Procedures are normally triggered by customer intent — Fin matches what a customer says against a procedure's "When to use" criteria. Proactive triggers let you start a procedure from outside the conversation entirely: when a customer clicks a specific element on your website, or when an external system calls the Intercom API.
Note: Proactive procedure triggers are in Beta. Contact your account manager for access.
Customer experience
When a proactive trigger fires:
Fin sends the first message you configured to the customer
The procedure only begins after the customer replies
If the customer never replies, the conversation closes with a Pending outcome
Important: A Pending outcome doesn't count toward your resolution rate. Proactive triggers are designed for outreach — resolution metrics only apply once the customer engages and the procedure runs.
Routing after the first customer reply
Triggering a procedure doesn't guarantee it runs. After the customer's first reply, Fin evaluates the message and decides how to proceed:
Fin follows the triggered procedure if none of the conditions below apply
Fin sets the procedure aside if the reply asks for a human agent
Fin sets the procedure aside if the reply matches a different procedure's intent
Fin sets the procedure aside if it can confidently answer the reply from help content
Note: Design your proactive flows with this in mind — a triggered procedure isn't guaranteed to execute if the customer's first reply pulls Fin in a different direction.
Set up a website element click trigger
Website element click triggers fire when a customer clicks a specific button, link, or other element on your website.
Important: This trigger is available on web (Messenger) only. The Messenger must be installed on the page where the element appears.
Open the procedure in the editor
Go to When to use (trigger) > Proactive triggers
Select Website element click
Enter the page URL and click Browse and select to choose the element
Configure Fin's first message — this is required and is what Fin sends when the trigger fires
Configure deployment settings for what happens after the procedure ends
Set up an API call trigger
API call triggers let an external system start a procedure programmatically.
Note: This trigger supports web (Messenger) and email channels. It defaults to web if no channel is specified.
Prerequisites
A Developer Hub app with an access token
The token must have write_conversations scope
Important: Store your access token server-side. Never include it in client-side code where it could be exposed.
Making the API call
Open the procedure in the editor
Go to When to use (trigger) > Proactive triggers
Select API call — the procedure-specific endpoint URL is shown here
Send a POST request to that URL with the headers and body below
Configure Fin's first message (required)
Configure deployment settings for after the procedure ends
Required headers:
Authorization: Bearer {your-access-token}
Intercom-Version: UnstableImportant: The Intercom-Version: Unstable header is required. This endpoint is not yet on a stable API version — omitting this header will cause the request to fail.
Request body:
{
"user": {
"id": "your-user-id"
}
}Success response
A successful request returns a conversation_id and procedure_id:
{
"conversation_id": "...",
"procedure_id": "..."
}Need more help? Get support from our Community Forum
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