Plugins and connectors¶

Nawa reaches outside itself through MCP servers — services and programs that expose tools over the Model Context Protocol. A connector is an MCP server you add on the Connectors tab of Settings; a plugin is a package installed from the sidebar's Plugins catalogue that brings its own MCP server, and sometimes skills and a panel, with it. Both end up as tools Nawa can load into a chat.

Add a connector¶

Open Settings → Connectors. The list shows every connector with its state and a Sign in button where one is needed. Gmail and Google Calendar are listed there with a Connect button: it says what connecting gives Nawa, then opens Google's sign-in in your browser, with no setup of your own.

Browse connectors lists vendor MCP servers — Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Slack, Jira, Linear, GitHub, Notion, Stripe and others — plus local Chrome control and Microsoft 365 (Work IQ). Choose a card to open its prefilled setup form, review its requirements, then press Add. Many services register Nawa as an OAuth client automatically; others expose the client ID and secret fields before you add them. Google's preview servers there need your own Desktop OAuth client and Workspace preview access. Work IQ needs a Microsoft 365 work or school account, a Copilot license and administrator consent. See Connector settings.
Add custom connector takes any MCP server: an https:// endpoint with optional headers, or a local command with its arguments. A local connector runs with Nawa's bundled Node, npx, Git and ripgrep on its path, in the working folder you give it or else Nawa's own folder, never in a chat's workspace.

A local connector is told the workspace of the chat that uses it as the folder it may work in: the chat's project folder, or the chat's own folder outside a project. A remote connector is told no folders of this computer.

A connected server lists its tools under its entry. A server that lists its tools but refuses to run them shows Needs authentication until you sign in.

Set what each tool may do¶

Every tool of a connector has a permission, changed from its entry:

Ask first — a card asks each time (see Permissions).
Always allow — runs without asking.
Off — never offered to the model.
Automatic (plugins only) — routine observations run, actions that change something ask.

Changing one tool's permission keeps the list open and its filter in place, so several can be set in a row. Your choice on a permission card — Always allow — sets the same thing for the rest of the chat.

Use tools in a chat¶

You can also ask Nawa to set up a connection or install a plugin: "Add this MCP server to Nawa: …", "Install Desktop Control", or "Install the plugin from this folder: …". It uses the same registry and installer as the setup interface. Catalogue sources are available on demand; custom MCP servers accept an HTTPS endpoint or a local command and arguments. A folder plugin is inspected before installation, and a changed package must be reviewed again.

The chat asks for setup approval according to your permission mode. Plugin installation requires a chat in the local desktop app; it is unavailable from a remote client. The resulting MCP connection appears under Settings → Connectors → Tool connections, or under its plugin for a plugin-owned server. Installed plugins appear in Plugins. New tools can be loaded and used in the same chat after installation.

Saving a connection does not mean it connected successfully. Nawa reports the observed status and keeps a saved entry visible even when a server fails to start or needs authentication. It can start OAuth sign-in and return the provider's authorization link; you approve the sign-in in the browser. Enter API keys in the setup interface when you want to keep them out of the chat transcript. The connection store encrypts credentials, but a key you type into a chat remains part of that chat.

A chat starts with Nawa's own tools. Plugin and connector tools are discovered on demand: the model sees a catalogue of what is installed and loads the tools it needs for the task, which keeps every other turn light. You can name the plugin in your request — "use Chrome control to…", "use Desktop Control to…" — when you want a particular one.

Chrome control¶

Chrome control is Google's Chrome DevTools MCP server, started by Nawa through npx with a pinned version. It opens a Chrome window of its own, with its own profile in .cache\chrome-devtools-mcp in your user folder, and drives it: navigating, reading the page as an accessibility tree, clicking, typing, taking screenshots, running scripts. Because it is a real Chrome you can sign in to sites in it once and keep the sessions.

Chrome control saves a screenshot or another file to a full path in the chat's workspace, or to your temporary folder. It refuses any other folder, and it resolves a relative path in its own folder, where it refuses it too. It works for one chat at a time: used from another chat, it restarts for that chat, which closes the pages it had open; sign-ins stay in its profile.

The main model uses Chrome control’s native tools directly, including when a decision model is enabled in Settings. Browser actions do not call Jev or Laya. Each tool keeps its native arguments and returns its observed result through Nawa’s usual permission and content-screening boundaries.

Desktop Control¶

Desktop Control, the first plugin in the catalogue, drives Windows applications through Cua's desktop automation helper (upstream name: Cua Driver). It lists windows and controls, reads them, acts on them, and verifies what it did. This helper runs as a normal application using Windows accessibility and input APIs; it does not install a device driver or a Windows service. Installing the plugin downloads the pinned helper and verifies its published hash. Try: "Use Desktop Control to open Calculator, calculate 123 × 456, and verify the displayed result."

Its window picker shows normal application windows and the primary screen. A read-only Windows metadata connection excludes cloaked windows, non-activating overlays and tool windows using operating-system flags, rather than app names. Minimized app windows remain selectable without being restored for a preview. The driver's full window inventory remains available to Nawa's tools. The current driver supports full-screen capture and control on the primary display only.

Select a snapshot, enter an instruction and send it to Nawa. Selection alone does not click or type in the target. Refresh captures new snapshots; the enlarge control captures a larger preview. Before sending, the picker checks that the selected window still exists with the same process and window identity, or reads the primary screen's current dimensions.

Install a plugin¶

Open Plugins in the sidebar, below Artifacts. The catalogue shows what is available with an install icon on each card; installation shows its download, verification and connection stages, adds the plugin to the tree, and opens its page. Plugins are enabled and disabled from their page; disabling one closes its server.

Add from folder installs a package of your own or a third party's from a local folder. Review the connections it declares before installing; installation copies a versioned snapshot, so editing the folder afterwards changes nothing until you install again. The package format — plugin.json, an optional mcp.json, skills, and an optional panel — is described in PLUGINS.md in the source tree.