Intercom

Set up an AI agent for Intercom. It replies, leaves notes, and tags and assigns conversations, trained on your help center, macros and past conversations.

eesel's AI agent for Intercom works inside your Intercom inbox, with no separate widget or inbox to watch. It replies to conversations, leaves internal notes, tags and assigns them, and learns from your help center, macros and past conversations. It is separate from Fin, Intercom's own AI agent.

Intercom conversations tend to run more casual than a typical support ticket, and your AI teammate learns that tone. It reads your help center, your macros and your past conversations, so it already sounds like your team before it touches a real conversation. Then it picks up conversations the way you tell it to: writing replies for a human to check, answering the routine ones itself, tagging and routing the rest.

In this example the agent read the conversation and two of your macros, then drafted the reply as an internal note.

Your agent works inside your Intercom inbox, reading the conversation and drafting the reply before anything reaches the customer.

Set up eesel in Intercom

1

Ask your agent to connect Intercom

Open the chat in your dashboard and ask it to connect Intercom. It lays out the options and asks for whatever it needs. Prefer to click? Integrations in the left sidebar has the same options.

The agent offers two ways to connect Intercom.

2

Choose Quick start or Full connection

• Quick start. Give your public help center URL (for example https://intercom.help/your-company/en) and it reads your articles. No sign-in, but no conversations, macros, triggers or actions.

• Full connection. Your agent sends you a link to approve in Intercom, and everything unlocks: past conversations and macros as knowledge, triggers, and actions.

Start with either. Moving to a full connection later keeps your help center and adds past conversations, macros, triggers and actions.

Connecting more than one Intercom account

You can connect several Intercom accounts to one workspace. Connect each one the same way. When more than one is connected, your agent asks which account you mean, or you name it in the request. Each automation belongs to one account.

3

Approve it in Intercom

Your agent hands you a link. Open it and you land on Intercom's own authorize screen.

The agent posts the approval link in the chat.

Intercom names the app. It lists what the app can read and do, from conversations and contacts to tags and tickets. Review it and approve. The window closes itself.

The Intercom approval screen, listing the access eesel asks for.

If the app shows as Airbot. Airbot is the name eesel's app is registered under in Intercom, so that's the name Intercom shows you. The permissions are the same.

This approval is the one step a person has to do in the browser. If an AI agent is doing the setup for you, it hands you the link and waits.

4

Check what it can read

Back in the dashboard, Integrations > Intercom shows the connection and its sources, each with its own toggle. Help Center shows 0 documents if your Intercom plan has no help center, or you have not published one. Macros and past conversations still sync. From a terminal, eesel status lists the integration as connected with its source counts.

Each source has its own toggle and its own document count.

5

Create your first automation

Connecting alone does not start your agent. It needs an automation first. Tell it what to handle and it creates an automation. An automation is an Intercom trigger plus instructions. In the instructions you describe which conversations it should handle and what to do with them. It leaves the rest alone.

Ask in chat for the automation you want, and the agent builds it.

It shows up on your Automations page, switched on and ready. From a terminal, eesel automations lists it as on.

The new automation on your Automations page, switched on.

Open the automation to see or change what it does. The trigger event is fixed when the automation is created. So a new automation is required for each different trigger event.

The automation editor, where you change the instructions it follows.

6

Check automation work in Intercom

Open Intercom and look at the next conversation that comes in to see what the automation did there. In this example it left a drafted reply as an internal note, signed by eesel AI, for a teammate to review and send.

The drafted reply waiting as an internal note on the conversation.

From Claude Code, Cursor or a terminal. The same setup works as commands: eesel login, then eesel integrations connect intercom (a person approves it in the browser; if the receipt has no link, ask eesel chat for one), eesel integrations download start to copy your sources in, and eesel automations to see and switch on the automations. Trigger keys for this page are in the Triggers table below. Full command reference: The eesel CLI. Step-by-step: Set up from Claude Code or the terminal. From an MCP client: Claude Code and MCP clients.

Sources, triggers and actions

Sources

Sources are what it learns from:

Source	Description	Requires
Help Center	Your published Intercom help center articles	Quick start or Full connection
Macros	Your team's saved replies. Choose which ones it learns from	Full connection
Past Conversations	Your past Intercom conversations. The first import takes closed conversations from the last 90 days, up to 1,000 of them. Ask your agent, or set a filter, to import more	Full connection

Every other integration on the agent is also a source, so an Intercom reply can draw on Confluence, your website, and your files at once. See Integrations.

Triggers

Triggers are the Intercom events an automation can run on:

Trigger	Fires when	Best for	Key
When a customer sends a message	A customer sends any message, on a new conversation or a reply	Full automation	intercom_conversation_replied
When a tag is applied to a conversation	A tag is added to a conversation	Tag-based routing	intercom_conversation_tagged
Call @eesel in an internal note	A teammate mentions @eesel in an internal note	On-demand help	intercom_eesel_mentioned

Beyond the instructions every automation has, Intercom triggers can also filter by tags: limit to conversations carrying any of a set of tags, exactly that set, or exclude them. Tag matching ignores capitalization, and a tag renamed in Intercom needs updating on the trigger too.

