Connectors — called MCP connectors in some places — give Elle, the AI assistant, access to the systems your team works in outside of Aha! software, such as your code repository, issue tracker, incident tooling, or research sources. Once a connector is enabled and you have authenticated, Elle can read from and act in those systems as part of any chat.
Connectors work in the opposite direction from the remote MCP server connection. The MCP server lets an outside AI tool read and write your Aha! data. A connector lets Elle reach out to an outside tool. You can use both.
You can use connectors on every paid Aha! plan, everywhere you use Elle.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Overview
A connector is a secure bridge between Elle and an external system, built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Each connector exposes a set of tools — individual actions such as reading a file from a repository, listing open incidents, or opening a pull request. Elle calls those tools when your request needs them. Work Elle does through a connector runs on AI credits, the same as any other chat.
Setting up a connector takes two people:
An account administrator enables the connector for the whole account and decides how Elle may use each of its tools.
Each user then authenticates their own account with that tool.
Action |
User permissions |
|---|---|
Enable, disable, or add a connector for the account |
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Set account-wide tool permissions |
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Connect your own account and use connectors in a chat |
Note: Elle must be enabled for your account before connectors are available. An account administrator turns Elle on from User menu -> Settings -> Account -> AI controls.
Native and documented connectors
Every connector works the same way once it is running. There are two setup paths.
Native connectors: Aha! owns and maintains the connection. An account administrator in your Aha! account enables the connection. GitHub, Atlassian, Linear, Sentry, Zapier, and Pipedream are native.
Documented connectors: You own the setup. Aha! tells you which connectors we have reviewed and points you at the vendor's own instructions, but we do not build or maintain the connection for you. PagerDuty, Vercel, LaunchDarkly, Cloudflare, Intercom, Dovetail, Tavily, Exa, Semrush, Firecrawl, Apify, Granola, and Glean are documented.
Pipedream and Zapier are slightly different. When you connect to them, Elle has a path to the thousands of tools they already support, without a separate connector for each individual tool.
Enable a connector for your account
An account administrator must enable connectors before anyone in your account can use them.
Click the User menu, then go to Settings -> Account -> AI controls.
Select the Connectors tab.
Click Add custom connector, then click get started with pre-built ones to open the Browse connectors catalog.
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Search for the connector you want and add it.
Connectors you have added appear on the Connectors tab under ENABLED or DISABLED.
To turn one off, open the connector and click Disable connector. A disabled connector stays in your account catalog, but no one can connect to it or use it.
Enabling a connector gives individual users the option of using it. Each person who wants Elle to use it must connect their own account first.
Add a custom connector
Use a custom connector for any tool that is not already in the catalog — including most documented connectors, and any internal MCP server your own organization hosts.
From User menu -> Settings -> Account -> AI controls -> Connectors, click Add custom connector.
Enter a Name. This is what your users will see.
Enter the Remote MCP server URL from the vendor's documentation.
Leave Enabled for users checked to make the connector available immediately. Clear it to keep the connector in your account catalog without exposing it to users.
Click Add.
Two things determine whether a custom connector will work:
The vendor must publish a remote MCP server. Aha! software cannot reach a local, machine-only server.
The server must support dynamic client registration (DCR). Aha! registers itself with the vendor at connection time. Servers without DCR need custom development on the Aha! side, so they will not connect through this flow.
Aha! does not control which tools an external developer makes available, and cannot verify that a custom connector works as intended or that it will not change. Only add connectors from developers you trust.
If a tool you need does not work, consider submitting an idea for it to become an Aha! native connector.
Set tool permissions
Tool permissions decide what Elle is allowed to do through a connector. Account administrators set the account-wide policy, and it applies to everyone.
Open User menu -> Settings -> Account -> AI controls -> Connectors and select a connector.
In the Tool permissions section, review the tools the connector exposes. The connector groups tools into Read-only tools and Write/delete tools, with a count for each group.
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Use the Group policy dropdown to set every tool in a group at once, or set individual tools one at a time. Each tool has three states:
Always allow: Elle uses the tool without asking.
Ask user each time: Elle asks for confirmation before each call.
Disabled: Elle never uses the tool.
Note: Tools do not appear until at least one person in your account has connected to that connector (which could be you!). Until then, the connector detail page shows a prompt to connect first.
Write and delete tools act in the external system under the connecting user's own credentials. Elle can open a pull request, merge it, or create an issue if you allow it. Review the Write/delete tools group deliberately before setting a group policy.
Connect a connector
Each person authenticates their own account, so Elle only ever sees what each user can already see in that tool.
Click the User menu, then go to Settings -> Personal -> AI connectors.
Under AVAILABLE, find the connector you want. The settings group available connectors by category, such as Development, Automation, and Other.
Select the connector, then click Connect and complete the sign-in prompt from that tool.
Once you connect, the connector's tools load and its Tool permissions section becomes available.
The Server URL on a connector's detail page is read only. Your account administrator manages each connector's service and server URL.
You can restrict what Elle does on your behalf, but you cannot grant the connector permissions beyond what your administrator set.
