Configure a connection

When you add a card to a flow, you need to select or create a connection to authenticate with that application or service.

After your remote account connection is configured, Okta saves your account information, so you can reuse the connection when you build any other flow that uses the same connector.

You can create and save multiple connection configurations and share them with other Workflow admins in your org.

New connections

You can create connections for your flows using the Connections page of the Workflows console.

To set up a new connection configuration, complete these steps:

  1. On the Connections page of the Workflows console, click New Connection.

  2. From the New Connection selector pop-up, click the icon that corresponds to the application or service you want to connect.

The next steps depend on how the connection is made to the external application or service.

OAuth 2.0 connections

This procedure covers setting up connections that use the OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol:

On the General tab, fill out the fields as follows:

  1. In the Name field, enter a unique name for this specific connection. This is useful if you have multiple accounts connecting to the same application or service.

  2. Add a helpful Description to detail any other information relevant to this connection. The description text appears on the Connections page of the Workflows console, along with the connection Name.

For an external application or service that uses OAuth 2.0 for connections, you can click the Permissions tab to review which particular scopes are requested for this connection.

Configurable scopes

In some newer external applications or services that use OAuth 2.0, you can choose or modify the requested scopes.

This is useful if you need to create multiple connections that call the same service, but need to specify different scopes.

For example, one connection to an email service might include the read-email scope for simple administration. A more advanced connection to the same service could also include the delete-email and send-email scopes.

On the Permissions tab:

  • Select Use default scopes to create the connection using the pre-defined scopes.

  • Select Customize scopes (advanced) to select individual scopes. You can't clear any required scopes.

    If you remove a scope that isn't marked as required, but is used by the connector, then connector event and action cards may not function properly.

  • You can use the search field to type in part of the scope name and filter the list of individual scopes.

  • If supported by the connector, you can also manually add other scopes. Enter the scope names, either individually or as a list of space or comma-separated values, in the Manually add scopes field and click Add.

  • If the connector doesn't support adding other scopes, you can submit a request to add scopes to the connector through the Okta Ideas site.

Click Create to complete the configuration. If required, Okta prompts you to enter your sign-in credentials for the destination site.

Other authentication protocols

This procedure covers setting up connections that don't use the OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol:

  1. In the Name field, enter a unique name for this specific connection. This is useful if you have multiple accounts connecting to the same application or service.

  2. Add a helpful Description to detail any other information relevant to this connection. The description text appears on the Connections page of the Workflows console, along with the connection Name.

  3. If your connection requires any necessary credentials, enter these values in the additional fields. This may be a specific service domain, an API token, or a paired access key and secret. The security requirements depend on the external application or service.

  4. Click Create to complete the configuration. If required, Okta prompts you to enter your sign-in credentials for the destination site.

Existing connections

You can modify existing connections using the Connections page of the Workflows console.

  • Rename Connection: Change the name or description text for the connection.

  • Test Connection: Validate that the connection is working.
  • Usage: See which flows are using a particular connection.
  • Reauthorize: If you update the password, API key, or another setting for an application, you need to reauthorize your application. Click the Reauthorize icon and follow the steps to update your connection. Be sure to reauthorize each connection to the same application.
  • Delete: Remove the connection. Any flows that use this connection must be updated to use a different connection.

For more details about managing existing connections, see Connections page.

Related topics

Connections