Help Scout setup guide

Agents read tickets and conversations and draft or send replies to your customers.

Ways to connect

Company admins connect apps, on the Integrations page in Everdeck: open Help Scout, choose one of the ways below, follow its steps and fill in its fields. Everdeck checks what you enter before it saves anything, and asks you to confirm it’s you (your second factor) before you type any secret. How connecting works.

Help Scout can be connected 2 ways. Where there’s a key or token to paste, that’s usually the quickest.

Your Help Scout app (App ID and secret)

Your OAuth app.

This way uses the client ID and secret of an OAuth app you create for Help Scout. There’s no sign-in page: Everdeck asks Help Scout for a token with them.

1. Sign in to Help Scout as the user the AI employee should act as. The app acts as the person who creates it, so a dedicated user (for example "AI Support") keeps its work easy to spot.
2. Open Your Profile > My Apps and click Create My App.
3. Enter a name (for example Everdeck) and https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback as the Redirection URL. Help Scout requires one; this method does not use it.
4. Copy the App ID and App Secret into the form.

Disconnecting deletes the access token Everdeck saved for this connection. The OAuth app's client ID and secret stay saved under OAuth apps in Everdeck and keep working at Help Scout until you delete the app or rotate its secret there.

Your Help Scout app (sign in)

Your OAuth app.

This way signs in with an OAuth app you create for Help Scout, as its steps describe: Everdeck never uses an app of its own. Register this redirect URI with your app:

https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback

Then save the app’s client ID and secret in Everdeck, on the connect page or under OAuth apps, and sign in.

1. In Help Scout, open Your Profile > My Apps and click Create My App.
2. Enter a name (for example Everdeck) and https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback as the Redirection URL.
3. Copy the App ID and App Secret into the form.
4. Click Connect and sign in as the user the AI employee should act as.

Disconnecting deletes the tokens Everdeck saved. Help Scout documents no revocation endpoint: remove the app in Help Scout's settings.

What agents can do

An agent uses an action only when its charter grants it, on the agent’s Tools tab, where you choose whether each one runs by itself (Auto), asks first or never runs. Each action has a risk tier: tier 3 actions, which customers or the public see, ask first unless you choose otherwise, and tier 4 actions (money, deleting things, access) always need a person. How tools and tiers work.

Actions marked Reads outside content return things people outside your company may have written. Agents treat what they read as information, never as instructions, and their riskier actions later in the same session need approval.

• Search conversationsTier 0 · ReadReads outside contenthelp_scout_search_conversations

  List or search conversations, 25 per page, most recently modified first. Returns id, number, subject, status, inbox, assignee, customer, waiting-since time, tags and a preview of the latest message.

• Read a conversationTier 0 · ReadReads outside contenthelp_scout_get_conversation

  Read one conversation with all its threads: customer messages, replies, notes and status changes, each with author, body (HTML) and time. primaryCustomer.id is what replies need.

• Reply to the customerTier 3 · ExternalReads outside contenthelp_scout_reply_to_conversation

  Send a reply that Help Scout emails to the customer as the connected user. Reopens the conversation unless you set a status.

• Draft a reply for reviewTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contenthelp_scout_draft_reply

  Save a draft reply on the conversation for a teammate to review and send. Nothing reaches the customer until a person sends it.

• Add a noteTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contenthelp_scout_add_note

  Add a note that only teammates can see.

• Change statusTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contenthelp_scout_change_status

  Set a conversation to active, pending or closed, or mark it as spam. The customer is not notified.

• Assign a conversationTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contenthelp_scout_assign_conversation

  Assign a conversation to a user (ids from list_users) or a team. Team ids share the user id space but are not returned by list_users.

• Set tagsTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contenthelp_scout_update_tags

  Replace a conversation's tags with this list (missing tags are created). Include the current tags you want to keep; an empty list removes them all.

• Email a customerTier 3 · ExternalReads outside contenthelp_scout_start_conversation

  Start a new email conversation from an inbox and send the first message to the customer (a customer record is created if the email is new).

• Find customersTier 0 · ReadReads outside contenthelp_scout_search_customers

  Find customers by email or name. Returns id, name, job title, organization, notes, conversation count and email addresses.

• List inboxesTier 0 · ReadReads outside contenthelp_scout_list_inboxes

  List inboxes (mailboxes) with their ids, names and email addresses.

• List usersTier 0 · ReadReads outside contenthelp_scout_list_users

  List Help Scout users with their ids, names, emails and roles, for assignments. Filter by email or inbox. Team ids come from GET /v2/teams.

Testing, problems and disconnecting

Everdeck checks the connection when you save it. On the connection’s page in Integrations, Test checks it again at any time.

If Help Scout later refuses the connection, for example because a key was deleted or a sign-in expired, the connection shows Needs attention on the Integrations page and the people who manage connections are told. Agents can’t use it until a company admin fixes it with Edit or Reconnect.

To stop agents using Help Scout, open the connection and select Disconnect. Agents stop using it at once and its saved credentials are deleted. What else happens depends on how it was connected: each way above says.