Connector (Workspace Agents) — Definition
A connector is a native OAuth integration between a Workspace Agent and an external business system, giving the agent permission to read and (optionally) write to that system.
Longer definition
Connectors are the primary way Workspace Agents reach the outside world. OpenAI has built native connectors for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, GitHub, Linear, Notion, BigQuery, Snowflake, and more. Each connector is authorized through OAuth at admin level and scoped per user group. Connectors differ from Actions — which are custom OpenAPI-defined integrations — in that connectors are maintained by OpenAI and require zero engineering work to enable.
In practice
When scoping a Workspace Agent, connectors are the first architectural question: which systems does the agent need to read from, which can it write to, and what's the minimum-privilege OAuth scope for each? Over-granting permissions is the #1 agent governance mistake.
Common mistakes
- Granting 'all Drive' or 'all HubSpot' access instead of scoping to specific folders / pipelines
- Assuming a connector exists when it actually requires an Action — confirm before scoping the build
- Forgetting that connector permissions inherit from the user invoking the agent, not a service account by default
See also
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