Independent publisher certification process
This process is for independent publishers. If you own the underlying service to your connector, go to Verified publisher certification process.
Note
This article provides information for certifying independent publisher connectors in Azure Logic Apps, Power Automate, and Power Apps. Before following the steps in this article, read Get your connector certified.
After you identified a custom connector to build to the Independent Publisher program, follow the steps in Prepare and submit your connector for certification. This process prepares it for certification and generates the connector files to submit to Microsoft. The submission process is done through the GitHub repository for independent publisher connectors.
Read the manifesto
The Independent Publisher Connector Group makes it possible for anyone to publish a connector to the official list of Microsoft connectors. This group asks that participants are aware of, and agree to the content of its manifesto.
If you plan on contributing to, or being a part of this effort, you must read and understand this document.
Prepare and submit your connector for certification
The process for certifying your connector as an independent publisher is easy. Before submitting it in the GitHub repository, make sure you perform the steps in this section.
When you submit your independent publisher connector , your name is featured in our product as the official publisher and a generic icon is applied to your connector.
Before you start building a connector, share your connector proposal with Microsoft: Verify that the connector isn't already built. To verify, search for the connector in the Power Platform documentation and in the pull requests of the GitHub repository. The following table gives you options for what you can do with your connector based on its status.
If your proposed connector Option Already exists on the Power Platform. You can't build the connector. Already exists as an independent publisher connector You can add more functionality to the connector Is currently a pull request and a proposal. You can contact the independent publisher to collaborate with them on the connector. Is a pull request and isn't a proposal. Wait until the connector is certified and deployed. Then, add an update to that connector. After you’ve verified that the connector aren't on the platform, share your connector proposal on the GitHub repository: This avoids duplicating efforts with your peers who might have the same idea for a new connector. It might also create an opportunity for you to find others to collaborate with as you build your connector.
To share your proposal, submit a pull request in the GitHub repository with the following criteria:
Title the pull request "Proposal - <Connector Name> (Independent Publisher)". For example,
Proposal - HubSpotCRM (Independent Publisher).Commit a intro.md file with as many details as you can provide. If you’re open to finding a collaborator, include your contact email.
Note
Use the same pull request when you’re ready to submit all of the files for certification in step 10.
Build the connector and/or plugin:
- To learn how to build a connector, go to Create a custom connector from scratch.
Create a title for your connector that meets Microsoft requirements: For instructions and examples, go to Give your connector a title.
Write a description for your connector: For instructions, go to Write a description for your connector.
Define summaries and descriptions: For instructions, go to Define operation and parameter summaries and descriptions.
Define exact operation responses: For instructions, go to Define exact operation responses.
Add metadata describing the connector and/or plugin and their end service: For instructions, go to Add metadata.
Prepare the connector artifacts: For instructions, go to Prepare the connector and/or artifacts.
Submit your connector for deployment:
Do the following:
- Submit the connector artifacts to the pull request you created in Step 2.
- Fill out the checklist in the pull request template.
- Remove "Proposal -" from your pull request title.
A Microsoft certification engineer provides feedback within one to two weeks of your initial request. If the feedback requires an update to the connector, you need to submit an update to the pull request. Allow an extra one to two weeks for this. If you need to troubleshoot swagger errors, go to Fix Swagger Validator errors.
You retain ownership of your connector, and can accept or reject any changes to your connector.
Microsoft approves and merges the pull request.
Your connector are submitted for certification: During certification, expect to hear from your Microsoft contact within 1-2 weeks.
Wait for deployment: After your connector is validated and prepared for production deployment, we deploy it to all production regions.
Important
On average, it takes 15 business days to deploy the connector. This is required regardless of the size or complexity of your connector, whether it's new or an update. To protect integrity, the connector are subjected to the same validation tasks to test functionality and content that are followed in every deployment.
Deployment schedules: Our connector deployment schedules for production start Friday mornings, PST/PDT. Notify your Microsoft contact when you're ready for production deployment at least 24 hours in advance for us to include your connector in the next scheduled deployment.
Region deployment: We notify you by email with the names of the regions the connector will be deployed to, as deployment to regions is done in steps. If there's a deployment delay or freeze, you're notified in email. To learn more, go to Region deployment.
As your connector are finishing certification, we engage you about a marketing opportunity for the connector on the Power Automate blog.
Update your connector anytime: Once your certification ends and your connector are published, you can add new operations and functionalities to your connector in the GitHub repository anytime. We recertify your connector as needed.
Best practices for submission
You can submit only one connector per pull request. This ensures that our validation process runs smoothly.
The pull request for your connector should follow the pattern
Connector Name (Independent Publisher).Add an email to the support email section. This is in case we need to contact you.
Make sure to fill in the privacy policy parameter with the privacy policy for the end service.
Make sure that your operation descriptions are detailed. This ensures that the user can understand your operation.
If your connector uses OAuth, make sure you provide detailed steps on how to create an app in your readme.md. Failure to do so results in delays in certification. For an example of documentation to include, go to the Readme.md example.
Make sure that you add response schemas to your actions unless the response schema is dynamic. This ensures that your connector get more usage.
Review the Checklist before submitting.
Microsoft guarantees
Microsoft commits to satisfying the following guarantees:
If there’s an update to the connector, we run the breaking change tool and all other validation tools over again.
If there’s no update to a connector, we guarantee that it works unless there's an API change or update, or a platform issue.
Microsoft investigates platform and security issues as they arise and deprecates broken independent publisher connectors.
Do you know you can extend your connector as plugins ?
Your Power Platform connectors can be extended as plugins in Microsoft Copilot Studio & can be published for your tenants. To learn more about extending your connectors as Plugins, go to Create AI plugins for Microsoft Copilot. We will be soon extending the support for Independent Publishers to certify and publish the Plugins to Copilot for M365.