Connecting Connectors

This guide explains how to establish trust between two separately deployed connectors so they can discover and exchange data.

Both connectors must be fully deployed and seeded before connecting them. See Cloud VM Deployment for setup instructions.

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1. Exchange Connector Details

Each organization shares three values with their partners:

What	How to find it	Example
Issuer DID	did:web:<MY_PUBLIC_HOST>%3A9876	did:web:20.50.100.10%3A9876
DSP Endpoint	http://<MY_PUBLIC_HOST>:19194/protocol	http://20.50.100.10:19194/protocol
Participant DID	did:web:<MY_PUBLIC_HOST>%3A7093	did:web:20.50.100.10%3A7093

Replace <MY_PUBLIC_HOST> with the value from your .env file (the public IP or DNS name).

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2. Register Each Other as Trusted Issuers

Trust is mutual — both sides must register the other. This tells your connector: “I trust Verifiable Credentials signed by this issuer.”

Via Dashboard

On your dashboard (http://<your-ip>:3000):

1. Go to Trusted Issuers page
2. Click Add Issuer
3. Fill in the partner’s details:

Field	Value
DID	did:web:20.50.100.20%3A9876
Name	Organization B
Organization	Org B
DSP Endpoint	http://20.50.100.20:19194/protocol
Participant DID	did:web:20.50.100.20%3A7093

1. Click Save

The partner does the same on their dashboard with your details.

Via API

curl -X POST http://localhost:19193/management/v1/trusted-issuers \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: password" \
  -d '{
    "did": "did:web:20.50.100.20%3A9876",
    "name": "Organization B",
    "organization": "Org B",
    "dspEndpoint": "http://20.50.100.20:19194/protocol",
    "participantDid": "did:web:20.50.100.20%3A7093"
  }'

No restart needed. Trust changes take effect immediately. You can add or remove trusted issuers at any time via the dashboard or API.

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3. Verify Connectivity

Before trying to exchange data, verify that both connectors can reach each other’s endpoints:

# Issuer DID document (should return JSON with a verificationMethod)
curl http://<OTHER_HOST>:9876/.well-known/did.json

# Participant DID document (should return JSON)
curl http://<OTHER_HOST>:7093/.well-known/did.json

# DSP endpoint (should return a JSON error, NOT connection refused)
curl http://<OTHER_HOST>:19194/protocol

If any of these fail with “connection refused” or timeout, check your firewall rules (see Cloud VM Deployment — Firewall Ports).

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4. Browse the Catalog

Via Dashboard

Go to the Catalog page. The remote connector you registered appears as a clickable button — click it and hit Fetch Catalog.

Via API

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:19193/management/v3/catalog/request \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: password" \
  -d '{
    "@context": { "@vocab": "https://w3id.org/edc/v0.0.1/ns/" },
    "counterPartyAddress": "http://20.50.100.20:19194/protocol",
    "counterPartyId": "did:web:20.50.100.20%3A7093",
    "protocol": "dataspace-protocol-http"
  }' | jq .

If the catalog returns datasets, the connection is working. You can now proceed to negotiate and transfer data — see the Step-by-Step Usage Guide.

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Adding More Connectors

To add a new organization to the dataspace:

1. The new organization deploys and seeds their connector (Cloud VM Deployment)
2. On each existing connector’s dashboard, go to Trusted Issuers and add the new connector’s details
3. On the new connector’s dashboard, add each existing connector’s details

This is an O(n) process — each new participant exchanges details with every existing participant.

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Removing Trust

To stop trusting a connector:

1. Go to Trusted Issuers on your dashboard
2. Click Delete on the issuer you want to remove

The connector can no longer authenticate to yours. Existing contract agreements remain in the database but no new negotiations will succeed.