Fin setup

Let Fin ask for a screen recording

With this setup, Fin asks a customer to record their screen when a problem is easier to show than to describe, Birdie posts the recording into the conversation, and - if you use AI Summary - Fin reads what the recording showed and answers from it. The customer never sees the analysis; Fin uses it the way an agent who watched the recording would.

The setup takes about fifteen minutes. The workflow is reusable, so you choose in step 4 whether Fin, one of your workflows, or a teammate starts it.

How it works

The customer describes a problem. Fin's procedure, a step in one of your workflows, or a teammate hands the conversation to the Birdie recording workflow.
The workflow sends the Birdie card. The customer clicks Record screen and records.
Birdie posts the recording into the conversation and tells the workflow the recording is in. The workflow sends a short "got it" message.
With AI Summary: Birdie analyzes the recording, writes the result into a conversation attribute called Birdie Summary, and tells the workflow the summary is ready. The workflow hands back to Fin, and Fin answers from the attribute on the customer's next message.
If the customer cannot or does not want to record, the card offers Skip this step. The workflow moves on without a recording instead of waiting.

Two options

Without AI Summary

With AI Summary

What the customer gets

The recording is in the conversation; a person, or Fin, takes it from there

Fin explains what the recording showed and what to do next

Step URLs to paste in Birdie

1 (Recording received)

2 (Recording received, AI Summary ready)

Conversation attribute

Not needed

Birdie Summary

Fin guidance

Not needed

One guidance entry

Requires

Birdie connected to Intercom

Same, plus AI Summary turned on in Birdie with the Automatic option enabled for Customer recordings

Pick one before you start. Steps marked (AI Summary) below only apply to the second option.

Before you start

Birdie is connected to your Intercom workspace (Birdie → Settings → Integrations → Intercom, step 1).
Fin AI Agent is deployed over chat in Intercom.
(AI Summary) AI Summary is turned on for customer recordings in Birdie, and the option for Customers is set to Automatic.

1. Create the Birdie Summary attribute (AI Summary)

Fin reads the analysis from a conversation attribute. It has to exist before you write the guidance, because the guidance editor can only insert an attribute that exists.

In Intercom, go to Settings → Data → Conversations and click Create attribute.
Format: Text, with Multiline checked.
Name: Birdie Summary — exactly, including the capital letters.
Save.

Birdie writes into this attribute; nobody types in it. It holds the whole write-up: title, what happened, the steps, the likely cause and the evidence.

2. Add the Fin guidance (AI Summary)

The guidance tells Fin what the attribute contains and how to use it.

In Birdie, open Settings → Integrations → Intercom, scroll to Fin setup, and click Copy the guidance. (The button appears once a step URL is saved; if you are doing this step first, copy the text below.)
In Intercom, go to Fin AI Agent → Train → Guidance and create a new guidance. Paste the text.
The text contains [Birdie Summary] twice. Delete each one and insert the attribute in its place with the editor's Insert attribute button, under Conversation attributes. Both must show as an amber pill, not as plain text. If a pill shows as conversation.custom_attribute.… in red, reload the page and insert it again.
Channels: Chat. Save, then Enable.

The guidance text:

When a customer has sent a screen recording, the conversation attribute [Birdie Summary] describes what it showed. Treat it as something you observed yourself. It is plain text in this order:
First line: a short title. Three fixed titles mean no usable failure was seen: "No failure visible in this recording", "Recording shows a description of an issue, not the issue itself", and "Not enough in this recording to tell what went wrong". Any other title names a failure that was observed.
A paragraph on what happened.
"Steps to reproduce": numbered steps, each with the moment in the recording, like (0:12).
One line with the browser, the operating system, and the site. Never ask the customer for these; you already have them.
"Likely cause": the most probable reason.
"Evidence": what in the recording supports it, one line each, with the moment and the signal.
If a failure was observed: acknowledge it in one sentence, in your own words. If the cause is something the customer can act on, give the fix or workaround. If it points to a bug on our side, say the team has what they need and will follow up, then hand over.
If the title says no failure was visible: say the recording did not show anything going wrong, and ask what they expected to happen instead. If it says the recording describes the issue rather than showing it, or that there was not enough to tell: say the recording did not capture the problem itself, and hand over.
If [Birdie Summary] is empty after a recording was sent: say the team will look at the recording, and hand over.
Never quote the attribute, and never mention an analysis, a summary, a review, or that a recording was processed. Do not ask for a second recording in the same conversation.

