Parallel is a web intelligence platform built for AI applications. The Parallel connector lets your RShift Sites app search the live web, read any public page or PDF as clean text, get cited answers to research questions, and run deep research tasks that fill structured data with sources and confidence scores. It’s designed for apps that need current information from the internet rather than a static dataset.
Parallel is available as an app + chat connector: one shared connection that works in the project chat while you build and in your published apps.
With Parallel, your app can:
- Search the web and get results optimized for AI, from sub-second lookups to multi-hop research
- Read a known URL or PDF as clean markdown, including JavaScript-rendered pages
- Ask research questions and get synchronous, cited answers the user can keep talking to
- Run asynchronous research tasks that fill a schema for one or many entities, with citations and a confidence score on every field
Parallel is a good fit for apps that enrich, monitor, or reason over live web data: lead enrichment, company research, due diligence, market analysis, and chatbots grounded in current sources.
Common use cases and example apps
These examples show what you can build with Parallel, each with a prompt to start from.
| Example app | Example prompt | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Lead enrichment tool | Use Parallel and build a lead enrichment tool. Users upload a list of company domains, and the app fills in funding, headcount, industry, and key contacts for each one. | Enrich a CRM or prospect list with researched company data. The app runs a Parallel research task per company and fills a structured profile with cited fields the user can verify. |
| Due diligence assistant | Use Parallel and build a due diligence assistant. Users enter a company name, and the app compiles a research report covering funding, leadership, news, and competitors. | Compile a sourced research report on any company. The app runs deep research tasks and presents each finding with its sources and a confidence score. |
| Market research dashboard | Use Parallel and build a market research dashboard. Users define a market segment, and the app researches players, pricing, and recent developments. | Track a market segment with researched, up-to-date data. The app refreshes its research on demand and shows what changed since the last run. |
| Research chatbot | Use Parallel and build a research chatbot that answers questions with citations from the live web. | Answer user questions with cited, current sources. The app sends each question to Parallel and renders the answer with links to the pages it came from, keeping the conversation going with follow-ups. |
| Content summarizer | Use Parallel and build a content summarizer. Users paste an article or PDF URL, and the app extracts the content and produces a structured summary. | Turn any public page or PDF into clean, structured content. The app extracts the page as markdown and summarizes it, handling JavaScript-heavy pages and documents. |
| Competitor tracker | Use Parallel and build a competitor tracker. Users add competitor names, and the app researches product changes, pricing, and announcements on a schedule. | Keep a researched profile of each competitor current. The app re-runs research tasks on a schedule and highlights new findings with their sources. |
How to connect Parallel
Who can create Parallel connections depends on your plan and workspace settings. App + chat connectors are available by default on Free, Pro, and Business plans. On Enterprise plans, they are effectively disabled at first: Who can create connections and clients defaults to No one until an admin changes it in Connectors → Admin settings → App + chat connectors.
When adding a connection, you can choose between:
- Managed by RShift Sites: no Parallel account or API key required. Usage is billed in RShift Sites credits.
- Use your own credentials: connect with your own Parallel API key. Usage is billed by Parallel.
You can create multiple Parallel connections, which is useful for separating environments or teams.
When the connection is created, you can link it to the projects where you want to use it. Anyone building in a project can ask RShift Sites in chat to link their project to it.
Follow the setup steps below based on how you want to connect Parallel.
Managed by RShift Sites
Choose this option for the fastest setup. You don’t need a Parallel account or API key. RShift Sites provides and manages the credentials for you.
Open Parallel in Connectors
Open Connectors and select Parallel. For the other places to open the catalog from, see Where to find connectors.
Add a connection
Click Add connection.
Name the connection
In Display name, name the connection (for example, Parallel Prod). This name is only used inside RShift Sites to identify the connection.
Choose Managed by RShift Sites
Under Authentication, select Managed by RShift Sites.
Choose who can use this connection
Managed connections are shared with the entire workspace by default. To limit who can use the connection, click Restrict to specific people under Sharing.
See Who can use connections and clients for more information.
Connect
Click Connect.
Use your own credentials
Use your own credentials if you want to use your own Parallel account, manage billing directly with Parallel, or control rate limits with your own API keys.
Prerequisites
Before connecting Parallel, make sure you have:
- A Parallel account
- A Parallel API key
- Permission to create connections in your RShift Sites workspace (see Who can create connections and clients)
Step 1: Get a Parallel API key
Your API key authenticates your app’s requests against your own Parallel account.
Open your Parallel account
Sign in to the Parallel platform.
Create a key
Open the API keys page and create a key. Give it a descriptive name, for example RShift Sites integration.
Copy the key
Copy the key and store it securely.
See Parallel’s documentation for more: Parallel docs.
Step 2: Connect Parallel to RShift Sites
You can create multiple connections using different API keys.
Open Parallel in Connectors
Open Connectors and select Parallel. For the other places to open the catalog from, see Where to find connectors.
Add a connection
Click Add connection.
Name the connection
In Display name, name the connection (for example, Parallel Prod).
Choose your own credentials
Under Authentication, select Use your own credentials.
Enter your API key
In API key, paste your Parallel API key.
Choose who can use this connection
Under Sharing, the connection is private to you by default and shows a Private label. To share it, click Share with others. Then add workspace members by email, or click Invite entire workspace to make the connection available to everyone in your RShift Sites workspace.
See Who can use connections and clients for more information.
Connect
Click Connect.
When connected, anyone building in a project can ask RShift Sites in chat to link their project to Parallel (based on configured connection-level access). Your RShift Sites apps can then search the web, extract pages, and run research tasks with live, cited data.
Limitations
The Parallel connector cannot:
- Monitor the web for changes or send alerts when something changes (Parallel’s Monitor API is not available through the connector)
- Discover entities matching a description, such as “find all companies that do X” (Parallel’s FindAll API is not available through the connector)
- Support per-end-user Parallel login. Each connection represents a single Parallel account shared across all projects linked to it.
Manage your {connector_0} connection
Connections are managed from Connectors: select {connector_0}, then open the connection.
- Unlink projects to remove {connector_0} access from specific projects while keeping the connection available for others. See Unlink projects from a connection for the steps.
- Delete the connection to remove it from the workspace entirely. Deleting is permanent. It removes the credentials from all linked projects, and app features that use {connector_0} stop working until a new connection is added. See Delete a connection for the steps and who can delete.