# Developers & Apps

Everything that reaches your Instasent project from outside: your own code with an API token, the AI assistant you already use, and third-party apps connected over OAuth — each with permissions you approve and can revoke.

**Language:** en
**Audience:** platform
**TLDR:** Developers & Apps covers the three ways something outside Instasent can work with your project: an API token your own code carries, your own AI connected over MCP, and a third-party app (Zapier, a CRM) connected over OAuth. Tokens you create yourself; the other two are authorized by you on a consent screen and appear in Connected apps, where you can see what each one reaches and disconnect it. What any of them sees is governed per project by its access type. None of them sends messages on its own.
**Translation key:** platform.developers-and-apps.overview
**Search keywords:** developers and apps, developer, connected apps, connected app, connect, api token, api tokens, oauth, agent, ai agent, claude, chatgpt, third party, third-party, integration, permissions, revoke, revoke access
**Related pages:** /platform/es/developers-and-apps, /platform/en/developers-and-apps/connect-your-ai, /platform/en/developers-and-apps/api-tokens, /platform/en/developers-and-apps/third-party-apps
**Docs index (every page):** https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt
**This zone's index:** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/llms.txt
**This page:** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/developers-and-apps/ (HTML) · https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/developers-and-apps.md (Markdown)
**Other language (es):** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/es/developers-and-apps.md

Your Instasent project doesn't only get worked on from the dashboard. Your own
software can read and write to it, the AI assistant you already use can explore
it and prepare work for you, and tools like Zapier or your CRM can operate it on
your behalf. This section covers all three, and they are more alike than they
look: each one gets the access you approve, reaches only the projects you pick,
and can be cut off whenever you want.

Where they differ is **who holds the credential and who hands it out** — and
that single question decides which of the three you need.

## Which one is your case

- [Your own code](/platform/en/developers-and-apps/api-tokens) - You are writing the integration yourself and your server will call Instasent. You create an **API token**, scope it, and your code carries it. Nobody else is involved.
- [Your AI](/platform/en/developers-and-apps/connect-your-ai) - You want Claude, ChatGPT or the assistant you already work in to read your audience, campaigns and reports and prepare work with you. You connect it once and it uses **your** model.
- [A third-party app](/platform/en/developers-and-apps/third-party-apps) - Software somebody else built — an automation platform, a CRM — that operates your project for you. You authorize it, and it never sees your password.

The last two go through the same door: an **authorization screen** where you sign
in, choose the project and see exactly what is being asked for. Both then appear
together in **Connected apps**, which is where you check what each one reaches
and disconnect the ones you no longer want.

- [What they can see](/platform/en/developers-and-apps/third-party-data-access) - The access type you set per project, and how much of your audience data actually leaves it.
- [Managing what's connected](/platform/en/developers-and-apps/managing-connected-apps) - Review every connection, change which projects it reaches, and disconnect it.

## What none of them do

Nothing connected here sends a message, launches a campaign or starts an
automation on its own. They read, they prepare, and they leave the work ready
for you — you press send in the dashboard. That is a design decision, not a
limitation of the current version.

## Two things this is not

- **It is not the AI built into Instasent.** Iris and the writing help live
  inside the dashboard and there is nothing to connect: see
  [Integrated AI](/platform/en/ai). Bringing *your own* assistant is
  [Connect your AI](/platform/en/developers-and-apps/connect-your-ai).
- **It is not how data gets into Instasent.** Shopify, CSV imports, webhooks and
  the rest of the connectors *feed* your audience, and they live in
  [Data sources](/platform/en/data-sources). The arrow points the other way:
  data sources bring data **in**, and what's on this page **operates** the
  project from outside.

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This is one page of the Instasent documentation. For the complete machine-readable index of every guide and API reference, fetch https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt — start there for full context.