Connecting a tool
How connections work, and why each workspace holds one connection per integration.
Before an automation can read from or write to a tool, that tool needs a connection — your authorised link to it. Connections are created once and reused by every automation in the workspace.
Integration or connection?
Worth getting straight, because the two are easy to mix up.
An integration is Nodest's support for a tool. It defines which events that tool can start an automation with, and what Nodest can do inside it. Integrations are part of the platform and identical for everyone.
A connection is your link to that tool — your Notion workspace, your store, your account. It holds the credentials.
The Notion integration exists whether or not you ever use it. Your Notion connection exists once you authorise it.
One connection per tool, per workspace
Each workspace holds a single connection for each integration. Connect a tool once and every automation in that workspace can use it.
This is deliberate: credentials live in one place, and revoking access is one action rather than a hunt through individual automations.
If you need separate credentials for separate contexts — an agency with several clients, or staging kept apart from production — use separate workspaces. A workspace is effectively one set of credentials and the automations that use them.
How does authentication work?
It depends on the tool, and you don't choose — each integration uses whatever its provider supports:
| Method | What you do |
|---|---|
| OAuth | Click through the provider's authorisation screen and approve access |
| API key | Paste a key you generate in the provider's own settings |
| Username and password | Enter credentials the provider issues |
| Application password | Enter a site URL plus a WordPress application password |
Connections that depend on another connection
Some integrations authenticate through another one rather than on their own.
WordPress plugin integrations work this way. WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, MemberPress and Easy Digital Downloads all run on the connection to the WordPress site they're installed on — you authorise the site once, and its plugins become available without separate credentials.
If you try to connect one of these before the site it depends on, Nodest tells you which connection is needed first. See Connecting your WordPress site.
Is the connection checked when I create it?
Yes. Nodest tests every connection as you save it, so a wrong key or an unreachable host fails immediately rather than silently later. A connection that fails its test isn't saved.
How are my credentials stored?
API keys, passwords and OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest, and traffic between Nodest and your connected tools runs over HTTPS. See Data residency and GDPR for where that data lives.
Why did a connection stop working?
Connections break for a handful of predictable reasons:
- Credentials were rotated at the provider — a regenerated API key invalidates the old one
- Authorisation was revoked — someone removed Nodest's access in the tool's settings
- The site moved — a new URL, or one that's no longer publicly reachable
- The account lost permission — the user Nodest authenticates as no longer has rights to the resource
Automations using that connection fail until it's reconnected. Reconnect from the workspace's connections screen; the automations using it pick the change up automatically, with no editing needed.
Removing a connection
Removing a connection breaks every automation in that workspace that relied on it, since they have no other credentials to fall back on. Check what's using it before you remove it, and revoke Nodest's access at the provider too if you're disconnecting for good.
