Integrate an external data feed
Everyone · Automate the work
Steps at a glance
1. Decide what data belongs in the workspace
The pattern here is closing the context loop: instead of an agent asking you for numbers, the numbers arrive in the channel, and the agent already has them when you ask a question.
Typical candidates are usage analytics from a product you support, survey responses, or operational metrics feeding an evaluation.
Two filters before anything is wired up. Is this data allowed to live on this relay — see Decide your data residency and hosting model. And will anyone actually use it, or is it decoration that will dilute the channel's context.
2. Choose how it arrives
Two routes: an external system pushes into Buzz on a schedule, or a Buzz webhook trigger fires when something arrives.
Webhook triggers are reported as the least stable of the trigger types. Prefer the push route where you can — a scheduled external job posting into a channel has fewer moving parts inside a pre-1.0 product.
3. Send it to a dedicated channel
Give the feed its own channel rather than mixing it into a working channel. Automated content arriving in a discussion channel buries the discussion, and it becomes context that agents weigh equally with human conversation.
Agents that need the data can be members of both.
4. Give agents the framing they need to use it
Raw data arriving with no explanation is a liability — an agent will interpret it, and it will interpret it confidently. