HelpScout Knowledge

Import knowledge base articles from HelpScout Docs

Import knowledge base articles from HelpScout Docs into AGO. Connect your help center content to enable AI-powered support responses.

Overview

Feature	Details
Authentication	API Key (Basic Auth) — required
Content Type	Help center articles
Hierarchy	Categories and articles

A HelpScout API key is mandatory to use this connector. This integration relies on HelpScout’s Docs API v1, which only accepts Basic Auth with an API key — OAuth is not supported for this API. Without a key, no articles can be imported.

You do not need to provide a HelpScout URL or domain. The Docs API endpoint is the same for every HelpScout account, so the API key alone is enough to identify your workspace.

Note: This integration is for HelpScout Docs (knowledge base). For HelpScout ticketing integration, see HelpScout Ticketing Integration.

Prerequisites

• HelpScout account with Docs enabled
• An API key with read access to Docs (required — see below)

Step 1 — Get your API Key from HelpScout

1. Log in to HelpScout
2. Navigate to Your Profile > API Keys
3. Click Generate API Key
4. Copy the key (it won’t be shown again)

Step 2 — Enter the API Key in AGO

1. In AGO, go to Knowledge > Sources
2. Click Create New Source and select HelpScout
3. Paste the API key into the API Key field
4. (Optional) Configure the fields described below
5. Save the source — without the API key, the import will fail
6. Click Sync to start importing

Configuration

Required Fields

Field	Description
api_key	HelpScout API key

Optional Fields

Field	Type	Description
additional_categories_ids	List	Specific category IDs to import in addition to the ones automatically discovered. Leave empty to import every category visible to the API key.
external_link_page	Toggle	Reserved field. No external link is currently attached to imported HelpScout articles regardless of this toggle.

What Gets Imported

For each HelpScout category visible to the API key (plus any extra IDs listed in additional_categories_ids):

• A document representing the category itself
• One document per article in that category, attached to the category document as its parent

Article Structure

Each imported article is stored with:

Field	Description
Title	Article title from HelpScout
Content	Article body, converted from HTML to Markdown, prefixed with the title as an H1 heading
Metadata	type: "helpscout", the original HelpScout article ID, and the current sync version

Sync Behavior

Every sync is a full re-import:

• Articles and categories are fetched from HelpScout and either created or updated in AGO (matched by HelpScout ID)
• Any document from a previous sync that is no longer returned by HelpScout is deleted permanently from the knowledge source
• There is no incremental sync — modified-date filtering is not used

Troubleshooting

Authentication Error

• Verify your API key is correct
• Check the key hasn’t been revoked
• Ensure the key has Docs read permissions

No Articles Imported

• Check the API key has access to at least one category in HelpScout Docs
• Confirm the categories you expect to import are visible to that API key
• Review sync history for specific errors

Missing Content

• Confirm the article is reachable in HelpScout under one of the categories returned by the Docs API
• If you expect a category that isn’t being picked up automatically, add its ID to additional_categories_ids

Related Documentation

• Knowledge Connectors - All available connectors
• Knowledge Source Management - Source configuration
• HelpScout Ticketing Integration - Ticketing integration