Configure and monitor Rovo data sources
15 min
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Explain what Rovo connectors are
- Add and manage Rovo connectors in Atlassian Administration
- Monitor connector health and troubleshoot common issues
- Describe the additional steps for connecting Jira Data Center and other on‑premises sources
What are Rovo connectors?
A Rovo connector is how Rovo retrieves data from third‑party apps. Rovo works across Atlassian apps by default. When you add connectors, you bring in data from other apps your teams use, so you can access all the information from your organization in Rovo and get better answers and richer search results.
When you connect third-party apps to Rovo, you’ll get:
✔ Unified search: Find content from Slack, Google Drive, and Jira with a single search in Rovo.
✔ Knowledge-powered Rovo chat answers: Use current information from all your connected tools.
✔ Knowledge-powered Rovo agents: Use all your organization’s information to inform and complete tasks.
✔ Safe searches: Access results that you’re allowed to see in each connected app.
✔ Better focus: Get Rovo answers and support from multiple sources without leaving the app you’re working in.
👉 For example: Maya needs a past incident report but isn’t sure whether it’s in Slack, Google Drive, or Box. She asks Rovo Search to find “incident 427 postmortem.” Rovo returns the Slack thread, the Drive doc, and the Box PDF in a single results list. She opens the Drive doc to review the details.
Rovo only shows content that matches your permissions, so two people can ask the same question and get different answers.
Types of Rovo connectors
Every third-party app stores and shares information in its own way, so you’ll need different connectors for different apps.
👇 Click the tabs below to explore the types of Rovo connectors.
Synced connectors are set up by an admin to regularly sync and index content from connected workspaces.
👉 For example: Gmail is typically a Direct connector (Rovo fetches results in real-time). Slack and Google Drive are usually synced connectors (an admin connects a workspace, and Rovo indexes content). Smart Links don’t require a connector; they surface results based on link metadata and your access.
Rovo mirrors the permissions set in your third‑party apps. If content has no restrictions, it can appear in search for all users and be used by Rovo agents and Chat.
How Rovo connectors work with third-party apps
Rovo uses information from different systems across your organization. Rovo connectors control which systems are available and how Rovo can safely use them.
Rovo can pull information from the tools your organization uses. As an admin, you decide which tools Rovo can see and how it safely uses their data through connectors.
👇 Click the tabs below to explore how Rovo connectors work with third-party apps.
Access refers to the system or workspace, like a Slack or Notion workspace, that Rovo links to through a connector to gather information.
Some apps let you create more than one connection, one for each account or workspace. For example, if your organization uses two separate Google Drive accounts (for example, after a merger or across two business units), you can connect both to Rovo and manage each one independently. Rovo still searches across all of them, so users get one unified experience without needing to know how it's set up behind the scenes.
Add and manage Rovo connectors
In Atlassian Administration, organization admins can add, edit, or remove Rovo connectors for a site. Connecting the right data sources is what makes Rovo useful. The more relevant tools you connect, the better Rovo can support your users.
Before adding a connector, make sure to check these requirements:
✔ Confirm the content is appropriate for AI-assisted discovery.
✔ Confirm the connected app's access controls are set up correctly and unlikely to change.
✔ Validate that your security or risk team is comfortable with the scope of the connection.
To add a connector:
- Go to Atlassian Administration and select your organization.
- Expand Apps, then AI Settings, then select Rovo.
- Select Add connector.
- Select the connector type (for example, Slack).
- Review the setup instructions for the connector you selected (for example, Install a marketplace app).
- Complete the third-party authorization flow as an admin for the correct workspace or tenant.
- Return to the connector list and confirm the connector appears with a status of Ongoing sync.
During authorization, confirm you are authorizing the correct workspace or tenant, granting only the access areas you need, and not connecting production data to a sandbox site. Taking a moment to check these details upfront saves you from having to reconfigure your connector later.
If you disconnect a third-party app, Rovo deletes everything it stored from that app within 30 days.
👉 For example: Nina wants Rovo to surface her team’s GitHub repos, pull requests, and commits in Search and Chat, so she adds a GitHub connector in Atlassian Administration and authorizes the correct GitHub organization in Jira. She then returns to the connector list to confirm that the status shows Ongoing sync.
👇 This is where you can add connectors to Rovo.
In this example, the Rovo page is showing two types of GitHub connectors:
- GitHub (Synced connector) is managed by admins. It indexes repos, pull requests, commits, and branches for Rovo Search, Chat, and agents.
- GitHub (Smart Link connector) is always available, and admins cannot disable it. It surfaces GitHub items that users have interacted with through Smart Links in Atlassian pages, with no admin setup required.
Monitor connectors and fix issues
Monitor a connector’s status
A connector's status can change if security tokens expire or if someone changes permissions in the connected app. After adding a connector, check in on it periodically to make sure it's still working as expected.
To see a Rovo connector’s status:
- Navigate to Atlassian Administration.
- Expand Apps, then AI settings.
- Check the Status column in your connector list to see how Rovo is performing.
👇 Click the tabs below to learn about the possible statuses for Rovo connectors.
Ongoing sync status means indexing or refreshing is in progress. Wait for the sync to complete before investigating further.
Verify your connector is working as expected
Even if a connector shows an Ongoing sync status, that only confirms the connection is working. It does not tell you whether permissions are working correctly. To verify, run a known-item test: search for a file you know exists in the connected app and confirm that users can only see content they already have access to.
To run a known-item test:
- Find a unique document in your third-party app (for example, a PDF titled "2026 Budget Proposal").
- Type the exact title into Rovo Search or Chat.
- Check permissions:
- Ask a user with access to the file whether they can see it in Rovo.
- Ask a user who does not have access to the file to search for it. They should not be able to see it.
If Rovo cannot find your third-party app content, navigate to the Rovo connectors page in Atlassian Administration and select the info icon next to the connector status. This will give you an idea of what needs attention (for example, the Status is 'action required,' and the details say a re-authentication is required).
Connect Jira Data Center and on-premises apps
You’ll need to take a few extra steps to connect Rovo to an on-premises app like Jira Data Center, Confluence Data Center, and self-hosted versions of tools like GitHub.
👇 Click the boxes below to see how to connect Jira Data Center to Rovo.