# Basic ## Basic Connection ### **Description** The "Basic" connection type supports HTTP Basic Authentication. This method requires that a username and password are sent in the HTTP authentication header. ### **Required Information** Once the "basic" type has been selected from the drop-down menu, the system will prompt for the following information: * **Endpoint:** The URL of the API endpoint * **Username**: The username for authentication. * **Password**: The password for authentication. ### **Example Header** An example Basic Authentication header is shown below. However the developer does not need to do anything other than create the connection and the system will handle the creation of the header automatically, including the encoding of the username:password in Base64. ```http Authorization: Basic base64(username:password) ``` ### **Usage** This connection type is typically used when simple username and password credentials are sufficient for authentication. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.contextual.io/documentation-and-resources/components-and-data/connections/types-of-connections/basic.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.