Intercom Setup Guide
Install APIANT.AI for Intercom, authorize your Intercom workspace, and build your first Intercom integration by describing it in plain language.
This guide takes an Intercom customer from the App Store listing to a running Intercom integration on APIANT.AI. It covers what gets installed, how the connection is authorized, what data APIANT can access, and what the day-to-day user journey looks like.
APIANT.AI is an integration platform (iPaaS). You connect your own Intercom workspace, describe the integration you want in plain language, and APIANT builds, tests, and runs it. Nothing to code, nothing to host.
Who this is for
- An Intercom user who wants Intercom connected to another tool: CRM, help desk, billing, database, e-commerce platform, or any service with an API.
- Anyone who needs Intercom kept in step with another system, for example Intercom contacts and companies synced two ways with a CRM, or a ticket opened in another help desk whenever a conversation is tagged.
You need an Intercom teammate account that is allowed to install and authorize apps on the workspace. If your account is not, Intercom's authorization page tells you so and asks you to have a teammate with that permission install the app.
What the integration does
| Direction | Two-way. APIANT reads from Intercom and writes to Intercom according to the integration you ask it to build. |
| Objects | Contacts (users and leads), companies, conversations, notes, tags, tickets, events, segments, and admins. |
| Triggers | New or updated contact, new lead, new company, new conversation, new note on a conversation, new tag on a conversation or user, new ticket. |
| Actions | Create, update, find, and delete contacts and companies. Add notes and tags. Start conversations, reply, assign, snooze, open, and close them. Create and update tickets. Send messages. Track events. Look up admins. |
| Runs as | Fixed automations with defined triggers, actions, and field mappings. AI builds the automation; at runtime it executes the same steps every time. |
| Authorization | You authorize your own Intercom workspace through Intercom's OAuth consent screen. The teammate installing the app and the owner of the data are the same workspace. |
Step 1. Create your APIANT.AI account
- Go to app.apiant.ai and create your account. Continue with Google, continue with GitHub, or use an email address and password.
- Confirm your email if prompted.
- Sign in. No credit card is needed to connect Intercom and build your first integration.
You land on your dashboard. It is empty until your first automation is built.
Step 2. Connect your Intercom workspace
- In the top bar, open Connections, then select Connect App.
- In the Connect App dialog, search for Intercom and select it.
- Keep the default account name or give the connection a name of your own (useful if you will connect more than one workspace), then select Continue to Intercom.
- Intercom's authorization page opens with the title APIANT.ai wants to access followed by your workspace name. If you belong to more than one workspace, use the menu next to the workspace name to pick the one you want to connect. Review the permissions listed and select Authorize access.
- You return to APIANT.AI. Intercom now appears on the Connections page with one account.
APIANT stores the OAuth token for your workspace in an encrypted vault scoped to your APIANT.AI account. It never asks for your Intercom password, and no other APIANT customer can see or use your connection.
Permissions requested at install
Intercom lists every permission on the authorization page. The groups below are the ones the Intercom triggers and actions use.
| Permission group | Used for |
|---|---|
| Read and write users and companies | Reading, creating, and updating contacts and companies in the integrations you build |
| Read and write conversations | Watching for new conversations and notes, replying, assigning, snoozing, opening, and closing conversations, and starting new ones |
| Read and write tags | Listing tags and adding or removing them on contacts and conversations |
| Read and write tickets | Watching for new tickets and creating, updating, and finding tickets |
| Read and write events | Recording user activity events and reading them back |
| Read admins | Resolving the Intercom teammate on a record so it can be mapped to the other system, and assigning conversations |
| Read and write outbound messages | Sending messages to contacts from an automation |
If an integration you ask for needs data the connection was not authorized for, APIANT tells you and asks you to reconnect so Intercom can show you the permission before anything is accessed.
Step 3. Describe the integration you want
APIANT.AI is operated from Claude Code: you describe the integration in plain language and the platform builds it. Connecting your workspace to Claude Code takes about two minutes.
- Select Connect to Claude Code, either from the dashboard or from the account menu (your name, top right).
- A dialog shows a one-line install command. Copy it, paste it into a terminal in the project directory you want to work from, then restart Claude Code and approve the APIANT server prompt once. The full steps are in Install the Plugin.
- In Claude Code, describe what you need. Say what should kick it off and what should happen, as one plain sentence at the prompt:
Other examples:
"Keep Intercom contacts and companies in two-way sync with our PostgreSQL customer table."
"When an order ships in Shopify, send the customer an Intercom message with the tracking number."
APIANT looks up the Intercom operations it needs (triggers such as new or updated contact, actions such as add note to conversation), works out the other side of the integration, drafts the automation, and tests each step against your live accounts before committing the result.
If the other system needs credentials (an API key, or its own OAuth sign-in), APIANT prompts you for them here. You do this once per service.
Step 4. Review the automation
When the build finishes, APIANT gives you a link to the automation in the visual editor. The editor shows every step: the trigger, each Intercom action, the field mappings, and any branches. You can read it step by step and change anything: rename a mapping, add a filter, add a step.
Every automation you build is listed on your dashboard, with its on/off switch, run history, and task counts.
Field mappings that are easy to get wrong (dates, phone numbers, custom attributes) are flagged for you to confirm before the automation is committed.
Step 5. Test and turn it on
- Run a test. APIANT executes the automation against a real record and shows the input and output of every step.
- If a step fails, APIANT names the step, explains why, and proposes the fix.
- When the test passes, turn the automation on from the dashboard. From then on it runs on its schedule or whenever its trigger fires.
Run history is available at any time from the dashboard: every execution, every step, the data that went in and the data that came out.
Managing the connection
On the Connections page, open the menu next to your Intercom account:
- View references shows which automations use this connection.
- Reconnect re-runs Intercom's authorization. Use it when a token has been revoked or you need to grant an additional permission.
- Disconnect removes the token from APIANT.AI. Automations that depend on it stop until you reconnect.
- Revoke from Intercom. In Intercom, open your account settings, go to Authorized apps, find APIANT.ai, and revoke its access. This invalidates APIANT's token immediately.
Troubleshooting
Intercom's authorization page says the app can't be installed or authorized on this workspace. Your Intercom teammate account is not allowed to install apps. Ask a workspace admin to install, or to grant your account the permission.
The connection shows as connected but a test fails with 401 Unauthorized. The token was revoked, usually because the app's access was revoked in Intercom or the authorizing teammate was removed from the workspace. Select Reconnect.
An Intercom step fails with 403 or a permission error. The automation uses data the connection was not authorized for. Select Reconnect and approve the additional permission Intercom shows you.
A custom attribute is missing from the field mapping. Ask APIANT to refresh the Intercom fields for that step. Newly created custom data attributes appear after a refresh.
A step fails with 429 Too Many Requests. Intercom rate-limits API calls per workspace. APIANT retries automatically. If it keeps happening, ask APIANT to add a throttle to the connection.
Support
Email support@apiant.com or call +1 (215) 712-8083. Include the automation link and, if a run failed, the run history link so we can see the exact step and payload.