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Reply to Help Scout conversations from your Docs articles

Half the how-to questions in your Help Scout inbox already have an answer in Docs, yet an agent on your team still searches Docs, pastes the link and types the same reply, conversation by conversation.

Cotlet does it in your own Help Scout account with search_conversations, get_conversation, search_docs_articles and send_reply, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Can Help Scout do this on its own?

Help Scout offers no way to write and send a reply from an agent (checked 16 Oct 2026). The official MCP server, general availability since 28 July 2026, searches and reads conversations and Docs articles but is read-only for new connections. The Mailbox API has a Create Reply Thread endpoint, which needs your own OAuth app. In the app, a workflow can send a follow-up email to the customer, but its text is fixed, not written for the question.

How you do it in Help Scout today

  1. Open the Unassigned folder, where a conversation with no owner shows Unassigned in the Assignee field, and read the thread of the customer who wrote in.
  2. Use the search box in the upper-right menu: each search returns conversations, customers and Docs articles, and a click on a header switches between them. Find the article that answers the question.
  3. Click Reply below the latest thread (or press R), write the answer, or choose Saved Reply from the menu opened with / or the + button. Click the To address to reveal the Cc/Bcc link when someone needs a copy.
  4. Before sending, set the Status and Assignment. Account Owners and Administrators set the defaults per inbox. Click Send.
  5. Repeat for the next conversation. Saved replies are per inbox, so the same wording is kept up to date by hand in each inbox.

How to reply to Help Scout conversations from your Docs articles

Prompt

Find active, unassigned conversations in the Support inbox tagged how-to. For each one, find the Docs article that answers it, send a short reply that links the article and set the conversation to pending. Skip anything a teammate already answered.
  1. 01

    Pick the queue

    search_conversations runs a Help Scout search such as status:active assigned:Unassigned tag:how-to in the Support inbox. Anything with a reply from a teammate already in its threads is dropped before the agent reads further.

  2. 02

    Read the whole thread

    get_conversation brings every thread, including internal notes, so the reply does not repeat what a teammate wrote in a note or ask for details the customer already gave.

  3. 03

    Find the article

    search_docs_articles looks up the customer's question in your Docs sites. If no article answers it, the agent leaves the conversation alone and lists it for you; it never invents policy, prices or dates.

  4. 04

    Check again, then send

    Right before sending, the agent re-reads the conversation. If a teammate replied or assigned it in the meantime, it skips the conversation. Otherwise send_reply sends a short answer with the article link and status pending, and waits for your OK by default because the customer gets an email.

  5. 05

    Report what it left

    Conversations without a matching article, with a billing question or an angry tone go on a list with a one-line reason, so a person picks them up.

What you get back

Example data

Conversations checked in Support: 9
Replied and set to pending: 6
- #48213 "How do I add a teammate?" linked "Add and remove users"
- #48219 "Export my customers" linked "Export customer data"
Left for you 3:
- #48224 "Refund for September" (billing)
- #48230 "Your product is broken again" (needs a person)
- #48231 "Does Help Scout support WhatsApp in Brazil?" (no article)
Skipped, a teammate replied meanwhile: 0

Other ways to ask

  • Every morning, draft a reply for each conversation in the Support inbox tagged how-to, show me the drafts and send nothing until I say so.
  • Reply to conversations about password reset with the saved reply of that name, then close them.
  • Find conversations from the last week where the customer asked the same question and tell me which Docs article is missing.

What Help Scout allows, and what to know first

  • A Help Scout reply goes to the customer, while a note is never sent to the customer, so the job uses send_reply only for the answer and add_note for anything internal.
  • Help Scout lets you pick the assignee while you reply: the assignee updates at the same moment the reply is sent, so send_reply can assign the conversation in one step.
  • Account Owners and Administrators set the default status and assignment per inbox; the status you pass to send_reply replaces that default for that one reply.
  • Saved replies are per inbox, and the Free plan includes 10 of them while Standard and above have unlimited saved replies.
  • Help Scout search covers the subject, body, notes and attachment file names of a conversation, accepts up to 1,000 characters, and leaves out deleted conversations.

send_reply asks for your OK by default. To run it daily without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: Help Scout Docs: Reply and add notes to conversations · Help Scout Docs: Search in Help Scout · Help Scout Docs: Assign conversations · Help Scout Mailbox API: Create Reply Thread · Help Scout pricing

Call send_reply from a script

curl

curl -X POST https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/help-scout/conversations/48213/replies \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text":"Hi Lena, you can add a teammate under Manage > Users. Here is the step-by-step guide: https://docs.example.com/article/12-add-and-remove-users. Tell me if anything looks different on your side.","status":"pending"}'

Example response

{
  "conversation_id": 48213,
  "thread_id": 903311,
  "sent_to": "lena@example.com",
  "status": "pending",
  "assignee": null
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the call is help_scout_write → send_reply. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

Help Scout tools this automation uses

Cotlet Help Scout tools used to reply to Help Scout conversations from your Docs articles
Tool Parameters
search_conversations query, inbox, limit, cursor
get_conversation conversation_id
search_docs_articles query, status, limit
send_reply conversation_id, text, status, assign_to, cc, bcc
All 14 Help Scout tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

Can the agent reply to a conversation that has a Cc or Bcc?

Yes. send_reply takes cc and bcc lists, and Help Scout shows them after a click on the To address in the reply editor.

Is it safe to connect Help Scout to Cotlet?

Yes. You sign in to Help Scout yourself, in your own Cloud Browser in the EU, and we never save your password. Your agents only get Help Scout once you enable it, every background request is listed, and the browser profile is stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the cipher 1Password uses for its vaults. The AI model never sees a login, posts and messages wait for your OK, and Disable for agents cuts access in one click. Independent scanners grade cotlet.dev A+ on Qualys SSL Labs, securityheaders.com and Mozilla Observatory; live results are on https://cotlet.dev/security.

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