> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/ably/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Integrations overview

Ably integrations enable you to send your data from Ably to an external service or push data into Ably from an external service.

## Inbound integrations

Inbound integrations are where one of your external systems is sending data into Ably.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Inbound webhooks" href="/docs/platform/integrations/inbound/webhooks">
    Configure an endpoint for generated requests to be picked up by Ably and published to a channel.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Kafka connector" href="/docs/platform/integrations/inbound/kafka-connector">
    Send data from one or more Kafka topics into Ably channels.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Outbound webhooks

[Outbound webhooks](/docs/platform/integrations/webhooks) enable you to push data to an external system from within Ably. These events that happen within Ably include messages being published to a channel, presence events being emitted, and changes in the channel occupancy and activity.

The following pre-built webhooks can be configured:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="AWS Lambda" href="/docs/platform/integrations/webhooks/lambda">
    Push data to AWS Lambda functions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Google Cloud Functions" href="/docs/platform/integrations/webhooks/gcp-function">
    Push data to Google Cloud functions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Zapier" href="/docs/platform/integrations/webhooks/zapier">
    Connect Ably to thousands of apps via Zapier.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cloudflare Workers" href="/docs/platform/integrations/webhooks/cloudflare">
    Push data to Cloudflare Workers.
  </Card>

  <Card title="IFTTT" href="/docs/platform/integrations/webhooks/ifttt">
    Trigger IFTTT applets with Ably events.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Datadog" href="/docs/platform/integrations/streaming/datadog">
    Send metrics and events to Datadog.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Outbound streaming

[Outbound streaming](/docs/platform/integrations/streaming) involves streaming a constant flow of data from Ably to other streaming or queuing services. This is useful for integrating Ably with large-scale, event-driven architectures or data pipelines.

The following pre-built services can be configured:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Kafka" href="/docs/platform/integrations/streaming/kafka">
    Stream data to Apache Kafka.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AWS Kinesis" href="/docs/platform/integrations/streaming/kinesis">
    Stream data to AWS Kinesis.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AMQP" href="/docs/platform/integrations/streaming/amqp">
    Stream data via AMQP protocol.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AWS SQS" href="/docs/platform/integrations/streaming/sqs">
    Stream data to AWS SQS queues.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Apache Pulsar" href="/docs/platform/integrations/streaming/pulsar">
    Stream data to Apache Pulsar.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Message queues

[Message queues](/docs/platform/integrations/queues) enable asynchronous communication between a queueing pattern. Producers (Ably channels) publish messages to a queue, and consumers retrieve them in a first-in, first-out order.

Whilst pub-sub channels broadcast messages to all subscribers, queues distribute work among consumers. Both patterns serve different use cases. For example, pub/sub is ideal for many users to receive realtime updates, while queues handle tasks like triggering emails efficiently.

## Skip integrations

Privileged users can [skip integrations](/docs/platform/integrations/skip-integrations) on a per-message basis, providing greater control and flexibility when publishing messages to a channel.