Quickstart
Welcome to Plain, the AI support infrastructure built for collaborative, quickly scaling B2B teams. This guide walks you through setup in four phases, with the goal behind each step.
Most teams are live within a week. You don't need to do everything on day one - work through the phases in order and come back as you grow.
Looking for an API guide? Check out our API Quickstart article
Before you start
Plain AI is opt-in. Manage features in Settings → Plain AI, or read our AI security policy.
Connecting email or Slack may require a teammate with Google Workspace or Slack admin access.
Phase 1 : Lay the foundation (30 min–1 h)
Get your team in and connect your first channel in under an hour.
Invite your team
Plain is built for collaboration across your whole company, not just support. Give everyone visibility from day one.
Viewer seats are free. Invite your whole company so anyone can follow a customer thread.
Connect your first channel
Start with the channel your customers already use most, usually Slack or a shared inbox. Add the others later.
Slack
Go to Settings → Slack and pick an ingestion mode.
Add your channel naming convention (e.g.
ext-customername-company) so the Plain bot auto-joins customer channels.
Slack Connect channels become customer threads. Internal channels can be added as Discussions for team collaboration. Configure both in Settings → Slack.
Follow the email setup guide to send and receive from your support address.
Connect multiple addresses (help@, security@, billing@).
Plain also supports Chat, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and contact forms, all unified into one queue.
Phase 2: Structure the queue (2–3 h)
Once real volume starts to flow in, structure keeps the queue from becoming noise.
Define Tiers, SLAs, and business hours
Tiers segment customers (e.g. Enterprise, SMB, Self-Serve) and attach response-time SLAs to each, so your team always knows what needs attention first.
Set Settings → Business Hours first so SLAs respect weekends and holidays.
In Settings → Tiers, define your segments and set first- and next-response SLAs per Tier (you can sync companies into each Tier using a CRM integration).
Set up Slack notifications to be alerted before an SLA breach happens. You will also see breach warnings on the thread and in the queue.
Add labels and automate routing
Labels categorize your threads. Workflow rules automate what happens to them, including routing, assignment, priority.
Create 5–10 labels in Settings → Labels (Bug, Feature Request, Billing, Onboarding).
Use the Workflow Builder to route threads based on Tier, Company, Owner, Label, or any thread field. You can also set escalation paths to raise urgency when needed.
Phase 3: Move faster with Plain AI
With channels live and your queue taking shape, AI can start doing real work.
Auto-routing
Plain AI labels and prioritizes incoming threads automatically, so nothing gets missed and your queue stays organized without manual effort.
Go to Settings → Plain AI and turn on auto-triage.
Meet Ari, your AI support agent
Ari can resolve Tier I questions end-to-end before they reach your team. Connect your Help Center and Knowledge Sources, define the scope, and let it handle the questions you answer over and over.
Configure Ari in Settings → Plain AI → Ari.
Link Knowledge Sources to improve what Ari knows about your product and workflows.
The more content in your Help Center and Knowledge Sources, the better Ari performs.
Sidekick
Ask Sidekick anything about your workspace or any open thread: customer history, suggested actions, reply drafts. Access Sidekick from the sidebar or within any thread.
Suggested replies
Plain AI drafts replies based on your past conversations and knowledge sources. Your team reviews and sends. Enable suggested replies in Settings → Plain AI.
You're ready to go live with Plain! This is just the beginning; read Part 2 of our Setup Guide to continue refining your operations as your team grows.
We're here to help. Email help@plain.com any time you're stuck.