence
Pull connectors (CRM sync, ERP sync, and the managed source pulls) accept a schedule in minutes. Leave it blank to run syncs on demand only; set, for example,360 to have the workspace re-pull the source’s objects into unified profiles every six hours. The on-demand Run sync now button always works regardless of the cadence — a scheduled cadence follows the same object mapping.
For the object-storage file import/export family the cadence governs the bucket scan, and the same “optional minutes” rule applies. Event-bus and streaming sources listen continuously instead of running on a cadence — there is nothing to schedule on those.
5. Detail view — what got imported
Once a connector is connected, its detail flips to the live view:- Live vs roadmap objects — which of the advertised objects the backend actually syncs today and which are still planned; a
coming soonconnector’s whole list lives on the roadmap side. - Per-sync rows — each managed sync (contacts, invoices) with its own status pill: Synced, Running, Error, Failed, Paused, or Stopped, plus a relative “last synced” timestamp.
contact, NetSuite Customer), the upsert identifier field (email, entityId), the field map, and the segment it ships — plus last-run status. If a row skips an object, the run counts tell you: profiles missing the identifier field are dropped before batching, never blind-inserted.
6. Disconnect or rotate
Lifecycle operations keep their confirm dialogs — and what they mean:- Reconnect — a connected connector’s Connect button becomes Reconnect; use it to re-authorize after the OAuth grant expires upstream.
- Rotate — destination subscriptions rotate their signing secret from the destination’s row menu. A fresh secret is minted and shown once; a seven-day dual-sign grace window carries the old one while your verifier updates. Same for ingest secrets: mint a replacement, redeploy, then revoke the old.
- Disconnect / delete — deleting a destination stops future forwards and drops pending in-flight retries. Revoking an ingest secret fails closed at edge verification.
- Automation connectors — revoke the specific
dv_live_sk_…key you handed to Zapier/Make/n8n from Settings → API Keys; a dedicated key per tool means one rotation never breaks the other two. That is a tenant-owned control — Orbit surfaces the revoke; you own the credential.
7. Screenshot sequence — what to capture
When you’re wiring a connector, take these shots — in this order — so the audit trail or the support thread carries the whole flow, not a fragment:- The hub grid — catalog view with your category filter and search term set, so reviewers see why this connector was the pick (or what else was filtered out).
- The connector card detail — objects + auth type visible; on a CDP catalog connector, this pairs the listed objects against the import you later validate.
- The credential modal — the Connect dialog mid-validation. Capture after the validation check; the redacted echo proves a credential never stuck in the modal. Never screenshot a filled credential — crop or wait for the validate step.
- The connected detail — live vs roadmap objects with per-sync rows after the first run.
See also
- Connector downloads — the three automation connector files, endpoint by endpoint
- CDP connector catalogs — the per-catalog API surfaces (source, destination, enrichment, BI, file, event bus)
- Connected apps — OAuth-scoped access when a different Orbit customer installs your app
- Authentication — API key formats, role ranges, and rotation