Understand credential management

Automation orchestrator uses credentials to securely store and manage authentication information for connecting workflows to external services.

Credentials provide a centralized way to handle sensitive data such as API keys, passwords, and SSH keys without exposing them in workflow definitions or execution logs.

Understand how credentials work

When you create a credential, you select a credential type. The credential type defines the schema for the credential, including which fields are required, which fields contain sensitive data, and how the credential values are delivered to workflow nodes at runtime. Automation orchestrator encrypts and stores your authentication values as a named credential that you can attach to one or more workflow nodes.

When a workflow runs, automation orchestrator resolves the credentials attached to each node, decrypts the stored values, and provides them to the node execution context. Automation orchestrator does not expose sensitive values in API responses, logs, or workflow definitions.

Learn credential concepts

Credential type: A schema that defines the fields, validation rules, and injection behavior for a specific authentication method. A credential's type determines which fields it contains and how its values are delivered to workflow nodes at runtime.
Credential: A named, encrypted record containing authentication values that match a credential type schema.
Masking: Sensitive field values are replaced with $encrypted$ in all API responses. In the UI, sensitive field values are masked and cannot be retrieved after saving. Non-sensitive fields such as usernames display in plaintext.