# Vendor facets — Intercom. Customer-service platform with a hosted Help Center, the Fin AI agent,
# a News Center feed and a teammate-facing MCP server. Headline: support_channel (2 pts, ~45% catalog
# pass rate, not saturated) plus one real surprise: a Help Center on a custom domain serves a
# generated llms.txt and Markdown twins of every article (seen on help.pitch.com and Intercom's own
# help), which can earn llms_txt_published once declared. Getting-started, auth and changelog only
# where the provider writes those pages.
vendor: intercom
name: Intercom
website: https://www.intercom.com
areas:
- support
registry_keys:
- intercom
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  Intercom moves more than most helpdesks. A declared Help Center is a support channel (2 points), and
  a Help Center on the provider's own domain serves an llms.txt index and Markdown copies of each article,
  generated from the provider's own articles, which earns llms_txt_published (4 points) once the provider
  declares it; on the default intercom.help path there is no llms.txt. Getting-started, authentication
  and changelog pages are reachable only when the provider writes them in the Help Center or News Center.
  Fin and the Intercom MCP server are real agent features, but both serve the provider's support operation,
  not its API, and score nothing.
features:
- id: help-center
  name: Help Center
  description: Hosted knowledge base of articles and collections that Fin and the Messenger also draw
    on.
  source: https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/7120684-fin-ai-agent-explained
  tier: paid
- id: help-center-custom-domain
  name: Help Center custom domain
  description: >-
    Serves the Help Center on the provider's own domain by CNAME with automated SSL; old intercom.help
    links redirect.
  source: https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/1039696-set-up-a-custom-domain-for-your-help-center
  tier: paid
- id: help-center-llms-txt
  name: Generated llms.txt and Markdown article twins
  description: >-
    A custom-domain Help Center serves /llms.txt listing every article with a link to a text/markdown
    .md copy of it; observed 2026-09-25 on help.pitch.com (x-intercom-version header) and on intercom.com/help,
    absent on intercom.help/<app> paths.
  source: https://help.pitch.com/llms.txt
  tier: paid
- id: news-center
  name: News Center
  description: Public news feed at intercom.news/<app> or a custom domain for announcements to users.
  source: https://developers.intercom.com/docs/guides/news-center/custom-domains
  tier: paid
- id: fin
  name: Fin AI agent
  description: >-
    AI agent that answers customers in the Messenger, email, Discord and phone from Help Center articles
    and connected knowledge.
  source: https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/7120684-fin-ai-agent-explained
  tier: paid
- id: intercom-mcp
  name: Intercom MCP server
  description: >-
    Remote MCP server (US and EU) with 14 tools over conversations, contacts, companies and Help Center
    articles, authenticated by workspace teammates via OAuth or bearer token.
  source: https://developers.intercom.com/docs/guides/mcp
  tier: paid
maps:
- feature: help-center
  check: support_channel
  layer: composite
  credit: 1.0
  provider_must: Declare the Help Center in apis.yml common[] as HelpCenter or Support.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.45
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.69
- feature: help-center-llms-txt
  check: llms_txt_published
  layer: composite
  credit: 1.0
  note: >-
    Generated by Intercom, but from the provider's own articles and served on the provider's own domain,
    so the format's first-party exception applies rather than the 0.25 derived class. It is a help-center
    index, not an API-docs index; the check does not distinguish.
  provider_must: >-
    Put the Help Center on a custom domain (the intercom.help/<app> path serves no llms.txt) and declare
    https://<help-domain>/llms.txt as an LLMsTxt pointer; the catalog's probe of the main site will not
    find it on a help subdomain.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.351
  facet: discoverability
  points: 4
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.65
- feature: help-center
  check: getting_started_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider writes a getting-started guide for its API as a Help Center article and declares
    it as GettingStarted.
  provider_must: Write the guide and declare its URL as GettingStarted.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.206
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 5
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.636
- feature: help-center
  check: authentication_documented
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider documents its API authentication in a Help Center article and declares it as
    Authentication.
  provider_must: Write the page and declare its URL as Authentication.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.368
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 5
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.94
  saturated: true
  saturated_note: >-
    94% of providers with a contract, docs and a reference already earn this; the vendor cannot move it
    for most of its buyers.
- feature: news-center
  check: change_log_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider uses the News Center for dated API or product release notes and declares it as
    ChangeLog. An announcements feed is not a change log by itself.
  provider_must: Publish release notes there and declare the feed URL as ChangeLog.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.157
  facet: operational_transparency
  points: 6
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.438
earns_nothing:
- feature: intercom-mcp
  check: mcp_server
  layer: agent_readiness
  why: >-
    It exposes the provider's support workspace to its own teammates on an Intercom host; it is not an
    MCP server for the provider's API.
- feature: fin
  check: agentic_access
  layer: agent_readiness
  why: >-
    Fin answers the provider's customers; it publishes no x-agentic-access artifact and gives agents no
    access to the provider's API.
- feature: help-center-custom-domain
  why: >-
    No check reads the host of a support pointer; its only scoring effect is enabling the llms.txt row
    above.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - status_page_present
  - contract_present
  - api_reference_present
  - sdk_count_1
  - cli_present
  note: Intercom produces no status page, contract, reference or SDK for the provider's own API.
unscored_practice:
- feature: help-center-llms-txt
  why: >-
    Every article has a text/markdown .md twin; the catalog records markdown negotiation but no composite
    check reads per-article Markdown.
surface:
  discoverability:
    reachable: 4.0
    total: 54
  operational_transparency:
    reachable: 6.0
    total: 38
  developer_ergonomics:
    reachable: 12.0
    total: 42
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 0
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- https://developers.intercom.com/docs/guides/mcp
- https://developers.intercom.com/docs/guides/news-center/custom-domains
- https://help.pitch.com/llms.txt
- https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/1039696-set-up-a-custom-domain-for-your-help-center
- https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/7120684-fin-ai-agent-explained
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 0
    in_baseline: 0
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5216
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 0 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 5745
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 0.8
    p75: 1.7
    p90: 1.7
    max: 1.8
    mean_among_movers: 1.2
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.0
    p90: 0.0
    max: 0.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.0
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    discoverability: 7.4
    developer_ergonomics: 4.8
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 363
    emerging -> thin: 110
    developing -> strong: 82
    strong -> exemplar: 19
    minimal -> emerging: 1
  agent_readiness_band_moves: {}
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written