Integrations and credentials

An Agent often needs more than the files it receives: a search in a case-law database, a lookup in your CRM, a Canvas you already trust. Integrations give the Agent external services it can call, with the credential kept out of its reach. Agent Credentials control which of your Workspace credentials it may use. The Capabilities tab attaches published Canvases, Workflows and Agents as tools. For the contract assistant of the running example, an integration named caselaw points to the legal database the team subscribes to, so the Agent can check how a clause has been interpreted.

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Integrations

The Integrations section of the sidebar lists the external services this Agent can call, with the Service name, the Header used and the Credential that authorizes it. The credential stays in the Workspace and is applied by Tela at request time; the Agent never receives the value. Only Workspace administrators can add or edit integrations. Other members see the list in read-only mode, including a Credential not found badge when the credential an integration relies on no longer exists.

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Adding an integration

The dialog states the rule: Credentials are stored encrypted and applied by Tela’s proxy at runtime; the raw value never reaches the agent’s sandbox. Two details follow from it:

• If you change the Base URL after choosing a credential, you must select (or re-enter) the credential again to authorize it for the new address.
• Credentials the Agent already uses as plain secrets (see below) are not listed: an integration can’t share a key with them.

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Telling the Agent to use it

In the Purpose, name the service and say when to use it, in plain language: “When a clause mentions a statute, look it up in the caselaw integration before flagging it.” The Agent calls the service by name; Tela adds the credential on the way out.

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Agent Credentials

Integrations cover services with an API key or a token. For everything else the Agent may need as a secret, Tela uses the same Credentials as Workflows: the Agent refers to a credential by name and never sees its value. Administrators open them from the … menu next to the Agent title, under Agent Credentials. The dialog has two tabs:

• Agent Credentials: credentials specific to this Agent. They override Workspace credentials with the same key, which is useful when this Agent must use a different account than the rest of the Workspace.
• Usage Permissions: the Credential Access Control. Toggle which credentials this Agent is allowed to use; disabled credentials are not available during execution. With nothing toggled, all credentials are enabled.

To tell the Agent which credential to use, name it in the Purpose, for example “Use the SLACK_BOT_TOKEN credential to post the summary in the #legal channel”. The naming rules and the rotation flow are the same as in Credentials.

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Other Tela resources as tools

A published Canvas, Workflow or Agent of your Workspace can become a tool your Agent calls. This is how you reuse a Canvas that already extracts contract parties reliably, or a Workflow that files a document in your systems, instead of teaching the Agent to do it from scratch. Open the Skills dialog (click Add skill in the Skills section) and switch to the Capabilities tab. Pick a Project in the dropdown, search if needed, and hover a card to click Add. Each card shows the resource title and its kind: Canvas, Workflow or Agent. Only published resources are listed, and the current Agent is not offered to itself. Once added, describe in the Purpose when to call it, the same way you would for a skill. The Agent fills the resource’s inputs from what it knows and receives the published result.