Step 1 — Connect real-time events

Use this when a customer references their recent in-app behavior or when understanding their recent actions would help resolve their issue. Specific triggers include:

- Customer asks "what was I just doing?" or "where was I?" or refers to a recent action they took
- Customer mentions encountering an error, bug, or unexpected behavior and you need to see what steps led to it
- Customer is stuck in a flow and needs help figuring out where they are or what to do next
- Customer says "I just clicked something" or "I submitted a form" but is unsure what happened
- You need context about the customer's recent navigation path to troubleshoot or guide them

No input is required from the customer — call this action directly.

This returns a chronological list of the customer's recent in-app activity (oldest to newest), including pages they viewed, buttons they clicked, and forms they submitted.

Do NOT use this when:
- The customer is asking about account details, billing, or subscription information
- The customer is asking about product features or general how-to questions that don't require knowing their recent activity
- The question can be answered without needing to know what the customer recently did in the app

// BACKEND — runs on your server, where INTERCOM_IDENTITY_SECRET is safe.
import jwt from "jsonwebtoken";

// e.g. an Express route your frontend calls after login:
app.get("/intercom-jwt", requireAuth, (req, res) => {
  const token = jwt.sign(
    {
      user_id: req.user.id,   // MUST equal the id you pass to posthog.identify(...)
      email: req.user.email,
      exp: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 60 * 60, // expires in 1 hour
    },
    process.env.INTERCOM_IDENTITY_SECRET, // the Unified Secret from step 1
    { algorithm: "HS256" }
  );
  res.json({ token });
});

// FRONTEND — the same place you already boot the Intercom Messenger.
const { token } = await fetch("/intercom-jwt").then((r) => r.json());

window.Intercom("boot", {
  app_id: "YOUR_INTERCOM_APP_ID",
  intercom_user_jwt: token, // the SOLE identity source — do NOT also set user_id/email here
});