# Connecting Amazon Q custom connector to Amazon Q Business
<a name="custom-connector"></a>

Use a custom data source when you have a repository that Amazon Q Business doesn’t yet provide a data source connector for. When you create a custom data source, you have complete control over how the documents to index are selected. Amazon Q only provides metric information that you can use to monitor your data source sync jobs. You must create and run the crawler that determines the documents your data source indexes.

**You can use a custom data source connector to:**
+ See the same run history metrics that Amazon Q data sources provide even when you can't use Amazon Q data sources to sync your repositories.
+ Create a consistent sync monitoring experience between Amazon Q data sources and custom data sources.
+ See sync metrics for a data source connector that you created using the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_BatchPutDocument.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_BatchPutDocument.html) and [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_BatchDeleteDocument.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_BatchDeleteDocument.html) API operations.

You can create an Amazon Q custom data source connector using either the AWS Management Console or the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_CreateDataSource.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_CreateDataSource.html).

**When you create a custom data source using the `CreateDataSource` API operation:**
+ The action returns an ID to use when you synchronize the data source.
+ You only need to provide a `Name` and optionally a `Description`.
+ Set the `Configuration` parameter as follows:

  ```
  "configuration": {
  "type": "CUSTOM",
  "version": "1.0.0"
  }
  ```
+ When indexing documents later, you must specify the main title of your documents using the [Document](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_Document.html) object, and `_source_uri` in [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_DocumentAttribute.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_DocumentAttribute.html). The main title is required so that `DocumentTitle` and `DocumentURI` are included in the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_ChatSync.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_ChatSync.html) or [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_Chat.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/api-reference/API_Chat.html) response.

**When you create a custom data source using the console:**
+ The console returns an ID to use when you synchronize the data source.
+ Give your data source a name, and optionally a description and resource tags.
+ After the data source is created, a data source ID is shown. Copy this ID to use when you synchronize the data source with the index.

**Topics**
+ [Creating an Amazon Q custom connector](custom-connector-hiw.md)
+ [Required attributes](custom-required-attributes.md)
+ [Viewing metrics](custom-metrics.md)