Connect Hudu to Conduit

This walkthrough connects Hudu (IT documentation) to Conduit. Hudu is instance-based — every customer has their own URL — so Conduit needs two values: your instance’s Base URL and an API Key created in that instance.

Menu labels can change

The Hudu steps below reflect Hudu’s API-key flow at time of writing; menu labels can shift between releases. If a label differs, see Hudu’s REST API guide.

Before you start

You need:

• A Conduit role that can manage connections — owner or admin on your organization.
• A Hudu administrator login.
• Your Hudu instance’s base URL — the address you use to sign in, for example https://acme.huducloud.com (or your own hostname if self-hosted).

Step 1 — Create an API key in Hudu

1. Sign in to your Hudu instance as an administrator.
2. Create an API key in the admin area, following Hudu’s REST API guide. Expected: a new API key value, shown at creation.
3. Copy the key.

Caution

Copy the key now and store it somewhere safe. Don’t paste it into chat, email, or a shared document — the next step moves it directly into Conduit, which encrypts it at rest. If you accidentally expose the key, revoke it in Hudu and create a new one; the exposed key becomes useless immediately.

Step 2 — Connect Hudu in Conduit

1. In Conduit, go to Connections (/org/catalog). Expected: the vendor catalog.
2. Find Hudu in the catalog (under Documentation) and click Connect. Expected: a credential form with two fields.
3. Fill the fields:
   • Base URL (required) — your instance’s full URL including https://, e.g. https://acme.huducloud.com. No trailing path.
   • API Key (required) — from Step 1.
4. Click Connect. Expected: Conduit validates the key against your Hudu instance immediately and shows a green Connected status. A bad key or wrong base URL is rejected here, not on the first tool call.

One exception: if your Hudu instance sits behind a web application firewall (such as Cloudflare) that blocks server-to-server requests, Conduit can’t tell a firewall block from a real rejection, so it stores the credential without fully verifying it. In that case a bad key surfaces on the first tool call instead — see Troubleshooting below.

The credential is stored at the organization scope, so every technician in your org shares this Hudu connection. (For per-technician keys, connect at the personal scope instead — see Vendor connections.)

Verify it worked

Connect an MCP client to Conduit — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client (see Connecting an AI client) — and ask it to run a read-only Hudu tool, such as listing companies or searching documents. You should get real data back, and the call appears in your audit log with the correct user, vendor (hudu), and a successful status.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
Connect fails with “Invalid Hudu API key or base URL.”	Hudu rejected the request — the key is wrong or revoked, or the base URL points at a different instance than the one the key was created in. Verify both fields together.
Connect fails with “Hudu returned HTTP NNN.”	Hudu responded with an unexpected status — often a transient outage, maintenance, or a wrong base URL that reaches a server that isn’t Hudu. Confirm the base URL loads in a browser, then retry.
Connect succeeded but the first tool call fails with an auth error	Your instance’s firewall/WAF blocked Conduit’s validation check, so the key was stored without being verified. Re-check the key in Hudu and update the credential at /org/catalog.
Tool calls return 403 “no credentials for vendor”	Hudu isn’t connected at a scope this user can resolve. Connect it at the organization scope, or confirm the user’s team has a key.
Vendor health shows yellow/degraded	Conduit’s health check sees Hudu responding slowly. Usually a transient load spike on your instance — recovers automatically.
Need to rotate the key	Create a new API key in Hudu, then update the credential at /org/catalog. Revoke the old key once the new one is saved.

Related

• Vendor connections — credential scopes, rotation, and the full vendor catalog.
• Security — how Conduit encrypts and resolves the credential you just stored.