External Services
An External Service is a named instance of an External Service Template. While the template defines the schema — which variables exist — the External Service holds the actual values for those variables (such as credentials or a connection URL).
External Services allow you to connect third-party services to your application components without exposing raw credentials in component configuration. In the Component Detail, an External Service Template is added as a Connected Service binding type — declaring that the component requires a service of that type. The concrete External Service instance to use is then assigned per environment in the Deployment Configuration → Connected Services.
Benefits
- Grouped configuration — all variables belonging to a connection (e.g. host, port, credentials) are bundled into a single service instance and assigned as one unit in the component configuration, rather than setting individual variables one by one
- Reusability — the same service instance can be assigned to multiple components or environments without duplicating values
- Permission separation — access to assign a service to a component is independent from access to view or edit the actual variable values (see below)
Permission separation
Access to an External Service is controlled independently from access to the component that uses it. A user who can assign an External Service to a component in its configuration does not automatically gain access to view the sensitive values stored in that service. This allows you to:
- Let developers configure which service instance a component uses
- Restrict who can read or modify the actual connection values
What You Can Do
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| List External Services | Browse and search all external service instances |
| Create External Service | Create a new external service instance from a template |
| External Service Detail | View and edit the service configuration and its usage |
| Delete External Service | Permanently remove an external service instance |
| Permissions | Manage who can access and modify the service |