---
title: "How to build a connector — Spiff Arena 0.1 documentation"
description: "Connectors are custom integrations that run within Spiff Arena’s Connector Proxy architecture to interact with external systems. The Connector Proxy provides a secure, scalable way to handle these integrations."
source_url: https://spiff.works/docs/spiff-arena/how_to_guides/extend_the_system/how_to_build_a_connector.html
---

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# How to build a connector[](#how-to-build-a-connector "Link to this heading")

Connectors are custom integrations that run within Spiff Arena’s [Connector Proxy](../../explanation/dev/connector_proxy.html) architecture to interact with external systems. The Connector Proxy provides a secure, scalable way to handle these integrations.

While existing connectors like connector-http are very flexible, you may choose to build a connector for a specific use case.

To get an idea of what you are in for, take a look at existing connectors:

- [connector-http](https://github.com/sartography/connector-http/blob/main/src/connector_http/commands/get_request_v2.py)
- [connector-smtp](https://github.com/sartography/connector-smtp/blob/main/src/connector_smtp/commands/send_email.py)

And there are [many more connectors](https://github.com/sartography?q=connector&type=public&language=python&sort=).

A connector can implement many commands.
Commands are also known as operators in the SpiffWorkflow frontend properties panel user interface.
Like the above examples, you will want to inherit from the `ConnectorCommand` class.
You will see that there are two important functions that your command class must implement:

- `__init__`
- `run`

Code introspection is used based on the implementation of the `__init__` method to determine which parameters should be allowed in the properties panel.
The `run` method is where the actual work is done (send HTTP request, etc).

If you end up writing a connector, please consider contributing it back to the community and please consider contributing to this documentation.
Thank you!