Give the AI access to the tools your team already uses, so it understands your project without being told every time.
Connections are integrations between Hamster Studio and the external services your team relies on. Setting up a team Connection once gives every member of your workspace access to that data source — making the AI more accurate and contextually aware without requiring manual input each time.
Connections are integrations between Hamster Studio and the external services your team relies on — code repositories, issue trackers, communication tools, and documentation platforms. When you connect a service, Hamster can read data from it and use that data as context when you interact with the AI.
Without Connections, the AI only knows what you tell it in the current conversation. With Connections, it has access to your actual project: the issues in your backlog, the messages in relevant Slack channels, the pages in your Notion workspace, the code in your repository.
Better answers. When you ask "what are we building in this sprint?" the AI can check your issue tracker rather than asking you to paste in the tickets.
Richer Briefs. When you generate a Brief, the AI can reference real issues, real code, and real documentation rather than working from scratch.
Less manual context. You stop spending time re-explaining your project to the AI at the start of every conversation.
Hamster uses your connected sources to find relevant context when answering questions or drafting work.
Some Connections search the service when you ask; others sync content into Hamster. Check the service's guide for how updates become available and whether you can re-sync manually. Some services, such as Slack, also let you interact with Hamster directly from that service.
Multi-account support: Many Connections support multiple accounts for the same service, such as Slack, GitHub, or Salesforce. When you use these Connections in Briefs or chats, specify which connected account to use.
Some Connections go beyond read access. Two-way sync services like Linear and Jira keep Tasks automatically synchronized between Hamster and the external tool, so updates flow both directions without manual updating. Slack's bot lets you interact with Hamster from inside your team's conversations. These bidirectional Connections keep your tools in lockstep.
Team Connections are shared: one person installs GitHub for the team and everyone benefits. Personal Connections are used only for the person who installed them.
When you connect an app from the catalog, choose who the Connection is for:
The Cursor and OpenAI Agents delivery connections use an API key instead of an install. See each page for how to connect one.
Hamster can also ask you to connect an app from a conversation. When it needs a service you haven't connected, it posts a card with a Connect button for that app; click it to open the same dialog. Once you authorize, the card shows the app as connected and Hamster carries on. If Hamster says the connect offer is no longer available, ask it to connect the app again.
Some catalog apps show Reconnect required when Hamster needs you to authorize again. Click the card and follow the service's authorization steps.
Code-host connections have their own status and reconnect guidance. See GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Cursor Origin for the steps that apply to your repository.
For an app from the catalog, right-click its card and choose Disconnect, or hover over the card and click ×. Confirm with Delete in the Delete Connection dialog.
Hamster removes the connection and stops using it to access that source. Your data in the external service is not deleted. If you also want to revoke the app's authorization, do that in the external service.
For a code host, follow its connection guide to remove repository access.
For GitLab, hover over its card and click ×. Removing it doesn't revoke Hamster's access on GitLab. See GitLab.
Credentials are encrypted at rest. Each Connection requests permissions for its supported features. Code-host connections also need write access for delivery; review the provider's setup guide before authorizing. OpenAI Agents delivers only to a connected GitHub repository and pushes through the Hamster GitHub App, so it uses that app's write access.