Connectors

Pepper doesn't have to be the only thing you've set up. The services you already
use elsewhere can come into the conversation with everything else, so asking
about your Linear issues or your Notion pages is the same act as asking about
your calendar.

Pick a service from the gallery in Settings → Connectors — Asana,
Atlassian, Linear, Notion, Stripe, Zapier, GitHub and a few dozen more, grouped by
what they're for. If yours isn't there, Add any MCP server at the bottom of
the section takes the address of any server that speaks the Model Context
Protocol (MCP), such as a Home Assistant instance.

Being connected and being usable are separate things. A connector you've added
shows a status on its card — how many of its tools are approved, or whether it
needs a reconnect, is switched off, or still needs setup finished. A server with
approved tools is ready to use; one that needs attention says which fix it needs,
and where. A tool server's tools don't appear in ordinary chat directly — they
run inside skills (see "How the tools get used" below), so you won't see them
listed the way Pepper's built-in abilities are.

Connecting a server

• From the gallery. Each service is one button: click Connect, approve on
  the service's own sign-in screen, done. Gallery connectors are curated, so
  their tools are approved automatically — connecting is enough to start using
  them.
• A second account on the same service. A service you've connected moves to
  the Connected list at the top of the page, and for most services its card
  has Add another account, so a second login — a work account alongside a
  personal one — is another click. Name it when you add it ("Work") and that
  name is how the two cards tell themselves apart afterwards. Each account
  keeps its own sign-in and its own tools; nothing is shared between them.
  This is for two separate logins: if both your workspaces live under one
  account, the connection you already have covers them. A few services (GitHub
  and the payments ones) take one connection per account.
• A custom server. Under Don't see yours? Add any MCP server, add a name and the server's https URL from the
  vendor's docs. Pepper signs in with the server's own consent screen where
  the server supports that, and takes a pasted access token where it
  doesn't (a Home Assistant long-lived token, for example).
• Tool approval. For custom servers, nothing is usable until you tick
  the tools Pepper may call — write-capable tools are flagged. If a server
  later changes what an approved tool does, the changed tool is held back
  until you approve it again. You don't have to spot this yourself: the
  server's card shows Tools changed with the changed tool unticked, and
  Pepper sends you one message saying which server it was, with a link to
  settings. Tick it again to keep using it.

How the tools get used

A connector's tools don't appear in ordinary chat directly — they run inside
skills (see Skills). You don't have to write one: approving a
server's tools creates a skill for it automatically, named after the server,
so the connection is ready to use as soon as you've said which tools Pepper may
call. For a gallery connector that happens the moment you connect, since those
are approved for you; for a custom server it happens when you tick the tools.

That generated skill is yours like any other. Edit it to say when and how you
want the server used ("pull my Readwise highlights every morning, grouped by
book") and your changes are kept — approving more tools later won't overwrite
what you wrote. Delete it and approving more tools will make a fresh one. You
can also write your own skill against the same server instead; a skill has the
server's approved tools available to its runs, including scheduled ones, while
the server is healthy and switched on.

The GitHub connector also comes with purpose-built skills of its own
(repo status, inbox, filing issues — see GitHub).

Managing and fixing

• Refresh tools re-reads the server's tool list; Turn off pauses a
  server without deleting anything; Disconnect removes it and its
  stored credentials.
• If a server's sign-in expires, its card shows Needs reconnect — one
  click re-runs the sign-in, and your tool approvals are kept.
• Pepper messages you when a sign-in lapses, rather than waiting for you to
  notice. That matters most for a server a scheduled task uses: nobody is
  reading a 6am brief while it happens, so without the message the first sign
  would be results quietly going missing. It arrives on whichever channel you
  get notifications on, names the server, and links to settings. You get one
  message per lapse, not one per attempt — and if the connection recovers and
  later lapses again, that new lapse is announced too.
• "Connected, but not allowed to do that" is a different problem, and
  reconnecting won't fix it. A server can accept your sign-in and still
  refuse a particular action, because the permissions it granted you don't
  cover it — a repository you weren't given access to, a workspace an
  administrator has locked down. When that happens Pepper says the server is
  connected but the credential isn't authorized for this, and points you at the
  right fix: change what you allowed when you signed in, or ask whoever
  administers your account on that service to grant it. Signing in again with
  the same permissions just fails the same way.
• Servers must be reachable on the public internet over https. Local-only
  servers (a stdio command, a LAN address) aren't supported.
• If a skill run needs a tool you haven't approved yet, Pepper tells you how
  many are waiting on that server rather than quietly doing less — never which
  one, since that's for you to review, not to be told. Approve them under
  Settings → Connectors and ask again.