Automating conversation linking

Intercom for Jira provides Jira automation actions that let you link and unlink Intercom conversations to or from Jira work items. This opens up opportunities for automated or semi-automated workflows across Intercom and Jira.

This feature requires Intercom for Jira 3.x.x or later

Refer to the migration guide for upgrading to Intercom for Jira 3.x.x or higher.

The following guide focuses on configuring the app-provided actions with a setup example. Please refer to the Jira Cloud automation documentation for general details on working with Jira automation.

To get started, as a Jira space administrator, open the space settings → Automation (1) (also works for global automation flows). Create a new flow by clicking Create flow → Create from scratch (2).

Start by adding an Incoming webhook trigger (1) and connect it to a Link Intercom connection action (2). Note the Work item criteria in the Incoming webhook configuration options. This selection determines the work items in context and, as a result, which work items will be linked to the configured conversation ID.

Once you add the action, you will be prompted to connect Jira automation to the Intercom for Jira app. Click Connect (1) to proceed. The message is unfortunately a bit cryptic. For further details, please refer to the Atlassian documentation about connections in automation.

Once connected, enter the Intercom conversation ID you would like to link in the Conversation ID field (1), then click Next (2) to complete the action configuration, followed by Save and enable (3) to activate the flow.

In this example, we are using the smart value {{webhookData.conversationId}} to read the conversation ID from the Incoming webhook payload. That this is not a requirement. It is completely up to you how you would like to provide the conversation ID to the action input.

This is just one example of how you can use the link or unlink Jira automation action to create or delete Intercom conversation links. Please feel free to experiment to find your ideal setup.

Which Jira work item does the action link to/unlink from?

The action links or unlinks the conversation from the current Jira work item in context. In the example above, the Incoming webhook trigger configuration allows the caller to define the work item (s) in context using the Work item criteria. Possible criteria are issue a request parameter for a single work item, a list of work item keys or IDs as issues property in the webhook body, or via predefined JQL. The link/unlink action following the webhook trigger applies to each Jira work item in context.

If there are no work items in context, the action will typically fail with the error "Work item key is required." in the audit log.

Using action output

When a link/unlink action completes successfully, it returns results that you can use in the automation flow that follows it. The results are available under the following smart values, depending on which action was executed:

• createdIntercomLink following a link action

• deletedIntercomLink following an unlink action

You could use the result data to simply create an audit log entry via a smart value (1), or anything else required by your use case. Refer to the smart value selector in the Jira automation flow builder (2) or the Jira automation action reference documentation for a list of all available properties.