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Concepts

Airweave connects to your apps, databases, and documents, then turns them into knowledge you can search. To understand how it works, you only need a few core concepts.

Source

A Source is a specific application, database, or workspace that Airweave has a connector for. Sources are the external systems where your data lives.

Examples: Zendesk, GitHub, Google Drive, Notion, PostgreSQL, Stripe

Connector

A Connector is the integration that Airweave provides for a source. It defines what data types can be synced, how authentication works, and the specific entities that can be extracted.

Examples:

  • Zendesk connector (for tickets, users, organizations)
  • GitHub connector (for repositories, issues, pull requests)
  • Google Drive connector (for documents, folders, comments)

Source Connection

A Source Connection is a live connection created from a connector between Airweave and a specific source using your credentials. In that sense, each connection represents an authenticated and synced instance of connection between Airweave and a source.

Examples:

  • A live connection between Airweave and a Zendesk workspace
  • A live connection between Airweave and a specific GitHub repository

Entity

An Entity is an individual data item pulled from a source. These are the actual pieces of data that get synced and made searchable.

Examples:

  • A Zendesk ticket or message
  • A GitHub issue or pull request
  • A Google Doc or spreadsheet
  • A database table row

Collection

A Collection is a searchable knowledge base made up of synced data from one or more source connections. When you search a collection, queries run across all entities from all its connected sources.

Key features:

  • Unified search interface across multiple sources
  • Vector embeddings for semantic search
  • Real-time data synchronization
  • Configurable search parameters and filters