3. Build the reusable workflow

This is the flow that sends the card and waits for Birdie. Build it once; Fin's procedure hands conversations to it.

In Intercom, go to Fin AI Agent → Workflows, create a new workflow, and choose the Reusable workflow trigger. Name it Birdie recording.

Path A — the whole flow

Add these steps to the first path, in this order.

Send an app → Birdie. Configure the card as you like; the defaults are fine. The card shows a Record screen button.
Wait for webhook. Name it Birdie received. In Example request, replace the object inside data with:
```
{ "event": "intercom.video.incoming.received", "video_url": "https://share.birdie.so/i/xxxxxxxx" }
```
Save the step, click Copy on its URL, and paste it in Birdie under Fin setup → Recording received. Click Save in Birdie.
Message: something like "Got your recording, we're taking a look. One moment…"
(AI Summary) Wait for webhook. Name it Birdie analyzed. Example request, inside data:
```
{ "event": "intercom.video.incoming.finalized", "ai_status": "ready" }
```
Copy its URL into Birdie under Fin setup → AI Summary ready, and Save. Birdie now shows the attribute and guidance instructions below the fields; steps 1 and 2 of this guide cover them.
(AI Summary) Message: something like "Thanks for waiting, we've had a look at your recording. Reply here whenever you're ready and I'll take it from there." Fin only speaks after the customer's next message, so this is what tells them the wait is over and invites the reply. Do not ask a yes/no question here: every reply leads to the same answer.
(AI Summary) Let Fin handle. Fin answers from the attribute on the customer's reply.

Without AI Summary, replace steps 4 to 6 with Assign to your team, or Let Fin handle if you want Fin to keep the conversation.

Path B — if Fin hands over

Click the arrow next to If Fin hands over under the Fin step; that creates this path. Add Assign to your team. It is where the conversation goes when Fin cannot resolve it.

Optional: route a skipped analysis (AI Summary)

If AI Summary did not run for a recording — the feature is off for that recording, or the analysis failed — Birdie still releases the second wait, with ai_status set to skipped, and clears the attribute. Fin's guidance handles that by handing over. To avoid involving Fin at all in that case, add a Branches step after the second wait: ai_status is skipped → Assign; else → Let Fin handle.

Set it live

Every exit must lead somewhere: an If Fin hands over arrow or an else branch with nothing attached keeps Save and Set live disabled, and List of paths at the bottom left shows which path is incomplete. Then Save and Set live.

4. Choose how the workflow starts

Birdie recording is a reusable workflow, so anything in Intercom that can pass a conversation to a reusable workflow can start it. Pick the option that matches who should decide that a recording would help: Fin, a rule in one of your workflows, or a teammate. You can combine them.

Any workflow can start it with a Pass to reusable workflow step pointing at Birdie recording. Three places where that step earns its keep:

The "If Fin hands over" branch of the workflow that deploys Fin. Put the pass before the Assign step: the card goes out exactly when Fin could not answer, and a person only gets involved if the recording does not settle it.
A reply button. In a workflow on Customer sends any message, offer "Record my screen" as a quick reply and pass to the workflow on that click.
A branch on what the customer wrote, for example messages containing "error", "bug" or "doesn't work".

Fin judges from the customer's message that a recording would help, and hands over.

