The moment it happens

Get a Slack message for every new conversation

Your team sees who started a conversation and what they asked the moment it starts.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Intercom
AI: Not needed
Access: read conversations

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a new Intercom conversation starts, post the customer's name, their first message and a link to the conversation to #support in Slack.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

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First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A visitor starts a chat on your pricing page asking if you offer an annual discount, and the message arrives in Intercom's inbox. Agents work from a mix of tools and spend much of the day in Slack, so unless Intercom is the tab in front of them, the chat sits unopened. Live chat visitors usually leave if nobody answers within a few minutes, and a prospect who walked away from the pricing page is a lost sale.

When a new conversation starts in Intercom, ClickRuntime receives it immediately, formats a short message with a link, and posts it in the Slack channel your team uses. Agents see the conversation as it begins and can jump in while the visitor is still on the page.

It is best for small support and sales teams that handle chat alongside other work and do not keep Intercom open all day.

What you get out of it

Live chat visitors are answered in time
People who start a chat expect an answer in minutes. Seeing every new conversation in Slack when it begins makes a quick reply possible, which is the difference between a conversation and a missed visitor.
Pricing page chats convert
A chat from a pricing or checkout page often comes from someone ready to buy. Hearing about it right away lets a salesperson answer the question that could close the deal.
Agents can work from one place
Teams that spend their day in Slack do not need to keep switching to Intercom just to see if anything has arrived. The channel brings the conversation to where people already are.
Coverage is visible and shared
When a post appears, a teammate can claim it with a reaction. It becomes clear who is handling each conversation, which stops two people answering at once and leaving the customer confused.
Volume patterns become obvious
Watching how many conversations start during an hour shows when peaks occur. You can arrange who is on duty around those times, based on real patterns. Managers can use that to decide who needs to be online during the busiest hours of the week.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When a customer starts a new conversation in Intercom, ClickRuntime picks it up straight away.
It formats the customer's name, their first message and a link to the conversation.
The message is posted to your #support Slack channel.

Before it runs live

Connect Intercom
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Get a Slack message for every new conversationjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #supportNew conversation from Dana Ortiz: > Hi, our Northwind invoices show the wrong VAT number.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Intercom steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

new_conversation_alert.pyexample

import re
from clickruntime import on_event, notify

INBOX = "https://app.intercom.com/a/inbox/_/inbox/conversation/"

@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json or {}
    if body.get("topic") != "conversation.user.created":
        return {"posted": False}
    convo = body["data"]["item"]
    author = convo["source"]["author"]
    first = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", "", convo["source"]["body"] or "")[:400]
    notify.slack(f"New conversation from {author.get('name') or author.get('email')}:\n> {first}\n{INBOX}{convo['id']}",
                 channel="#support")
    return {"posted": True}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it alert for conversations started by my own team?

It is aimed at new conversations from customers and visitors. Outbound messages that your team starts can create conversations too, and if you do not want those, ask for the alert to skip conversations started by an admin.

What does the Slack message show?

It shows that a new conversation started, who it is from when Intercom knows, the opening message, and a link to open it in Intercom. A short preview lets people judge whether it needs an immediate response or can wait.

Can I send chats from certain pages to a different channel?

Yes, if Intercom records the page or a custom attribute, you can route conversations accordingly, for example pricing page chats to the sales channel and help center chats to support. Describe the rule to your AI assistant and it will be applied.

What permissions does it need?

read conversations. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens