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Motivation / problem

The universal connector framework was born OAuth-shaped: click Connect → redirect to the provider → callback → ACTIVE. That covers Google Drive, Notion, OneDrive, Confluence and Jira, but it leaves out a huge class of sources that have no OAuth at all — an IMAP mailbox behind a host + port + username + password, an internal API behind a static key, an appliance behind basic auth. Before v8.17 the only way to wire such a source was a hand-written DB insert into connector_installations.config_json (the Fabric connector worked exactly this way) — invisible in the panel, undocumented, and impossible for a non-engineer to operate. v8.17 closes that gap with the first credential-based connector (IMAP) and, more importantly, a generic mechanism any future credential connector reuses unchanged. The design rule (skills derive-from-db-not-literal, pluggable-pipeline-registry): no if ($name === 'imap') anywhere in the host. The connector describes its own form; the host renders it, validates it, splits it, and routes the secret to the vault — all driven by that description.

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Theory & background

OAuth and credential auth differ in where the secret comes from, not in what the installation lifecycle looks like. Both end at the same connector_installations row flipping to ACTIVE; both reuse the connector’s existing initiateOAuth() / handleOAuthCallback() contract. v8.17 therefore invents no new connector method — it adds one optional capability interface that lets a connector advertise a form, and one host endpoint that fills in the gap the OAuth redirect used to fill. The capability interface (shipped in padosoft/askmydocs-connector-base v1.2): 
interface SupportsCredentialForm
{
    /** @return list<array<string,mixed>>  CredentialField::toArray() shapes. */
    public function credentialFormSchema(): array;
}
Each field carries a target that tells the host where its value belongs — the load-bearing concept of the whole design:
targetHost routes the value to
secretthe encrypted credential vault (via handleOAuthCallback) — never config_json
connectionconfig_json['connection'][<name>]
auth_mode / provider / configconfig_json[<name>]
A field also carries type (text/number/password/select/checkbox), required, options, a default, and a showIf conditional (“show only when another field equals X”) so one schema describes both a basic-auth form and an XOAUTH2 form.

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Design

The host descriptor (ConnectorAdminController::index) adds two additive keys per connector: auth_kind (oauth | credential) and, for credential connectors, credential_form_schema. OAuth connectors keep auth_kind: 'oauth' and a null schema — fully backward compatible. ConfigureConnectorService is the generic core:
  1. Split the payload by target. The secret is pulled out (never written to config_json); connection fields nest under config_json['connection']; everything else is a top-level config_json key. Fields hidden by an unmet showIf are skipped so they never pollute the row.
  2. Upsert the single (tenant_id, connector_name) row PENDING (R30 — every query is tenant-scoped).
  3. basic-auth → mint the connector’s single-use OAuth state via initiateOAuth(), then immediately replay it through handleOAuthCallback() with the secret (posted under its schema field name). The connector pings the server and, on success, vaults the secret → row flips ACTIVE. A ConnectorAuthException (bad login) leaves the row PENDING with error_json and surfaces as HTTP 422 — never a 200-with-empty-body (skill surface-failures-loudly).
  4. xoauth2 → persist PENDING and return the provider authorize URL; the browser redirects and the unchanged oauth/callback route finishes the flow.

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Data model / contract

No schema change — credential connectors reuse connector_installations (config_json JSON + the connector_credentials vault row). The HTTP contract: 
GET  /api/admin/connectors
  → data[].auth_kind: 'oauth' | 'credential'
  → data[].credential_form_schema: CredentialField[] | null

POST /api/admin/connectors/{name}/configure          (can:manageConnectors)
  body: { <field name>: value, …, project_key? }     # secret included, never logged
  → 200 { data: { id, status, last_sync_at, error, redirect_to } }
       redirect_to: string|null   # non-null only for xoauth2
  → 422 { error }                  # basic-auth credential ping failed
  → 422 { message, errors }        # validation (dynamic, from the schema)
The IMAP connector’s schema ships 8 fields across three groups (Authentication: auth_mode, xoauth2_provider; Server: host, port (993), encryption (ssl/tls/starttls/none), validate_cert; Credentials: username, password (the lone secret)). Provider env (XOAUTH2 only — basic-auth needs none): CONNECTOR_IMAP_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID/_SECRET/_REDIRECT_URI, CONNECTOR_IMAP_MS_CLIENT_ID/_SECRET/_REDIRECT_URI.

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Decision rationale (ADR-style)

  • Reuse initiateOAuth/handleOAuthCallback, invent no new connector method. The installation lifecycle is identical; only the secret source differs. A bespoke handleCredentials() method would fork every connector’s contract and the host’s flow for no behavioural gain. The basic-auth path simply replays the connector’s own single-use state synthetically.
  • Schema lives in the connector, not the host (Option A). With connector-base v1.2 + connector-imap v1.2 on Packagist, the field schema is the connector’s responsibility — one source of truth, no host/package drift (skill docs-match-code). The earlier “host-side schema map” fallback (Option B) was dropped.
  • target-driven routing, not field-name magic. Routing by an explicit per-field target (rather than guessing from names) is what keeps the host generic: a future connector with an api_token secret and a base_url connection field works with zero host changes.
  • The secret never touches config_json. It is routed through handleOAuthCallback straight to the encrypted vault. config_json (which can surface host/username metadata) carries no credential, and the ConnectorInstallationResource omits it from the API entirely.

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Worked example — activate an IMAP mailbox

  1. composer require padosoft/askmydocs-connector-imap (auto-discovered).
  2. As a super-admin, open /app/admin/connectors → the Email (IMAP) card shows Connect.
  3. Click Connect → a modal renders from the schema. For app-password auth: host = imap.example.com, port = 993, encryption = SSL/TLS, username = you@example.com, password = <app password>.
  4. Connect → the BE logs in (a real IMAP ping), vaults the password, and the card flips to Active. Bad credentials → an inline error, the card stays inactive, nothing is vaulted.
  5. For Gmail / Microsoft 365 choose OAuth2 in the form → the browser redirects to the provider and returns ACTIVE through the standard callback.
The scheduler then syncs the mailbox (body + headers + attachments) into the canonical KB like any other connector.

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Gotchas & operations

  • can:manageConnectors (super-admin only) gates configure like every other connector route — it touches credential vaults. Regression-locked in the R32 authorization matrix.
  • One installation = one mailbox. Multi-mailbox per installation is out of scope (a second installation row covers a second mailbox).
  • Testing seam. The IMAP server is a backend TCP dependency, so Playwright can’t stub it; E2E runs with CONNECTOR_IMAP_FAKE_PING=true, an input-driven offline fake (host containing invalid/fail → login failure). Default-OFF — production always talks to the real server (skill on both-state flags, R43).
  • The mechanism is generic. Any future credential connector implements SupportsCredentialForm; the same form, endpoint, validation and vaulting work unchanged — no host edit.

Universal connectors

The OAuth-based connector framework this builds on.

Multi-tenant isolation

The tenant scope every installation + credential is bound to.