What is a hosted app connector?
A hosted app connector runs your AI agent's app integrations — OAuth, credential storage, tool definitions — so connecting an app is a browser login, not a build.
A hosted app connector is a service that runs app integrations on behalf of your AI agent: it hosts the OAuth flows, stores and refreshes credentials, and exposes each app's actions as tools the agent can call. Instead of building or self-hosting an integration per app, you sign in once through the browser and the app is available to your agent.
Hosted connector vs. running your own integrations
Doing it yourself, per app, means registering a developer app to get OAuth credentials, standing up a callback URL, storing and refreshing tokens, defining tools the model can use, and maintaining all of it when the provider changes something. Multiply by every app your agent touches.
A hosted connector collapses all of that to a login. The trade-off is trust: you're letting a service hold tokens for you — so it should be explicit about encryption, scopes, and revocation. See OAuth for AI agents for what the token actually grants.
What a hosted connector actually handles
The visible part is the connect flow. The invisible part is the ongoing work: refreshing tokens before they expire, keeping tool schemas current as providers evolve, normalizing errors so the agent gets a message it can act on, and flagging connections that need a re-login instead of failing silently. That maintenance is most of the real cost of agent integrations — see tool calling for AI agents for where these pieces fit.
When self-hosting still makes sense
If you need an integration with an internal app no connector supports, operate in an environment that can't use external services, or want full control over every request, running your own MCP servers is the right call. For the common case — standard SaaS apps, a team that wants the agent working today — hosted wins on time and upkeep.
ClawLink is a hosted app connector
ClawLink connects 100+ apps to agents like OpenClaw and Hermes: hosted OAuth or guided API-key setup, encrypted credential storage, and each app's actions exposed as MCP tools. Browse the integration catalog or start with a popular one like Gmail for OpenClaw.