Tools vs connectors
“Tool” and “connector” sound similar and are easy to mix up. The distinction is simple once you see it.
Connector
Section titled “Connector”A connector is a reusable link to an external system, set up once with its credentials held securely by reference. Examples: an email connection, a blob-storage connection, a webhook, an MCP server, or a REST/OpenAPI service. Connectors are managed centrally and reused across assistants.
A tool is a specific action an assistant can take, usually through a connector. One connector can offer several tools (for instance, a REST connection derived from an OpenAPI spec exposes each operation as a tool). You enable the tools a given assistant may use.
The relationship
Section titled “The relationship”A connector is the pipe; the tools are the things you can do through it.
So you set up a connector once, then decide, per assistant, which of its tools that assistant is allowed to call, and whether write actions need approval. See Tools and connectors.