Perplexity Computer connectors, and the open-source way to grant them

Perplexity Computer reaches other software through connectors. Its app connectors page counts 400+ of them (checked October 2026). The help center documents the first-party set one article at a time, which makes the names easy to check and easy to sort by the work a team would hand over.

• Files and documents. Google Drive, Microsoft 365 for SharePoint and OneDrive, Box, Dropbox.
• Writing and discussion. Notion, Confluence, Slack, Microsoft Teams.
• Tracked work. Jira, Asana, Linear.
• Mail and calendar. Gmail with Google Calendar, Outlook.com, Google Calendar.
• Data and code. Snowflake, Databricks, GitHub.
• Customer records. HubSpot.

Two routes sit outside that list. Perplexity Computer takes remote MCP servers, including one added by URL, and it runs local MCP servers through a helper called PerplexityXPC, on the Mac app only. Perplexity describes the catalog as first-party connectors out of the box, plus hundreds more through MCP, and its MCP page covers the setup (checked October 2026).

A connector is authorized by signing in to the app. Perplexity's plugins page calls Connect the step that "signs you in to the external tool and authorizes Computer to use it". The sign-in belongs to the person who made it: on that page a connector connected through a plugin "is connected for your account everywhere", and its MCP page makes the same point from the other side, "Connecting it anywhere connects it for your account everywhere" (both checked October 2026).

The Google Drive connector shows what a grant covers, and it covers a lot. Perplexity asks Google for three permissions: see and download all your Drive files, see information about your Drive files, and see, edit, create and delete only the specific files you use with this app. It uses the last one to keep sync metadata, not to change your file contents, and standard search queries your Drive through Google's API in real time rather than indexing the whole of it. Files you pick for high-precision search are synced to Perplexity's platform; the rest are read where they sit. Delete a file in Drive and it leaves Perplexity immediately. Disconnect the account and Perplexity asks whether to keep your files or delete them, and kept files stop syncing (its Google Drive page lists the permissions and documents each step, checked October 2026).

On an Enterprise organization, access has two switches: Enabled, then a role list of All Members, Admin or selected roles. Perplexity checks the role server-side before the agent runtime starts, so a blocked call spends no credits. An administrator also sets the default for connectors Perplexity ships later, including Disabled, and enable, disable and role changes land in the audit log. There is no per-member allow or deny, and a role on the list grants access rather than blocking it. Perplexity's page on role-based access control for connectors marks it as a sales-assisted Enterprise feature (checked October 2026).

Access is also written down per agent, one layer deeper. A Profile in the Agent API saves an agent's model, instructions, tools, Skills, connectors and run settings under one versioned ID, and a project administrator configures a managed connector once so applications point at the shared connection instead of holding credentials of their own. Perplexity's own account of the change is one sentence: when access changes, the administrator updates the connection in one place. Profiles and custom Skills were available on 28 September 2026, and managed connectors were in preview, with GitHub, Slack, Google Drive, Datadog, Linear and Notion named (Agent API announcement, checked October 2026).

So a team can give one agent the warehouse and the next agent nothing, twice over: a role list decides who may reach a connector, and a Profile's connector list decides what that saved agent carries. Both are resources inside a Perplexity project, edited in Perplexity's consoles. The OAuth grant underneath is a third thing, and neither layer ends it. Removing a role from a connector leaves third-party grants members have already completed untouched, and Perplexity's advice is to disconnect the account under Plugins, on the Installed tab, or to revoke the grant in the provider's admin console. Whether a member can call a particular tool inside a connector, Slack send as against Slack search, is governed separately by that connector's tool permissions.

Where no connector exists, Perplexity Computer takes a custom API credential. It stores the value encrypted and injects it through a proxy, so the raw string stays out of the agent's activity and the task sandbox, as its custom credentials page describes. The credential can last one task, sit in a personal vault, or be shared with a project. That is careful design, and the vault still belongs to Perplexity.

Rented connector breadth is a good deal for a team with no engineer to spare. Computer arrives inside a Perplexity plan (what a seat costs), the sign-in takes a few clicks, and the catalog covers the apps most companies already pay for. A five-person team can have Computer reading Drive and posting to Slack the same afternoon.

The cost arrives later, in a specific moment. An auditor asks who can read the customer warehouse. A person leaves. A customer asks for an export. Answering any of the three means opening two consoles. The organization one lists which connectors are on and for which roles. The API Console holds the Profiles, each naming a connector for one saved agent. Both are readable screens with an audit log behind them, and both belong to Perplexity.

Kortix answers the same questions from the repository. A connector is an entry in kortix.yaml. An agent reaches it only when agents.<name>.connectors lists its slug or says all, and a name left out means no access. Policies decide what each call does, allow, ask or block, down to an argument such as the recipient of an email. Connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine. Changing a connector runs as a git diff under the same review a team gives code (Read the docs).

An instance on your own server holds the connector accounts, the audit log and the config, so leaving is a migration and not a rebuild. The catalog is longer too: 3,000+ apps in a click, plus MCP, OpenAPI, Postman, GraphQL and raw HTTP. An app Perplexity never adds is a connector somebody on the team writes, and the self-hosting steps take a bare Linux box to that point in three commands.

A team that wants a capable agent this week, would rather not run a server, and faces no auditor with a connector checklist should rent. Breadth is exactly what it pays for. The choice is between a wide catalog and a boundary a company writes down, and the next six months say which one matters. Teams that need the second one have open-source alternatives to compare, and what a Perplexity Computer is sets the baseline for the comparison.