# Integration essentials

**Decide whether you need an integration, which connection point to use, where it runs, and what it commits you to.**

> **Build with AI:** The [commercetools AI plugin](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/dev-tooling/build-with-ai-overview.md) speeds up development, but AI models can make mistakes. This module teaches you the knowledge to critically evaluate solutions and identify generated errors.
>
> AI assistance does not transfer accountability; you remain responsible for all production code. Review, test, and verify AI-generated output to the same standard as manual code.

**Learning objectives**

After completing this module, you should be able to:

- Determine whether a requirement needs an integration by checking for a built-in capability first.
- Assign a single source of truth to each data domain and choose how to link records across systems.
- Select a connection point for a requirement based on its direction and trigger, refined by volume and consistency.
- State the contract obligations of a connection point, including latency budget, failure behavior, idempotency, and ordering.
- Choose where an integration runs and how much of it to build, and justify the choice.
- Navigate the integration guides, including the boundaries between adjacent domains.
- Produce an integration landscape plan that routes each flow to the correct implementation guide.

**Agenda**

1. [Before you integrate: built-in capabilities and sources of truth](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/before-you-integrate.md)
2. [How integrations fit together](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/how-integrations-fit-together.md)
3. [Choose a connection point](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/choose-a-connection-point.md)
4. [Price the contract](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/price-the-contract.md)
5. [Choose where it runs and how to adopt it](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/choose-where-it-runs.md)
6. [Use the integration guides](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/use-the-integration-guides.md)
7. [Plan your integration landscape](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/plan-your-integration-landscape.md)
8. [Learning check](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/learning-check.md)

**Prerequisites**

Required:

- [Extensibility overview](/learning-model-your-business-structure/extensibility/overview.md)

Recommended:

- [Import API](/learning-developer-essentials/import-api/overview.md)
- [API queries and Query Predicates](/learning-developer-essentials/api-queries-query-predicates/overview.md)
- [GraphQL API](/learning-developer-essentials/graphql/overview.md)

**Audience**

This module is designed for technical professionals who decide how external systems connect to a commercetools Project, including:

- Solution and functional architects
- Technical business analysts
- Developers

## Related pages

- [Area overview page with navigation](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools.md)
- [Next page: Before you integrate: built-in capabilities and sources of truth](/learning-integrate-with-commercetools/integration-essentials/before-you-integrate.md)
- [Search documentation and API specs](/search.md)