The life of a connector
What each state means, and what moves it.
Read a connector’s state and know who has to act.
Your path, in three steps.
- 01
Find the state on the page
Healthy, Repairing, Broken (with its reason) or Paused: each one says who is waiting for what.
- 02
Understand what moved it
A changed site starts one repair; a lost session asks you to sign in again. A timeout or a rate limit changes nothing.
- 03
Check before acting
Activity & Logs says what failed, Version History says which version answered. Read before retrying.
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Overview
A connector is not a script you run and forget. It is built once, watched from then on, and it changes state on its own when the site it talks to changes. This page is the map of those states — what each one means for you, what moves a connector out of it, and what you are charged for along the way.
The four stages
- 1
Built
You describe a task. Vela explores the site and produces a connector with defined inputs and outputs.
- 2
Checked
The connector is deployed only once its certification passed on recorded evidence. A check that did not run stays unverified; nothing half-checked is ever switched on.
- 3
Live
Your tools can call it. Vela checks it on its own, repairs it when it can, and tells you when it cannot. From the first call you make in a month, it counts as one used connector for that month.
- 4
Retired
Pause it to stop new calls, or delete it when you no longer need it. Pausing does not remove usage already recorded in the month. For another customer, create a separate installation.
The states you will see
| What the page says | What it means | Who it is waiting for |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy | Answering calls. Nothing says it is broken. | Nobody. |
| Repairing | The site changed and Vela is rebuilding the connector. The current version keeps answering. | Vela. You get an email when it ends. |
| Broken — *Sign in again* | The sign-in expired and could not be renewed without a person. | You. See Sign a connector back in. |
| Broken — *Verification code required* | The site asked for a one-time code. | You. Enter the code from the email. |
| Broken — *Repair needed* | The automatic repair did not fix the connector. | You. Retry the repair when you want another attempt. |
| Broken — *Automatic repair unavailable* | The account has no plan that includes repairs. | You. Review the plan. |
| Paused | Switched off. No new calls; existing monthly usage remains. | You. |
Unverified is not healthy
A check that could not run changes nothing: it says so, and the connector keeps the state it had. A product that reported "healthy" because it failed to look would be worse than one that says nothing.
What moves a connector between states
- The automatic check. About once an hour, Vela checks every healthy, active connector. It never runs a connector that changes something; where the site offers a way to verify the sign-in on its own, that is used instead.
- A site change starts one repair. When a call or a check of a healthy connector shows the site changed, Vela starts one automatic repair. If it fixes the connector, the connector is healthy again. If it does not, the connector is broken with Repair needed and Vela does not try again on its own: the next repair is yours to start, as often as you want.
- A lost sign-in is restored once. Vela signs in again with the saved credentials, once. If that fails, the connector asks you to sign in again. As soon as a call succeeds or you sign in, it is healthy again.
- Ambiguous failures do not count. A timeout, a network error, a site asking you to slow down, an input the site refused: recorded, not held against the connector.
- A successful call does not clear a failed repair. A call that works with other inputs proves nothing about the one that failed. A repair does, and so does your own Check health when it runs the connector.
Versions
Every build and every successful repair produces a new version, and the previous one is kept. Each run records the version that produced it, so a result you cannot explain months later can still be traced to the exact connector that returned it. Version History lists them and lets you go back to one.
Going back is not a repair
Rolling back to a version that predates a change on the site puts back the connector that was already failing. Roll back when the new version is the problem, not when the site is.
What a state costs
| State | Counts as a used connector this month? |
|---|---|
| Never called this month | No connector activation. The plan’s monthly minimum still applies. |
| Live but never called this month | No. |
| Called at least once, including a Playground call or before pausing | Yes, for the month. |
| Automatic checks, repairs, health probes | No. Those are Vela's, not yours. |
The detail of the bands and the allowance is in Plans and usage.
Where to go next
- How a connection lives and dies — why the sign-in is what breaks, and what Vela keeps.
- How Vela repairs itself — what happens between broken and live again.
- Troubleshooting — symptom by symptom.
Restore access when the software asks you to sign in again.
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