What is a Connector?
A Connector is a tool a Playbook says it needs in order to do its work. It is a requirement written in the document, not an account or a password.
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A Connector on YAMO is a tool a Playbook says it needs in order to do its work: a calendar, an inbox, a CRM, whatever the method actually reaches into. It is a requirement written in the document, by name, before anyone has authorised anything.
That distinction is the whole point of the word. A Connector is a statement of what the work needs. It is not an account, not a password, and not access. The access is a Connection, and it is a separate thing.
Why the requirement is declared up front
Because a declared requirement can be checked before it matters, in three places.
- Before you copy anything. A template's page names the Connectors it needs, so you can judge whether it fits your setup before it is in your account.
- While you are building. The setup checklist lists each declared Connector and marks the ones with no Connection yet, and the Playbook cannot be deployed until they are satisfied.
- Before a run does any work. If a required Connector has no Connection, the run stops and says which ones are missing. It does not produce output that pretends to have read your calendar.
A Playbook that declares nothing runs on a brand new account, which is why every template currently in the Playbook Library does.
Playbook scope and Runtime scope
A Connector is declared with a scope, and the scope says whose access satisfies it.
- Playbook scope is satisfied by the access the operator has authorised. The method uses its own tools, the same way for everybody.
- Runtime scope is satisfied by the access the person running it has authorised, bound to their own Instance. The method reaches into the customer's systems rather than the operator's.
Runtime scope is part of the definition and is honoured when a run resolves its tools. There is no way to author it from the builder today: a Playbook that needs it has to say so in its own document.
What to read next
- What is a Connection? for the other half.
- Connector for the one-sentence version.
- Connectors for declaring, connecting and failing honestly.
More in Concepts
Related
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An Instance is one customer working relationship with a Service: their settings, their files, their connected tools and every run they have made so far.Pricing
How YAMO charges: you pay for the runs you make, and nothing for the ones you do not. What a run is, what it includes, and what publishing costs.Who it's for
The six kinds of expert YAMO is built for, and what changes when the method you already follow becomes a Service that somebody else can run.
Open a Playbook that does this
Every template in the library publishes its contract and a real example output.