Connections tell the add-in which Astrato environment to use.
If no connection is available yet, the task pane starts with Connect to Astrato.
Add a Connection
Open the Astrato task pane in Excel.
Go to Settings.
Open Connections.
Click +.
Enter:
Name: a friendly name, for example
ProductionorDev.Astrato URL: for example
https://app.astrato.io.
Keep Sign in with Astrato selected.
Click Sign in & fill.
Complete the device-code sign-in in Astrato. The add-in opens the approval page, shows the code for comparison, and fills the tenant ID after sign-in succeeds.
Save the connection.
When Astrato shows Device authorized, return to Excel to finish saving the connection.
If the test succeeds, the add-in can use this connection for datasets.
Personal Access Token authentication is still available as a fallback. Choose Personal Access Token, enter your token and tenant ID, then click Test & fill.
Multiple Connections
You can save more than one connection. Each dataset stores the connection name it uses.
When a workbook is shared, another user may not have a connection with the same name. In that case, Astrato uses that user’s first available connection. This allows each person to refresh the workbook with their own credentials. If their connection points to an Astrato tenant that does not contain the saved semantic layer, refresh fails and the workbook continues to show its cached data.
When multiple connections exist, the dataset list shows:
Connection Name - Semantic Layer Name
When only one connection exists, the dataset list shows only the semantic layer name.
Security
Connection details, OAuth tokens, and personal access tokens are stored in your Office user settings. They are not stored in the workbook file. Astrato connections must use HTTPS.
The workbook stores datasets and cached results, but not your OAuth tokens or PAT.
When Identity Is Checked
The add-in caches a successful /api/identity/me check for 15 minutes. It does not call this endpoint before every successful dataset refresh.
If a dataset, semantic layer, or underlying data request returns an authentication or permission error, the add-in immediately checks /api/identity/me again:
If the identity check also fails because the OAuth login or PAT is invalid, the connection is marked offline. Sign in with Astrato again for an OAuth connection, or update the personal access token for a PAT connection.
If the identity check succeeds, the connection remains active. The error explains that the requested data could not be accessed and links you to Astrato to check or request access.
If the identity check is temporarily unavailable, the connection remains retryable and is not marked invalid.
Temporary network, proxy, or server failures do not disable the connection.