Accounts, keys and ready connectors

Your agent can do only what the tools of your workspace let it do, so the tools that you add decide what it can reach. A tool calls a service for you: it reads your mail, adds a row to a sheet, or finds a contact in your CRM. To add tools, open Tools in the left bar and select Add tools.

The four kinds of tools

Add tools asks which kind you add:

Kind	What it is	Who adds it
Google	The Gmail, Sheets, Calendar, Docs, Tasks, Forms and Drive tools of one Google account. They are on from the start, in a group of their own. You pick the Google services the account allows when you connect it, and allow more later on its page. The account is yours until you share it: see Share an account.	Any member who runs tools
A ready connector	A service that Toolscaled has checked. Its address and the sign-in or key it needs are known, so the form opens filled in.	You, or your agent with you
An MCP server	Any MCP server that you reach at an HTTPS address. You name it, give the address and what it signs in with, then test it and attach it.	You, or your agent with you
An API	Any API that has an OpenAPI document. You give the document, then choose the operations that become tools.	You, or your agent with you

Google and a ready connector need the fewest steps, so they are a good place to start. The pages of this group show each kind step by step:

How a service knows it is you

Each service asks for one of these. The form shows the words in bold.

What the service asks for	Words on the form	MCP server	API
You sign in on the service’s own page	OAuth account	Yes	Only through a Google or Microsoft account that you connected
A token	Bearer token	Yes	Yes
A username and a password	Basic authentication	Yes	Yes
A key in a header	API-key header, with the Header name	Yes	Yes
A key in the address	API key in the address (query parameter), with the Parameter name	No	Yes
Nothing	No authentication	Yes	Yes, when the document asks for nothing

A token, a password or a key is a credential. An MCP server takes the first three kinds of credential, and an API takes all four.

Where your keys and passwords are kept

You type a key or a password only on a page of app.toolscaled.com, never in the chat. Toolscaled refuses a key that an agent sends. When your agent sets up a service that needs a key, it gives you a link to a page where you paste the key.
Toolscaled writes the secret once and never shows it again. The page of a credential shows its kind, its provider, its Allowed hosts and the tool sources that use it (Used by). It never shows the token, the key or the password.
A credential is sent only to the hosts that you name for it when you add it (Expected hosts).
You see your accounts, credentials and event sources in Connections, in the left bar. The filter Kind shows one of them at a time.

You can also add a credential first and choose it later on a form: Connections > Add connection > A credential. The page says “The secret is written once and never read back.” Fill in Credential name, Provider (a label for the service), Expected hosts, Credential kind and the secret, then select Save credential.

Who may add what

An account (Google, Outlook): any member who runs tools (an invoker, an author or an administrator). The account belongs to the member who connects it.
A credential: an author or an administrator. Other people read “Only an author or an administrator can add a credential.”

An account that you connect is yours. When you connect it, the step Who can use it asks who may use it:

Only me: “Only your AI assistant can use it. Workflows and automations cannot.” This is the choice at first, except when workflows wait for a removed or a disconnected account of the provider (see Connect a removed account again).
Everyone in this workspace: “Every member’s AI assistant, and the workspace’s workflows and automations, can use it.” The page warns you first that everyone in the workspace, and their AI assistants and automations, can then read and change the services of the account.

You can change it later. Open Connections, open the account, and select Share… on the card Sharing. The card shows who can use the account and the workflows and automations that use it.

A workflow or an automation uses an account only while the account is shared with everyone. When it is not shared, the workflow or the automation shows Waiting for credentials, with a link to each account it waits for. When the owner shares the account, the workflow or the automation works again by itself.

When another member’s agent calls a tool of an account that is not shared with them, the call is refused. The answer names the account, its owner and the page of the account. On that page, the member selects Ask to share: the owner gets a mail and an action item.

A workspace administrator can stop the sharing of an account (Stop sharing on the card Sharing) or disconnect it. An administrator uses an account only while it is shared. When the owner leaves the workspace, Toolscaled disconnects the account and deletes the credentials that it stored for it.

Take over an account

A member who can sign in to an account can connect it again and become its owner. A sign-in to the account shows that the member has access to it. This also works for an account whose owner left the workspace.

Open Connections, then open the account.
Select Reconnect. The page says “You become the owner of this account when you sign in.” For Google, the page Reconnect Google opens with the services that the account allowed ticked: select Next.
The step Who can use it shows the share that the account has now. Keep it, or select the other choice.
If you select Only me and workflows or automations use the account, a warning lists each of them with a link. They turn off and wait for credentials. Tick Turn them off when I sign in to continue. If the account is disconnected, they wait already: tick Keep them waiting when I sign in.
Sign in on the provider’s page.

You are then the owner of the account. The member who owned it gets a notice.

Connect a removed account again

When an account is removed, the workflows and automations that use it show Waiting for credentials with the line “ was removed. A sign-in with the same address brings it back.” Any member who can sign in with that address can bring it back:

Select Connect it again on that line. Add connection opens at the step Account. Pick the provider.
The step Who can use it lists the workflows and automations that wait for a removed account of the provider, each with a link and the account it waits for. Everyone in this workspace is chosen, because a workflow uses only an account that is shared with everyone.
Sign in on the provider’s page with the address of the removed account.

The new account takes the place of the removed one: its tools, its sources and every workflow that names it work again, and its automations turn on again. The page then lists the workflows and automations that came back. The account page lists them on the card Sharing. If you picked Only me, they come back to the account but wait for credentials until you share it with everyone. A sign-in with another address makes a new account, and the workflows keep waiting.

The step Who can use it also lists the workflows and automations that use a disconnected account of the provider, with the account and its share before the disconnect, for example “Disconnected, Everyone in this workspace”. A sign-in with the address of that account connects it again with the choice you make on this step. If you select Only me, a warning says that they keep waiting for credentials: tick Keep them waiting when I sign in to continue.

When you are done with a tool

See Disconnect an account or a tool.