> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cloudthinker.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connections

> Connect your cloud providers, databases, and services to CloudThinker for unified AI-powered operations

Connections enable CloudThinker agents to access your infrastructure. Connect cloud providers, databases, and services to unlock the full power of AI-driven cloud operations.

***

## The Problem With Tool Sprawl

Every cloud management tool requires its own connection setup. Datadog needs agent installation. Grafana needs datasource configuration. Each security tool needs its own IAM role. Database tools need separate credentials. The average engineering team maintains 8–12 separate tool connections — each with its own credential rotation, permission model, and access review process.

This means:

* Connection setup overhead for every new tool
* Credential sprawl with no unified view of what has access to what
* Each tool sees only its domain — no cross-system correlation
* New team members spend days setting up access to all the tools

***

## What Makes CloudThinker Connections Different

CloudThinker uses the **[Model Context Protocol (MCP)](/guide/connections/mcp)** — an open standard that lets agents access any tool through a standardized interface. Connect once, and all agents ([Alex](/guide/agents/alex), [Oliver](/guide/agents/oliver), [Tony](/guide/agents/tony), [Kai](/guide/agents/kai), [Anna](/guide/agents/anna)) can use that connection without separate setup.

| Approach               | Traditional Tool Integration                | CloudThinker Connections                            |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Setup**              | Per-tool credential config                  | One MCP connection, all agents access it            |
| **Permission model**   | Each tool manages its own access            | Unified least-privilege model, audit logged         |
| **New tool**           | Configure integration, write connector code | Add MCP server, immediately available to all agents |
| **Cross-tool queries** | Requires custom scripting or ETL            | Agents query multiple connections in one prompt     |

***

## Cloud Providers

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="AWS" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/aws.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=45d526a3e9345214c0345f277da2e829" href="/guide/connections/aws" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/aws.svg">
    EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, EKS, and 100+ services
  </Card>

  <Card title="Google Cloud" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/gcp.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=2cc7040a8e4cd401b1c388f8b0cd6fe3" href="/guide/connections/gcp" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/gcp.svg">
    Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, GKE, BigQuery
  </Card>

  <Card title="Azure" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/azure.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=4be469886bf170733d0cf92af6a0cb8e" href="/guide/connections/azure" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/azure.svg">
    VMs, SQL Database, AKS, Blob Storage
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Databases

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="PostgreSQL" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/postgresql.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=8bb2ac033d0a2ccbef51154a76e1e819" href="/guide/connections/postgresql" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/postgresql.svg">
    Query analysis, performance tuning, optimization
  </Card>

  <Card title="MySQL" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/mysql.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=29b74ea2b3ffacd21682ca898f6a2e43" href="/guide/connections/mysql" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/mysql.svg">
    Performance monitoring, slow query analysis
  </Card>

  <Card title="Kafka" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/kafka.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=f977ba21911cea4b67d99e55c7565058" href="/guide/connections/kafka" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/kafka.svg">
    Confluent Cloud Kafka with scope-based credentials
  </Card>

  <Card title="Elasticsearch" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/elasticsearch.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=c7389cfcd0bc8d303aeeb68bd19199ca" href="/guide/connections/elasticsearch" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/elasticsearch.svg">
    Log analysis, search operations, observability
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Infrastructure

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Kubernetes" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/kubernetes.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=7c03292954ff635a1994623a5c39971b" href="/guide/connections/kubernetes" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/kubernetes.svg">
    EKS, GKE, AKS, self-managed clusters
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cloudflare" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/cloudflare.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=7e4bba3d5427696929e27d41bb1339f9" href="/guide/connections/cloudflare" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/cloudflare.svg">
    DNS analytics, GraphQL analytics, documentation
  </Card>

  <Card title="Grafana" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/grafana.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=c1329049025cd3c3a0909b400baef7be" href="/guide/connections/grafana" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/grafana.svg">
    Dashboards, metrics, alerting
  </Card>

  <Card title="Atlassian" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/atlassian.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=64fcf0381646a233832602a9086a14eb" href="/guide/connections/atlassian" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/atlassian.svg">
    Jira, Confluence integration
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Quick Start

<Steps>
  <Step title="Choose Connection">
    Select the service you want to connect from the categories above
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create Credentials">
    Follow the guide to create read-only credentials for secure access
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect">
    Enter credentials in CloudThinker and test the connection
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start Using">
    Your agents can now access and analyze this service
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Connection Security

All connections use:

* **Read-only access** by default for safety
* **Encrypted credentials** stored securely
* **Minimal permissions** following least-privilege principle
* **Audit logging** for all access

<Card title="Credentials Guide" icon="key" href="/guide/connections/aws">
  Learn how to create secure credentials for each service type
</Card>

***

## IoT & Telematics

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Flespi" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/flespi.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=638b1bf2a6f813f175c7e7c8bb063e9c" href="/guide/connections/flespi" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/flespi.svg">
    GPS devices, telemetry, fleet management
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## MCP Connections

For custom integrations, CloudThinker supports [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](/guide/connections/mcp) servers.

<Card title="MCP Connections" icon="https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/mcp.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=c89b6087a9d233901dea5e354452eff6" href="/guide/connections/mcp" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/mcp.svg">
  Connect custom tools and services via MCP
</Card>