Connect your tools

You'll learn how to plug external services, like email, payments, and messaging, into your Emergent app so it can send emails, store data, or accept payments without writing connection code yourself.

Two kinds of connections

Emergent connects to other services in two ways:

Integrations with a playbook: a curated set of services the agent knows deeply. You'll find them as tiles in the Connectors view (open your app's Preview, click Manage, then Connectors), each with an Add button. The agent follows a tested setup recipe for these. A few playbooks bill a small per-run credit cost, shown with the integration.
Anything else with a public API: the agent can wire up services outside the catalog too; you supply the service's API key and the agent writes the connection code. These just don't come with a tested recipe, so expect a bit more iteration.

A few useful integrations

Some of the most common integrations beginners use, grouped by what they help you do:

Send messages or emails:

SendGrid - transactional email delivery (e.g., order confirmations, receipts).
Resend - another email option (full-stack web apps only, not available on mobile/Expo projects).
Twilio - SMS, voice calls, and WhatsApp messages.
Slack - post updates to a Slack workspace.

Accept payments:

Stripe - process credit cards, manage subscriptions, handle billing (see Get paid, the platform sets up a managed sandbox for you).

Start simple

If you're building your first app, start with MongoDB (already included) and one messaging or payment integration. You can add more later.

How to ask the agent to connect a tool

You don't need to configure integrations manually, just describe what you want in chat and the agent will guide you.

Describe the task in plain English

For example:

"I need to send an email when someone signs up."
"Let users pay with Stripe."
"Pull data from this Google Sheet every hour."

The agent sets up the key names, you supply the values

If the service requires an API key (most do), the agent adds the key name to your app's .env. Put the real value in yourself: for your live app, in Preview → Manage → Secrets → Custom keys, and never paste a real key into chat. Full walkthrough in Keep it safe.

The agent writes the code

Once the credentials are in place, the agent generates the connection code, connecting to the service, calling the right endpoints, and handling errors.

Where to find API keys

Most services provide API keys in their developer or settings dashboard. The agent will tell you exactly where to look for each service (e.g., "Get your SendGrid key from Settings → API Keys").

If you're not sure which integration to use

If you know what you want to do but not which service to use, just ask the agent:

"How do I send emails from my app?" → The agent will suggest SendGrid or another email provider.
"I need to accept payments." → The agent will recommend Stripe or PayPal and explain the difference.
"Where should I store user profiles?" → The agent will suggest MongoDB (already included) or another database.

The agent knows which integrations are available on Emergent and will guide you to the right one.

Go deeper: Key integrations catalogue