Connections

Connections determine how your request authenticates with external services. A connection points to the credentials used during a request (for example, an API key).

Managed connections

Authenticated requests use managed connections by default. You can call providers like Leadmagic, Zerobounce, or Clado without buying separate subscriptions: pipe0 supplies the credentials and bills credits.

We recommend managed connections when possible:

• We don't know what rate limits apply to your credentials, so with your own keys we fall back to conservative defaults.
• With your own credentials, you have to manage separate credit balances with third-party providers.
• With managed connections, you never share sensitive credentials.

Some pipes and searches require your own connection, like the email:send:resend@1 pipe. It requires your own API key. You provide it by storing the key with us and referencing it in your request.

Custom connections

Custom connections are API keys and credentials that you own. To use custom connections, share your credentials with pipe0.

We plan to offer different ways to share your API keys with us securely, but as of today the only available option is vault.

Custom connection billing

We charge a small platform fee for running pipes and searches via custom connections. This is to prevent abuse.

High-usage pricing kicks in automatically once your monthly spend exceeds $300 USD. For example, 200k operations at high-usage rates cost about $6 USD.

Vault

Vault is pipe0's secure storage layer. It is the only supported access mechanism for connections at this point.

Add connections to vault

To add your own connections:

Reference vault connections

curl -X POST "https://api.pipe0.com/v1/pipes/run" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "pipes": [
      {
        "pipe_id": "email:send:resend@1",
        "connector": {
          "strategy": "first",
          "connections": [
            {
              "type": "vault",
              "connection": "resend_abcd123"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ],
    "input": [{
        "id": "1",
        "email_subject": "Test email",
        "email_markdown": "Test email content.",
        "email": "receiver@pipe0.com"
    }]
  }'

The connector object works the same way for search requests.

Connectors and waterfalls

When pipes use multiple providers, you may want to provide a custom connection for just one provider.

Custom connections can safely target a subset of the available providers. Pipes use custom connections when present, and fall back to managed connections otherwise.

The connector object

The connector object defines what credentials a pipe should use. It has the following shape:

"connector": {
    "strategy": "first",
    "connections": [
        {
            "type": "vault",
            "connection": "resend_abcd123"
        }
    ]
}

connector.strategy

A strategy that is applied when multiple connections target the same provider. Currently, the only supported option is first.

strategy.first: Use the first referenced connection found in vault.

connector.connections

A list of referenced connections. Your request will return an error if you reference non-existent connections.

connections.type

The access mechanism of your connection.

type.vault: Uses pipe0's vault for storage.

connections.connection

The connection ID as found in the connections section of the pipe0 dashboard.