Install a plugin

What this does for you

A plugin gives your bots a new connector, MCP server, or skill to use, and you install one from the same catalogue whichever kind it is.

Before you start

• You need at least one bot already made, from the sidebar's bot list, to grant the plugin to once it is connected.
• Some connectors need a provider account (a Google or Microsoft workspace, for example) to authorise against.
• An organisation admin may have blocked or required a plugin for your team; a blocked plugin's card carries no working Add.

Steps

1. Open Plugins from the sidebar. The sheet opens on the marketplace, with a search field and a row of category chips: All and Featured, then fifteen categories in a fixed order (packages/core/src/connectors.ts:7-23, apps/web/components/plugins/sheet.tsx:29-30).

   <!-- shot: install-a-plugin-01-phone.png | The plugins marketplace, on a phone --> <!-- shot: install-a-plugin-01-desktop.png | The plugins marketplace, on a desktop -->

2. Browse or search. The All view groups entries into one labelled section per category, at most four cards per section, with a View all link when a category holds more (apps/web/lib/catalogue-view.ts:24). Selecting a chip, or View all, swaps that grid for a single-column list of that one category alone. If your organisation has published its own packages, a Team packages section appears above the categories on this same view (apps/web/components/plugins/marketplace.tsx:172-173).

3. A card in the MCP category carries Add server… instead of Add. Pressing it does not install anything by itself — it moves you to the Installed page with an add-server form already filled in with that entry's name and address, ready to review (apps/web/components/plugins/card.tsx:100,129, apps/web/components/plugins/sheet.tsx:228-236). A connector this deployment has not configured yet is set up the way docs/connectors/README.md describes.

4. For a connector, press its card, or its name, to open the plugin's detail page: the icon, the full description, a View Source ↗ link when the catalogue records one, and a Connectors disclosure — collapsed by default — naming the connector's slug and type (apps/web/components/plugins/detail.tsx:417-434, apps/web/components/plugins/connectors-disclosure.tsx:24-51). The disclosure carries no scopes; a connector's scopes are the provider's own consent screen, not something this page previews.

   <!-- shot: install-a-plugin-02-phone.png | A plugin's detail page, on a phone --> <!-- shot: install-a-plugin-02-desktop.png | A plugin's detail page, on a desktop -->

5. Press Add. Installing is instant: no OAuth, no dialog and no confirmation. The button flips to ✓ Added, a toast confirms it, and an account named default is created in the Needs auth state, not yet authorised (apps/web/lib/strings.ts:1013,1046, packages/db/migrations/0020_connectors.sql:31-33).

6. Under Accounts, press Authenticate next to the account you want to connect. This is a link, not a fetch: it navigates to /api/oauth/<slug>/start?accountId=<id>, which redirects you to the provider's own consent screen (apps/web/app/api/oauth/[connector]/start/route.ts:11-16, apps/web/components/plugins/accounts.tsx:113-117). Approve the request there to finish connecting.

   <!-- shot: install-a-plugin-03-phone.png | An installed plugin's Accounts section, on a phone --> <!-- shot: install-a-plugin-03-desktop.png | An installed plugin's Accounts section, on a desktop -->

7. For an MCP server, finish the add-server form from step 3 and press Install. Before it is added you are shown every tool name and description the server intends to publish, so you can read what it will hand your bots before anything reaches a run (apps/web/components/plugins/mcp.tsx:376-421).

8. Grant the account, or the MCP server, to a bot from its Choose bots control. A bot can only use a connector or an MCP server through a grant, and two bots can hold two different accounts of the same plugin (apps/web/components/plugins/grants.tsx:12-26).

A worked example

Once an account is connected, its row in Accounts shows what it can do in plain language rather than a raw scope string:

Scopes
  Read your mail
  Send mail as you
Granted to
  Inbox Triage
Last used
  2 hours ago

What can go wrong

See also

• Notices
• Email Botseon sends you
• The daily digest