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Authorization

Follow this guide to create a new Drift credential that will allow Nexla to authenticate to and exchange data with your Drift account.
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Drift

Prerequisites​

To connect Nexla to the Drift API, you will need a Drift API access token and the Drift API base URL. Drift uses Bearer token authentication — each request to the API includes the access token in the Authorization request header in the format Bearer {your_token}.

Obtain a Drift API Access Token​

Drift issues access tokens through its developer portal at dev.drift.com. You can generate a non-expiring access token by creating a Drift app and installing it to your organization. This approach is suitable for internal integrations where access to a single Drift organization is needed.

  1. Sign in to the Drift developer portal at dev.drift.com.

  2. Click the Build Your App button under the Your Apps section to create a new application.

  3. Enter a name and description for your app — for example, "Nexla Integration" — then click Create.

  4. Navigate to the OAuth & Permissions page within your app settings.

  5. Scroll to the Scopes section and select the permissions your integration requires. For Nexla integrations involving conversations, contacts, accounts, and users, enable the relevant read and/or write scopes based on the operations you plan to perform.

    Drift API scopes control which resources and actions your access token can interact with. Grant only the scopes required for your intended use case to follow the principle of least privilege. For a complete list of available scopes, refer to the Drift Authentication and Scopes documentation.

  6. Scroll to the Activate Your App section and click Install to install the app to your Drift organization. Installing the app generates a non-expiring access token scoped to your account.

  7. Copy the generated Access Token. This is the value you will enter as the API Key Value when creating the credential in Nexla.

Important

Store your Drift access token securely. This token provides access to your Drift organization's data according to the scopes configured in your app. Do not share it in public repositories or unsecured locations.

Drift API Base URL​

The default Drift API base URL is https://driftapi.com. This value is pre-populated in Nexla and does not typically need to be changed. Refer to the Drift developer documentation if your organization uses a custom API endpoint.

Create a Drift Credential​

  • To create a new Drift credential, after selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

Credential Name & Description​

  1. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

    Resource descriptions are recommended but are not required. They should be used to provide information about the resource purpose, data freshness, etc. that can help the owner and other users efficiently understand and utilize the resource.

API Key Configuration​

Nexla connects to Drift using Bearer token authentication. The access token you generated in the Drift developer portal is passed as a Bearer token in the Authorization header of every API request made by Nexla on your behalf.

  1. Enter your Drift access token in the API Key Value field. This is the non-expiring token generated when you installed your app in the Drift developer portal. This value is treated as a secret and will be masked after saving.

  2. Confirm or update the value in the Base URL field. The field is pre-populated with https://driftapi.com, which is the standard Drift API base URL. Update this value only if your organization uses a custom or regional Drift API endpoint.

    The Drift API enforces a default rate limit of 600 requests per minute. Rate limit information is returned in the response headers of each API call. For guidance on handling rate limit responses in your data flows, refer to the Drift API FAQs.

Save the Credential​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay to save the configured credential.

  2. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation and can be selected for use with a new data source or destination.