Tools and connectors
Ways for an AI to do more than write: search the web, read your email or calendar, look in shared drives, or take actions in other apps, using access you grant.
Also called: connectors · integrations · apps in ChatGPT · extensions · plugins · tool use · actions
Connections
Understand first
Ideas this one builds on.
Leads on to
Ideas that build on this one.
Evolved into
Newer ideas that grew out of this one.
Related
Often used together or easily confused.
Resources that teach it
- Claude 101 (garden)
- Google Workspace Learning Center (garden)
- Agents Course, Unit 0-1 (what an agent is) (garden)
- The AI Agent Glossary (garden)
- Claude Cowork 101: How to automate your workday without touching code (How I AI, with JJ Englert) (garden)
- OpenClaw: The complete guide to building, training, and living with your personal AI agent (garden)
- The Agent That Saved My Brain (garden)
- ChatGPT for Knowledge Work (garden)
- Securing an Always-on AI Employee (garden)
- Everyone should be using Claude Code more (garden)
- An opinionated guide to which AI to use to do stuff (Summer 2026 Edition) (garden)
- n8n Tutorial: Build an AI Workflow to Extract Top Insights From All Your Newsletter Emails (garden)
- Grok Bot use cases (garden)
Competency
Find tools and connectors on the commons map ↗
You may know it from
- office administration giving a temp a building badge and system logins What someone can get done depends on what they've been given access to, and access should match the job.
In products
The same idea, under different names in different tools.
| Provider | What they call it |
|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude connectors |
| OpenAI | ChatGPT apps and connectors |
| Gemini apps (formerly Extensions) | |
| Perplexity | Perplexity connectors |
In plain words
On its own, a language model can only work with what is in the conversation. Tools let it reach further. A search tool lets it look things up. A calendar connector lets it see when you’re free. A drive connector lets it read the documents you point to. Some connectors can also act: draft an email, create a calendar event, update a spreadsheet.
You decide which tools are switched on, and good products ask before anything is sent or changed. A sensible rule is least access: connect what the task needs, read-only where possible, and disconnect what you no longer use.
Connectors also change what “checking the result” means. When the AI cites your own files, you can open them and confirm. When it acts in an app, you open the app and look at what happened.
Example
A project coordinator connects her calendar and asks, “Find three 45-minute slots next week when I’m free in the afternoon, avoiding Fridays.” The AI reads her calendar and proposes times. She chooses one and creates the invite herself.
How it connects
- MCP is a shared standard that makes building connectors easier across tools.
- Tools are what let agents and automation take real actions.
- Every connection is a privacy and data decision about what the AI can reach.
Try it
Open your AI tool’s connectors or apps settings. Before switching anything on, write down what you’d want it to read and what it should never touch. Connect one read-only source and ask a question you can verify.
Read this card as plain Markdown: /concepts/con-tools-and-connectors.md. Know a parallel from your own field, or a product that implements this? Add it.