How connections work
What a connection is in MaShop, the four screens where one lives, where you authorize before your first project, and what runs today.
Connect
A connection is an outside account that MaShop may reach in your name. Nothing is connected by default.
Four surfaces are called a connector
The word covers four screens. They do not do the same job. Knowing which one you are looking at saves a long detour.
| Surface | Where it lives | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment services | Project settings, Deployment tab | GitHub, Supabase and Netlify authorized on your account. They carry publishing. |
| Official connector catalogue | Connection proposal card in the chat, Details button | Six services and 23 tools. One permission per tool. |
| MCP servers | Account settings, Connectors tab, Your connectors | Any remote server that speaks the Model Context Protocol. |
| Connected apps | Account settings, Connectors tab, Connected apps | Apps that act on your MaShop account from their own chat. |
Only MCP servers are connected from the connectors screen. The six official connectors are a permission surface. GitHub, Supabase and Netlify are authorized from the Deployment tab instead.
Where you authorize, and when
GitHub, Supabase and Netlify are authorized once, on your account. The token is stored against your account, not against a project. One authorization covers every project you own.
Two screens start it, and they lead to the same place.
- The setup wizard, before any project exists. Five steps: GitHub, Supabase, Netlify, then your first project, then the setup itself. Each of the three carries Skip this step, so none of them traps you.
- Project settings, Deployment tab, inside a project. The same three cards, the same result.
So connecting before you create a project is possible. The per service pages below describe the Deployment tab, because that is where you come back later.
The two directions
The protocol runs both ways, and the Connectors tab carries a toggle that separates them.
- Your connectors. The services your agents use. MaShop is the client.
- Connected apps. The apps that drive your MaShop account, from Claude Desktop, Cursor or another MCP client. MaShop is the server.
Both panels carry the title Connectors, in all six languages. Read the toggle, not the title.
Who can authorize a connection
Connecting, disconnecting and changing a tool permission are reserved to the project owner. The screen says so. An editor and a viewer can read the list and the permissions, and change nothing.
Where a connection acts
An MCP server is connected to one project. Every agent of that project can then use it. A connection is not narrowed per agent. The only way to keep one tool away from one agent is the list of actions that agent forbids itself.
A connected app is different. It acts on your MaShop account, across your projects, until you revoke it.
What a connection costs
Connecting a service, changing a permission, searching the directory and disconnecting all cost nothing. No credit is reserved and none is spent on those screens.
What costs is the agent turn that uses a tool. It is billed after the fact, at the real token cost of the model, converted into credits. There is no price per tool call. A run that consumes no token costs nothing and writes no line in your history.
If your balance is short at the moment of billing, the work already done is applied anyway. The debit fails, and the automation is flagged as needing attention so it does not start again the next day.
What runs today, and what does not
This is the part worth knowing before you spend an evening on it.
- Tools from a connected MCP server do run. The call is relayed to that server as it stands. It passes the same guard as any other tool, and it is capped at 20 seconds and 4000 characters of answer.
- The 23 tools of the six official connectors do not run. An agent that calls one reads that no executor is wired for that name. Nothing is attempted.
- Two built-in capabilities answer. Reading your Supabase data, and saving an email draft. The draft is written for you to read. Nothing is sent.
- The Connect button on a chat card opens the publishing flow when the card is an official connector. It opens a real authorization only for an MCP server, which is the kind that carries a server address.
- The Official badge on a card comes from the model that proposed it, not from a check. Only the link scheme is filtered.