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At a glance

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Credentials

Set these per environment. See Connect an integration. With a managed OAuth app, Connect works without these variables; set them to use your own OAuth app instead.

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Setup

  1. Create a Help Scout account: Sign up at https://www.helpscout.com/ - a free trial works for development. Create at least one Inbox (mailbox) so the API has data to return.
  2. Create an OAuth app: In Help Scout, go to Your Profile > My Apps (sign in at https://secure.helpscout.net/) and choose Create My App. Set the Redirection URL to your app’s callback URL (the /oauth/callback/help-scout path on your deployment).
  3. Copy the app credentials: Copy the App ID into HELPSCOUT_CLIENT_ID and the App Secret into HELPSCOUT_CLIENT_SECRET.
  4. Connect and authorize: Complete the OAuth flow with a Help Scout user who has access to the mailboxes you want agents to read. Access is granted at the app level - the Mailbox API does not use granular scopes.
  • Access tokens expire after 2 days (172,800 seconds); the refresh token returned by the Authorization Code flow is used to obtain new ones automatically.
  • The Mailbox API has no scope system - the connected user’s permissions determine which mailboxes and conversations are visible.
  • List endpoints return HAL+JSON with results under _embedded and page-based pagination via the page query parameter.
  • Replies sent via the API are delivered to the customer as real emails - use the draft flag while testing.
Provider API reference: https://developer.helpscout.com/mailbox-api/

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Tools

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Example prompts

  • List active Help Scout conversations, group them by topic, and suggest which need attention first.
  • Read the latest open Help Scout conversations and draft suggested replies for each.
  • Find a Help Scout customer by email and summarize their recent conversations.