Actions

Actions are what it can do:

	Action	What it does
Respond	Send reply	Sends a reply to the customer
	Leave internal note	Adds a private note only your team sees. Start here: the agent drafts, a human sends. Every note ends with a short "Left by eesel AI" line linking to the run in your dashboard
Manage	Add tags	Adds tags to the conversation
	Assign to teammate / Unassign	Assigns the conversation, or returns it to the queue
	Close conversation	Marks the conversation as closed
	Snooze conversation	Pauses the conversation until a time you pick. It comes back then, or as soon as the customer replies
	Update conversation	Changes attributes like status or title
Look up	Read conversation / Search conversations / List conversations	Reads and finds conversations
	Get conversation attributes / Get ticket attributes	Reads conversation and ticket attributes
	Look up customer / Get contact attributes	Finds a customer and reads their custom attributes, like plan tier
	Find people by email or domain	Finds contacts and returns the IDs other actions need
	List teammates and teams	Lists teammates and teams, with the IDs assignment needs

You stay in control the whole way. Adjust your AI agent's access to knowledge and its action permissions to your liking. See Actions and Approvals.

When an action needs your OK, the agent prepares the full reply and waits. Approve it, always allow it, or deny it.

Limitations

• Quick start reads your help center only. Macros, past conversations, triggers and actions need a full connection.

• It waits before it acts. About 15 seconds on a first message and 5 seconds on follow-ups, and each new message restarts the wait.

• Assignment goes to a teammate, not a team. Route to a team with a tag and your own Intercom rules.

• One trigger per automation. The trigger event is fixed when the automation is created, so each trigger needs its own automation.

• Tag names on a trigger do not follow renames. A tag renamed in Intercom needs updating on the trigger too.

• Attachments are images and PDFs only. It reads up to five per turn and ignores videos, zip files and other formats.

• Replies post as the connected teammate. Change that teammate's name in Intercom to change the name customers see.

• No sender blocklist. The first check cannot see the sender's email address. To skip a sender or company, tag their conversations with an Intercom rule, for example no-ai, and exclude that tag on the trigger with Limit to conversations with tags.

Troubleshooting

Agent not responding to conversations?

Check the automation is enabled on the agent's Automations page, the Intercom connection is still authorized, and at least one action is enabled. If you set a tag limit on the trigger, check it isn't excluding the conversations you expect. Internal teammate messages don't count as customer messages.

Macros or Past Conversations greyed out?

These sources need a full connection. If you connected with Quick start (help center URL only), switch to a full connection to unlock macros, past conversations, and actions.

Connection failing, or the setup form keeps reappearing?

Make sure you have admin or owner rights in Intercom, then re-run the connection and grant every requested permission; a dropped permission leaves the connection incomplete.

Help center not syncing?

Make sure your help center URL is correct and publicly accessible, and that articles are published rather than drafts.

FAQ

How do I add an AI agent or chatbot to Intercom?

Connect Intercom from the dashboard chat or the Integrations page, approve eesel in Intercom, then ask your agent in chat to create an automation, for example "draft a reply as an internal note on every new conversation". It then works conversations in your Intercom inbox alongside your team, with no chatbot script to build. Connecting alone does not reply to anyone: your agent won't act until you enable a trigger and an action, so you can test with a human in the loop first.

How long does it take to set up an AI agent in Intercom?

One approval in Intercom, then one automation, which you can ask your agent to create in chat. Your help center, macros and past conversations sync on their own, so there is nothing to upload or label. The steps are in Set up eesel in Intercom.

Is eesel the same as Fin, Intercom's AI agent?

No. eesel is a separate AI agent that connects to Intercom through an integration. It works in the same inbox, learns from your macros and past conversations as well as your help center.

Does the Intercom AI agent send replies or only draft them?

Either, depending on how you set it up. Leave internal note writes a private note your team reads, edits and sends. Send reply sends it to the customer.

Many teams start with internal notes, then move to sending replies once they're happy.

Replies and internal notes post as the Intercom teammate the connection was approved with, which is usually the eesel AI seat you set up. To change the name customers see, change that teammate's name in Intercom.

Can I limit which Intercom conversations the AI agent handles?

Yes, two ways that stack. Describe the conversations you want in the automation's instructions and it skips the rest. Or use tags: limit When a customer sends a message to tagged conversations, or use When a tag is applied to a conversation so the agent only acts once someone tags it. For a sender or domain, tag those conversations in Intercom and exclude the tag on the trigger. The automation's activity shows every conversation it skipped, with the reason.

Why does the Intercom AI agent wait before replying?

So your Intercom workflows can finish and the customer can finish typing. On a customer's first message your agent waits about 15 seconds before it acts, and about 5 seconds on follow-ups. Each new message restarts the wait. That way your workflows finish tagging and routing first, and your agent answers the whole message once instead of in pieces.

Can I train the Intercom AI agent on past conversations and macros?

Yes, with a full connection. Toggle the Past Conversations and Macros sources and choose which ones it learns from. Past conversations are what teach it Intercom's shorter, more casual reply style. It also learns from your help center and anything else you connect, such as Confluence, Notion, Google Drive or your website.

Can I connect Intercom to Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot?

Yes to Claude and ChatGPT, through eesel. Once Intercom is connected, you can talk to your eesel agent from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, and it works with your Intercom data. See Use eesel from Claude and other assistants, Use eesel from ChatGPT and Claude Code and MCP clients. If you want copilot-style help on a single conversation, mention @eesel in an internal note, or use the browser extension beside the conversation.

What reporting do I get for the Intercom AI agent?

The Activity page lists every conversation your agent handled, with a link to it in Intercom, what it searched, each action it took, who approved it, and its reasoning. It also shows the conversations it skipped and why. The Reports page shows volume, triggers, and approvals over time. You can also ask your agent for a written report, or put one on a schedule.

Related pages

• Helpdesk for the job your teammate takes on in a ticket queue

• Automations and Schedules for triggers, instructions and schedules

• Actions and Approvals for choosing what your agent may do

• Integrations overview for how sources, triggers and actions fit together

• Set up from Claude Code or the terminal