In Intercom, go to Fin AI Agent → Train → Procedures and create a new procedure. Name it Ask for a screen recording.
When to trigger, based on what the customer says:
The customer reports something that is easier to show than to describe, such as a button that does nothing, an error on screen, a display glitch, or "it doesn't work" without details.
Instructions, two lines:
1. Tell the customer, in one sentence, that a short screen recording will let us see the problem, and that it needs no install.
2. Type @, choose the handoff option, and select the workflow Birdie recording.
Save and set it live.

If you had a guidance entry from an earlier setup that told Fin to send a Birdie link, delete it: Fin should have one way to ask.

Billing. Intercom counts a procedure that ends in a handoff to a workflow as a Fin outcome, charged when the card is sent, whether or not the customer records. Options B and C are not outcomes: with them you are only charged if Fin later resolves the conversation.

In any Inbox conversation, open the command menu (⌘K or Ctrl K), choose Trigger reusable workflow, and pick Birdie recording. A macro can do the same in one click. The card is sent and the rest of the flow runs as if Fin had asked.

Whichever option starts it, the workflow behaves the same from the card onwards, and Birdie's step URLs do not change.

5. Test it

In the procedure editor's Preview panel, or in your Messenger:

Write: the export button does nothing when I click it. Fin's sentence appears, then the Birdie card.
Click Record screen and record a few seconds. Within a minute, "Got your recording…" appears: Birdie released the first wait.
(AI Summary) Wait for the analysis: the workflow's message arrives when it is done. Reply to it. Fin's answer reflects what the recording showed, without mentioning an analysis.
Start a new test conversation and click Skip this step → Continue without: the workflow takes Path D.

In the Inbox, the recording is in the conversation, the Birdie card is in the sidebar, and (AI Summary) the Birdie Summary attribute holds the write-up once the analysis is done. To see the attribute in the Inbox sidebar, add Conversation attributes to the sidebar with Edit apps at its bottom.

Reference

What Birdie sends to the steps

Step

When

Body

Recording received

The recording is posted into the conversation

{"data": {"event": "intercom.video.incoming.received"}}

Recording received

The customer chose Skip this step and confirmed

{"data": {"event": "intercom.video.incoming.abandoned"}}

AI Summary ready

The analysis completed

{"data": {"event": "intercom.video.incoming.finalized", "ai_status": "ready"}}

AI Summary ready

No analysis completed for this recording

{"data": {"event": "intercom.video.incoming.finalized", "ai_status": "skipped"}}

The keys must be declared in each step's Example request for the workflow to read them; the values in the example are placeholders.

Birdie only calls the steps for recordings a workflow asked for. A recording an agent requests from the Inbox, or one made from a Birdie link, never triggers them, and Intercom ignores a call for a conversation that is not waiting at that step.

The Birdie Summary attribute (AI Summary)

Written by Birdie just before the second wait is released, and cleared when no analysis completed, so Fin never reads a previous recording's result. It is only ever read by Fin and your agents; nothing shows it to the customer.

What if the customer never records?

The first wait holds the conversation, and Fin does not answer while it waits. Two things end the wait: Birdie, when a recording arrives or the customer chooses Skip this step, and Intercom's own seven-day timeout on the step. A customer who closes the Messenger without either will find the card, and the Skip this step link, when they come back.

Troubleshooting

Set live is disabled. A path exit leads nowhere. Open List of paths.
A pill in the guidance is red. Reload the guidance page and insert the attribute again with Insert attribute.
The card shows no "Skip this step" link. It only appears on cards sent by a workflow, in a workspace where the Recording received URL is saved.
"Got your recording" never appears. Check that the URL saved in Birdie is the one from this workflow's step, in the right workspace, and that the step's example request declares event.
Fin answers as if nothing was recorded. The attribute is empty for that conversation: the analysis did not run or is not finished. Fin's guidance hands over in that case.

Last updated 8 days ago