Connections and Credentials

Connections and Credentials covers how FluidGrids holds the keys to the outside world. Every connector node — posting a message, creating a contact, reading a payment — needs an authorized link to a service. The concept keeps those links as workspace-level records rather than node-level settings, so a service is authorized once and then selected by name wherever it is needed.

That separation solves several problems at the same time. Secrets stop being copied into workflow definitions, which means a workflow can be duplicated, exported or shared without carrying an access token with it. Rotation becomes a single edit instead of a hunt through every graph. And expiry stops being invisible: instead of a run failing deep inside a node, the connection itself shows as expired with a reconnect action next to it.

The two illustrations show the pair of surfaces this needs. The first is the workspace inventory: a table of authorized services with the provider, whether it uses delegated authorization or a key, which account or environment it points at, a connection status and when it was last used, sorted by most recent use so the least recently touched settle at the foot of the list for review. One sample row is marked expired and offers a reconnect link, and a standing note at the foot restates the rule that secrets are encrypted and resolved on the server at run time, never exposed to the node on the canvas.

The second is the guided add flow, split into choosing a provider and configuring the connection. A searchable, paged grid of provider tiles covers messaging, productivity, developer, database, warehouse and communications services; picking one opens a configuration pane that offers delegated authorization as the recommended path or a key as the alternative. When delegated authorization is chosen, the design lists the exact permissions being requested with a plain-language explanation of each, states that the browser will hand off to the provider to authorize, and notes that access can be revoked from the provider at any time.

From there the connection is available in node configuration, in template imports that list which connections a blueprint still needs, and in the assistant's reminder to bind connections before activating a generated draft — making this the quiet dependency underneath most of the rest of the product.