What a plugin is
A plugin connects an outside service to your workspace. Two plugins are available. Google Drive keeps a Drive folder in sync with your Library. Alpaca connects a paper brokerage account for the Trade app.
A connection belongs to the workspace, not to one project. As the page puts it, "Connections are shared by everyone in this workspace."
Plugins are not apps. Trade is an app. It uses the Alpaca connection to place paper orders. See Apps.
Only workspace owners and admins see Plugins in Settings, and only they can connect or change a plugin.
Open Plugins
Open the menu
Click your avatar at the bottom of the sidebar.
Choose Plugins
It is under Workspace. Settings opens over the app.
The direct link is app.orbitalaip.com/settings/workspace/plugins.
The page has two tabs:
- Connected lists the workspace's connections, with a count. A red dot on the tab means one needs attention.
- Browse shows every plugin on three shelves: Brokers, Files & data and Alerts & messaging.
The page opens on Connected when something is connected, and on Browse when nothing is. The search box filters the tab you are on. The arrow on a row or card opens that plugin's own page, where you connect, manage or disconnect it.
Set up a plugin with Chat starts a new chat that asks Orbital to help you choose and connect the right plugin.
Connection status
- Connected: the connection works.
- Needs setup: Google Drive is connected, but no folder is chosen.
- Needs attention: the grant stopped working, or a connect or sync failed. The error shows under the connection.
Google Drive
Google Drive keeps one Drive folder in sync with your Library. Everyone in the workspace can find the synced files there, and Chat can cite them. See Documents, the web and your phone. Google Drive needs a Pro or Max plan.
Connect Google Drive
Find Google Drive
On Plugins, open Browse and find the Google Drive card under Files & data.
Click Connect
Sign in with Google and approve read-only access to your Drive.
Choose a folder
Back in Orbital, a message says Google Drive connected. A list headed Choose a Drive folder shows the folders at the top of your Drive. Click one.
Let it import
A message names the folder and says "The first import is running; files appear in the Library as they land."
Only top-level folders are listed. To sync a subfolder, choose the folder it sits in. If the list is empty, create a folder at the top of your Drive, put your files in it and come back.
If you close the list without choosing, the connection shows Needs setup and offers Choose folder. If connecting fails, a message says why: Could not start the connect flow before you leave for Google, or Could not connect Google Drive after you come back. Start again from Plugins.
What syncs
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Files | One folder and its subfolders: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), text and CSV files, plus Google Docs and Sheets. Other files are skipped. |
| Where | Your Library, in every project of the workspace. |
| When | Every 30 minutes, and whenever you sync from the plugin's page. |
| Limits | 25 MB per file, up to 1,000 files per sync, and your plan's storage. If the workspace runs out of storage, the sync stops and says so under the connection. |
| Access | Read-only. Orbital never changes anything in your Drive. |
A file you change in Drive comes in again as a new version of the same document. Deleting a file in Drive leaves its copy in the Library. If some files can't be imported, the line under the connection counts them and names the first few. The connection stays Connected.
With a folder chosen, the Google Drive page offers Sync now and Change folder. Each connection syncs one folder. Connect another adds a second Google Drive connection with its own folder.
Alpaca
The Alpaca page is subtitled Broker · Paper trading only. Its Environment row reads "Paper. Live accounts are never connected." See paper trading.
Click Connect
On Browse, click Connect on the Alpaca card under Brokers. A page headed Connect Alpaca shows Alpaca's authorization notice.
Click Continue to Alpaca
Sign in at Alpaca and approve access.
Once connected, the Alpaca page offers Sync now and Check connection. Connect another adds another Alpaca connection. To add a second paper account, authorize a different account at Alpaca. The full steps are in Connect Alpaca.
Plugins you can't connect
Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, Coinbase, Snowflake, Databricks, PostgreSQL, Amazon S3, Slack and TradingView are marked Coming soon and can't be connected.
Request a plugin
Click Request a plugin
It sits at the foot of Browse and below the Connected list.
Name it
Type the service under Which plugin do you need? Filling in What would you use it for? is optional.
Send it
Click Send request. A message says Request noted, or Already on your list if you asked for it before.
Which plans include plugins
Plugins come with the paid plans. On Pro and Max you can connect as many as you like. Alpaca paper trading is on every plan, Free included.
On the Free plan, the page shows Plugins come with every paid plan and an Upgrade plan button. The Google Drive card shows Upgrade instead of Connect.
If a workspace moves to Free, the connections it already has stay. Google Drive can't be connected or reconnected there until you upgrade, so its Reconnect button reads Upgrade. See Credits and billing.
Reconnect in place
A connection whose grant stops working shows Needs attention, with the error under it. Reconnect re-grants the same connection instead of adding a new one. Google Drive keeps its folder and resumes syncing. Alpaca keeps its account number, its deployments and its order history.
Click Reconnect
It is on the connection's row and on its page. For Alpaca, the Connect Alpaca notice opens first; click Continue to Alpaca.
Sign in with the same account
Another account is refused, for example: "That's a different Google Drive account from the one this plugin uses. Sign in with that account to reconnect, or connect the other one as a new plugin."
To add a different account, use Connect another.
Disconnect
Open the plugin's page
Its last row, such as Disconnect Google Drive, says what stops.
Click Disconnect
A confirmation explains what happens to the connection and its data.
Confirm
Click the button that repeats the name, such as Disconnect Google Drive. Cancel keeps the connection.
Disconnecting deletes Orbital's stored credential and the connection. It does not go to Trash.
- Google Drive: Orbital's access to the Drive is revoked and the sync stops. Documents already imported stay in your Library.
- Alpaca: syncing stops, and Trade can't send orders to the account. Its order history is kept, and connecting the same account again picks it up. Also remove Orbital AI under your Alpaca account's connected apps, since Alpaca offers no way to do it from Orbital.
The open-orders guard
Orbital won't disconnect a working Alpaca connection while its account has open orders. That connection's credential is the one that can cancel them. Two cases go through anyway: a connection whose grant has already stopped working, and one whose account another working connection in the workspace also reaches.
The refusal appears in the confirmation and begins "Alpaca still has open orders on this account."
Cancel the orders in Trade
Open the account's ⋯ menu and choose Cancel all open orders, noted "Includes exits, so positions lose their stops."
Disconnect again
Go back to the plugin's page and confirm the disconnect.
Two other refusals ask you to try again shortly: one while an order Orbital sent is still being confirmed, and one when Alpaca can't be reached. Both leave the connection in place.
Open positions and running deployments don't block a disconnect. A deployment can't send orders once its account is disconnected, so pause or stop it first to end it cleanly. See Manage a deployment.