> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cogniagent.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Connecting your apps
> Give your AI coworker the tools your team already pays for — Gmail, Slack, your CRM — and control exactly which actions it may take in each.
Your coworker uses the tools your team already pays for — and you decide exactly how much of each it may touch.
## What it does
A coworker that can't reach your systems can only advise. One that can reach them can finish the job: find the thread, update the record, log the result.
Attaching an app takes a few seconds. The part worth your attention is the second half — deciding which actions inside that app your coworker is allowed to take. Reading your inbox and sending from it are very different levels of trust, and this is where you draw that line.
You can connect [thousands of apps](/features/integrations) — the same catalogue the rest of CogniAgent uses, so anything your workspace has connected is already available here.
## When you'd use it
* Give a research coworker read-only Gmail so it can find a thread but never send from your inbox
* Let an SDR coworker create contacts in the CRM, but not delete them
* Allow a spreadsheet append so results get logged, while nothing can be overwritten
* Attach Slack so a coworker can post its finished report to the team
* Let a support coworker look up an order without touching the payment side
* Give an assistant your calendar so it can find a free slot
## Attaching an app
Open your coworker, choose **Capabilities**, and scroll to **App connections**.
Pick from the apps your workspace has already connected. If the one you want isn't there, you can connect it here without leaving the page.
A newly attached app reads **All tools** — every action that app supports is allowed. For an app you trust, that's a fine place to start.
Open **configure** on the app to choose individual actions. This is the step that matters.
## The configure drawer
This is where the real control lives. Open it and you get the full list of what the app can do — Gmail alone offers twenty-one actions, from **Find Emails** and **Create Draft** to **Add Label to Email**, **Archive Email** and **Download Attachment**.
Four things to know about it:
* **Select all** and **Select none** for the broad strokes
* A **search box**, which you'll want — some apps have long lists
* A switch per action, so "read but don't send" is a real, enforceable setting
* A **when to use** note on each action
That last one is quietly the most useful field on the page. It's a free-text note telling your coworker when this particular action is appropriate. The field's own example says it well:
> Use this to send the summary once the research is done.
Without it, a coworker with a Slack action attached might post at the wrong moment. With it, it knows to wait.
## Good to know
**Start broad on an app you trust, then narrow.** It's easier to remove actions you saw it not need than to guess up front which fifteen of twenty-one it requires.
**Narrowing keeps a coworker focused.** A shorter list of actions is a clearer job description. A coworker with five apps fully open spends effort deciding what to reach for; one with two apps and eight actions just works.
Connections are attached per coworker. The same Gmail account can be read-only on your research coworker and send-capable on your assistant, with no conflict.
## Common questions
It's scoped by the actions you allow. A connection with only read actions enabled cannot send, delete or change anything, whatever it's asked to do.
Connect it from the same panel — the catalogue covers thousands of apps, and the connection then becomes available to any coworker. See [Integrations](/features/integrations).
Yes, and it's often the better answer. Keep the action enabled and add a [permission rule](/cowork/control/permission-rules) that makes your coworker ask first.
It handles a long list without trouble, but a focused one produces better work. Attach what the job needs.
Yes, with different actions enabled on each. One connected account, two different levels of trust.
Your coworker tells you it couldn't reach the app rather than quietly skipping the step. Reconnect the account and it picks up on the next task.
## Next steps
Allow, ask, or never — per action.
What reaches you before it happens.
The same connections, listening.
The full catalogue.