Plugins and data sources

Every tile, search result and monitor in SquaredUp starts with a data source. SquaredUp doesn't keep a copy of your monitoring, ticketing or cloud data. Tiles query your tools live each time they load, so until you connect something, there's nothing for a dashboard to show.

Plugins are how that connection happens. A plugin knows how to talk to one kind of tool, such as AWS, Jira or ServiceNow. When you give it your credentials, it becomes a data source: your account, ready to query from any dashboard in the workspace.

Ready to connect one? Managing data sources walks through adding, linking, editing and deleting them. For a tour of the page each data source gets, see Data source overview page, and if one won't connect or index, see Troubleshooting data sources.

Plugins

A plugin is a connector for one kind of tool. It handles authentication, knows which API endpoints to call, and turns whatever comes back into tables SquaredUp can chart. It also carries everything else that tool needs: the configuration form you fill in, the objects worth importing, and often a set of ready-made dashboards.

There are more than 100 ready-made plugins to choose from, covering everything from cloud platforms and monitoring tools to service desks and databases. They're all on the Add a data source page, where you can search the catalog or filter it by category. Browse the plugin catalog to see what's available before you sign in, or the data source articles for how to configure each one.

Custom plugins

If the tool you rely on isn't in the catalog, you can build a plugin for it. A custom plugin is a small bundle of JSON files describing the configuration form, the data streams and, optionally, the objects to index. Once it's deployed, it behaves exactly like a built-in plugin: it gets data sources, an overview page and a place in the tile editor.

You don't have to write those files by hand. Click Build with AI on the Add a data source page, or go straight to Building plugins with AI, to see how an agent such as Claude Code reads the tool's API documentation, plans the plugin with you, and tests every data stream against your own tenant as it builds. For what goes into a plugin and how to share one with the community, see Custom plugins.

If you only need a handful of endpoints, the Web API plugin connects to any HTTP API that returns JSON without building anything.

Plugin support

Who maintains a plugin decides where to take a problem with it:

• SquaredUp plugins: Maintained and supported by SquaredUp. Report a problem or suggest an improvement through SquaredUp Support.
• Community plugins: Maintained and supported by their authors. Report a problem or suggest an improvement in the Community Plugins repo.

Data sources

A data source is one configured connection made through a plugin. The plugin says how to reach a kind of tool, and the data source says which account to reach, with which credentials. One plugin can back several data sources, so you might connect the Azure plugin twice as Azure prod and Azure dev.

What you configure depends on the plugin. Most ask for credentials such as an API key or a service account, and many let you choose which objects to import. Data sources for tools inside your own network connect through a relay agent. The plugin's documentation sits under Need help? beside the configuration form, so the help is there while you fill it in.

A data source belongs to your organization rather than a single workspace. If a colleague has already connected the tool you need, and hasn't restricted access, you can link their data source to your workspace instead of setting up another. See Link a data source to a workspace. Admins can see every data source in the organization on the Data Sources settings page.

What happens when I add a data source?

Adding a data source does more than store a connection. Most bring three things with them:

• Data streams: Named queries against the data source, usually one per API endpoint. Each returns a simple table, so every tile starts from the same shape of data whatever tool it came from. Data streams are what you pick when you build a tile or open the Data Explorer. See Data streams.
• Objects: If the plugin supports indexing, SquaredUp imports the things your tool knows about, such as servers, repositories or queues, as objects with their own source type. Objects are what you search for, filter tiles by and drill into, and they're re-indexed on a schedule. See Objects and Object indexing.
• Dashboards: Many plugins install out-of-the-box dashboards, so you have something useful to look at within minutes of connecting. They're ordinary dashboards you can edit or copy. See Dashboards.

Multiple data source instances

Nothing stops you connecting the same tool more than once, and there are good reasons to. Separate data sources for production and development keep their objects apart and let you give each a different set of permissions. The same goes for two regions, or two customers' tenants.

The only rule is that each instance needs its own Display Name, which is how you tell them apart everywhere else in SquaredUp.

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