What are connections in Automation?

A connection in Automation is a link that is created between your rule and a third-party product or application with which Atlassian has a supported integration. Find out which applications can be used in connections.

Connections allow your rules to perform actions or interact with other applications such as sending or retrieving data, or triggering events.

For example, you could configure a rule that:

• triggers when a work item is created, which creates a corresponding feature flag in LaunchDarkly.

• triggers when a component is created in Compass, which creates a corresponding page in Confluence.

Using connections

Connections can help you to:

• increase efficiency through the automation of complex workflows or repetitive tasks across multiple applications, saving time and reducing manual effort.

• improve collaboration across applications via a seamless integration, which helps to ensure data consistency.

Each connection is typically associated with a specific product or application. Once a connection is established, you can use it within your automation rule to perform various actions.

When editing a rule, add a connection by selecting an trigger or action that interacts with another application, for example the action Retrieve worker details from Workday. If there’s no existing connection, you’ll follow the process to connect the application to Atlassian Automation by providing the required credentials or API keys. Read how to connect your automation rule to another application.

Connections in actions

For actions, changes made in other products will be seen as being made by the person who set up the connection. For example:

• if a rule in Jira creates a flag in LaunchDarkly, the person who set up the connection will also be listed as the flag creator in LaunchDarkly.

• if a rule in Confluence creates a work item in Jira, the person who set up the connection in Confluence will be listed as the work item creator.

Even if someone else edits the rule after a connection is set up, those changes will still be made by the person who originally set up the connection.

Connections in triggers

For triggers, permissions will be inherited from the person who sets up the rule. For example, the Component created in Compass trigger will use the permissions of the person who sets up the connection – this means that the rule will only have access to the same components they do.

Things to note

• Authentication and security: Ensure that you use secure methods for authentication such as OAuth or API tokens to protect sensitive data.

• Connection limits: Be aware of any limits on the number of connections or API requests imposed by the external service or application.

• Service availability: The availability and performance of your automation rules depend on the external application's uptime and reliability.