Integration - External Services
A low-code way to call an external REST API from Salesforce. You register a service described by an OpenAPI schema, and Salesforce generates invocable actions you can drop into Flow, Apex, Einstein Bots, or OmniStudio - no hand-written callout code.
When to Use External Services?
- Outbound, synchronous Request & Reply orchestrated from Flow (declarative).
- The external system exposes an OpenAPI (2.0 / 3.0) specification.
- You want admins/low-code builders to consume an API without Apex.
How It Works
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Create a Named Credential for the endpoint + auth. |
| 2 | Register the external service and point it at the OpenAPI schema. |
| 3 | Salesforce generates invocable actions per operation. |
| 4 | Use the actions in Flow / Apex / Bots / OmniStudio. |
Considerations
- Synchronous request/reply - the caller waits for the response.
- Not for bulk / LDV - use Bulk API or ETL instead.
- Auth and endpoint live in the Named Credential (no secrets in metadata).
- Schema must be valid OpenAPI; there are limits on schema size and operations.
- Pattern: Remote Process Invocation delivered with low code.