Help Scout Skill

Manage customer support with Help Scout's human-focused help desk.

Quick Install

curl -sSL https://canifi.com/skills/helpscout/install.sh | bash

Or manually:

cp -r skills/helpscout ~/.canifi/skills/

Setup

Configure via canifi-env:

# First, ensure canifi-env is installed:
# curl -sSL https://canifi.com/install.sh | bash

canifi-env set HELPSCOUT_API_KEY "your_api_key"
canifi-env set HELPSCOUT_APP_ID "your_app_id"
canifi-env set HELPSCOUT_APP_SECRET "your_app_secret"

Privacy & Authentication

Your credentials, your choice. Canifi LifeOS respects your privacy.

Option 1: Manual Browser Login (Recommended)

If you prefer not to share credentials with Claude Code:

1. Complete the Browser Automation Setup using CDP mode
2. Login to the service manually in the Playwright-controlled Chrome window
3. Claude will use your authenticated session without ever seeing your password

Option 2: Environment Variables

If you're comfortable sharing credentials, you can store them locally:

canifi-env set SERVICE_EMAIL "your-email"
canifi-env set SERVICE_PASSWORD "your-password"

Note: Credentials stored in canifi-env are only accessible locally on your machine and are never transmitted.

Capabilities

1. Conversation Management: Manage customer email conversations
2. Customer Profiles: View customer history and data in sidebar
3. Saved Replies: Use and manage canned responses
4. Docs Knowledge Base: Create and manage help documentation
5. Beacon Widget: Manage website chat widget and messenger

Usage Examples

View Conversation

User: "Show me the latest Help Scout conversation from TechCorp"
Assistant: Returns recent customer conversation

Create Conversation

User: "Start a new conversation with john@customer.com about their renewal"
Assistant: Creates new email conversation

Update Status

User: "Close the conversation with customer #12345"
Assistant: Updates conversation status to closed

Search Docs

User: "Find Help Scout docs about password resets"
Assistant: Searches knowledge base for matching articles

Authentication Flow

1. Create OAuth application in Help Scout
2. Use OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow
3. Get access token with app ID and secret
4. API key available for basic auth

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized	Invalid credentials	Verify API key or OAuth tokens
403 Forbidden	Insufficient permissions	Check user role
404 Not Found	Conversation not found	Verify conversation ID
429 Rate Limited	Too many requests	Implement backoff

Notes

• Focus on personal customer experience
• No ticket numbers visible to customers
• Beacon for in-app messaging
• Docs for knowledge base
• Plus plan includes reporting
• Pro plan includes advanced workflows