Push GitHub Leads to Intercom: Developer Signal Routing Guide

Intercom is built for real-time conversations with users and prospects. GitHub is where developers signal intent before they ever visit your website. GitLeads bridges these two systems: when a developer stars your tracked repo or mentions a keyword in a GitHub issue, GitLeads enriches that lead and pushes it to Intercom as a contact or event — triggering your existing automation.

Why Intercom for GitHub Developer Leads

• Intercom excels at product-led and conversation-led sales — exactly what developer tools need
• Inbound leads from GitHub are warm: they already know the problem your product solves
• Intercom workflows can auto-assign conversations to the right rep or bot sequence
• GitHub lead data (bio, languages, followers) enriches contact records for personalized messaging
• Event-based triggers in Intercom fire the right message at the right time

Option A: Webhook → Intercom Contacts API

// GitLeads webhook handler → Intercom Contacts API
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next';

const INTERCOM_TOKEN = process.env.INTERCOM_ACCESS_TOKEN!;

interface GitLeadsLead {
  github_username: string;
  name: string | null;
  email: string | null;
  bio: string | null;
  company: string | null;
  location: string | null;
  followers: number;
  top_languages: string[];
  signal_type: 'stargazer' | 'keyword';
  signal_context: string;
  profile_url: string;
}

export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
  if (req.method !== 'POST') return res.status(405).end();

  const lead: GitLeadsLead = req.body;

  const contactPayload: Record<string, unknown> = {
    role: 'lead',
    external_id: `github-${lead.github_username}`,
    name: lead.name ?? lead.github_username,
    avatar: `https://github.com/${lead.github_username}.png`,
    custom_attributes: {
      github_username: lead.github_username,
      github_url: lead.profile_url,
      github_followers: lead.followers,
      github_bio: lead.bio ?? '',
      github_languages: lead.top_languages.join(', '),
      signal_type: lead.signal_type,
      signal_context: lead.signal_context,
    },
  };

  if (lead.email) contactPayload.email = lead.email;
  if (lead.company) contactPayload.company = { name: lead.company };

  const response = await fetch('https://api.intercom.io/contacts', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${INTERCOM_TOKEN}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Intercom-Version': '2.10',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(contactPayload),
  });

  if (!response.ok) {
    const error = await response.text();
    return res.status(500).json({ error });
  }

  const contact = await response.json();

  await fetch('https://api.intercom.io/events', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${INTERCOM_TOKEN}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Intercom-Version': '2.10',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      type: 'event',
      event_name: 'github_signal_captured',
      created_at: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000),
      id: contact.id,
      metadata: {
        signal_type: lead.signal_type,
        context: lead.signal_context,
        followers: lead.followers,
        languages: lead.top_languages.join(', '),
      },
    }),
  });

  res.status(200).json({ contact_id: contact.id });
}

Option B: GitLeads Webhook → Zapier → Intercom

1. In GitLeads dashboard, go to Integrations → Webhook and copy your webhook URL
2. In Zapier, create a new Zap: Trigger = Webhooks by Zapier (Catch Hook)
3. Action = Intercom → Create or Update Contact
4. Map fields: email → Email, github_username → External ID, bio → Notes, top_languages → Custom attribute
5. Add a second action: Intercom → Create Event ("github_signal_captured") on the new contact
6. Turn on the Zap and test with a real GitLeads signal

Intercom Workflow Triggers

• Trigger on "github_signal_captured" event → send in-app message or email sequence
• Branch on signal_type = "keyword" → route to sales rep for high-intent conversations
• Branch on followers > 500 → flag as influencer, notify DevRel team via Slack
• Branch on email present → enroll in email sequence; else → LinkedIn outreach reminder
• Set lead score in Intercom custom attribute for prioritization in Inbox

Lead Quality Filtering

• Minimum followers threshold (e.g., > 10) — eliminates bot accounts
• Signal type priority: keyword mentions > stargazer signals for intent
• Language filter: match your ICP stack (Go, Rust, TypeScript, Python, etc.)
• Email required: some teams only push leads with a public email to reduce noise
• Deduplicate by external_id (github-{username}) — Intercom upserts handle this natively