# How integrations work

URL: /systems/integrations · Id: `page:systems/integrations`

> How a Startup's Systems connect to outside tools and accounts, which side holds the record, and how to connect, pause or cut one off.

An [Integration](/business/nouns/integration) connects one [System](/business/nouns/system) to an outside account, such as a GitHub repository or a [Customer](/business/nouns/customer)'s calendar. Your records stay in [db.sb](/code/platform/db-sb); the outside tool reflects them or feeds them.

## One record, two modes
Every Integration runs one way: in `mirror`, db.sb leads and the tool reflects it. In `import`, edits made in the tool arrive as [Changes](/business/nouns/change). Neither makes the tool a second source of truth, so no record has two owners.

Each System page lists its connectors under its import and export heading, with the mode of each.

## Whose account it is
| Scope | Whose account | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) | Your own | The team's chat workspace, or your code repository |
| Customer | Your Customer's, used on their behalf | A Customer's calendar, connected inside your [App](/business/nouns/app) |

Tokens are filled in at call time and never reach an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent). Signals from the tool arrive as [Events](/business/nouns/event) and can wake any [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow).

## Connect, pause, cut off
| You say | Call | What happens |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "Connect the GitHub repo" | [`Integration.connect`](/business/nouns/integration/connect) | The account holder approves the grants, and the platform records them. |
| "Pause the calendar sync" | [`Integration.pause`](/business/nouns/integration/pause) | Every call stops at once; the token and cursor are kept. |
| "Turn it back on" | [`Integration.resume`](/business/nouns/integration/resume) | Calls resume from the cursor, so nothing re-imports. |
| "Cut off that account" | [`Integration.revoke`](/business/nouns/integration/revoke) | The token is revoked with the tool, and every record it brought in stays. |

## The two named here
Most providers sit behind a System and never need your attention: you ask for a phone number, not a carrier. Two are named because you meet them directly. [Stripe](/systems/integrations/stripe) runs every payment, and [GitHub](/systems/integrations/github) holds code when you want it there.

Work ordered from another Startup, such as a bookkeeping review, is an upstream, not an Integration ([upstreams](/systems/integrations/upstreams)).