Use connectors in a chat
Connectors you have connected are on for every new Elle chat automatically. Elle decides when a request needs one and calls the tool it needs.
To change which connectors a chat can use:
Click the + button in the Elle prompt window and select Connectors.
Turn individual connectors off for the chat when a source would get in the way — for example, when you want Elle to answer from your Aha! data alone.
Elle remembers the choice for your future chats, so turning a connector off is a lasting preference rather than a one-time toggle.
Select Manage connectors to jump to your personal AI connectors settings.
Note: Until you have connected at least one connector, the Connectors menu only offers Manage connectors.
You do not have to name the tool. Describing the outcome you want often works better than listing the steps, because Elle can choose the tools it needs. For example, ask "prepare me for my meeting with this customer and tell me what product issues we should discuss" rather than walking Elle through each system in turn.
Skills can use connectors too. Write an instruction such as "check the engineering repository for what shipped this week" into a skill, and Elle makes the tool calls as part of that workflow rather than waiting for you to ask.
Documented connector setup guides
Aha! has reviewed each documented connector below. Setup happens in the vendor's tool and follows the vendor's instructions, then your account administrator adds the connector with the server URL from that documentation.
Check the vendor's page before you start. The notes below are the issues most likely to stop a setup partway through.
Connector |
Category |
Setup instructions |
What to check first |
|---|---|---|---|
PagerDuty |
Delivery and operations |
EU accounts use a different endpoint than US accounts |
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Vercel |
Delivery and operations |
Vercel supports a specific set of AI clients; follow the official supported path |
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LaunchDarkly |
Delivery and operations |
The hosted server is not available in every environment, including LaunchDarkly federal and EU |
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Cloudflare |
Delivery and operations |
Follow the current streamable HTTP and OAuth guidance; older SSE guidance is deprecated |
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Intercom |
Customer evidence |
Limited to US-hosted Intercom workspaces |
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Tavily |
Research |
Requires a Tavily API key, which may be personal rather than shareable |
|
Exa |
Research |
Free use is possible, but production use may require your own Exa API key |
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Semrush |
Research |
Confirm client support and account requirements against current Semrush guidance |
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Firecrawl |
Research |
Some setup paths need a Firecrawl API key and client-specific configuration |
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Apify |
Research |
Follow the current hosted and OAuth guidance; SSE setup is deprecated |
|
Granola |
Research |
Available data depends on workspace context and plan limits |
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Glean |
Research |
A Glean administrator must enable at least one MCP server before setup is available |
The Browse connectors catalog already includes some documented connectors and their server URLs. If the one you want is not there, add it with Add custom connector.
Security and access controls
Elle will never gain access your team does not already have.
You authenticate individually: Enabling a connector for the account grants no access on its own. Elle reaches an external system only under the credentials of the person who connected it, and only sees what that person can see.
Administrators set boundaries: Account-wide tool permissions apply to everyone. Users can restrict Elle further for themselves, but cannot grant Elle more than the account allows.
Separate write actions: The connector separates read-only tools from write and delete tools, so you can allow reading broadly while requiring confirmation, or blocking outright, for anything that changes data.
Disable without losing configuration: Disabling a connector keeps it in the account catalog but removes it from every user immediately.
External developers are outside our control: For documented and custom connectors, the external developer decides which tools the server exposes and can change them. Aha! cannot verify those tools.
Aha! does not use your account data to train the AI model. Aha! also does not use data Elle reads through a connector to train the model.
Troubleshooting
Connector problems fall into three groups. Identifying which one you have will get you to a fix faster.
Setup and access
The Connectors tab is empty. An account administrator has not added any connectors yet. They add them from User menu -> Settings -> Account -> AI controls -> Connectors.
A user sees no connectors in personal settings. Only connectors an administrator enabled appear there. If an administrator adds a connector but clears Enabled for users, the settings keep it hidden.
Tool permissions are unavailable for a connector. Tools load after the first person authenticates. Connect the connector from personal settings, then return to the account settings page.
Elle cannot see something you expected. Confirm you can reach the same resource directly in the connected service with the account you authenticated, then reconnect with the correct account and permissions.
The connected service
A custom connector will not connect. Confirm the vendor publishes a remote MCP server and that it supports dynamic client registration. Servers without it cannot complete the handshake.
The vendor returns an error, an outage, or a rate limit. Check the vendor's own status and documentation. Aha! does not control availability for documented and custom connectors.
Aha! software and Elle
Elle is not using a connector you expected. Open the + menu in the prompt window, select Connectors, and confirm it is turned on for the chat. A connector you turned off earlier stays off.
Elle asks for confirmation on every call. Your tool permission requires you to Ask user each time. Change it in your personal AI connectors settings if your administrator allows it.
Elle reports an action succeeded but nothing changed. Check the external system directly, then contact our Customer Success team with the connector name and the time of the attempt.
Note: When you contact us about a connector, send the connector name, the time of the failure with your time zone, the exact error or a sanitized screenshot, and what you were trying to do. Never send passwords, API keys, or access tokens.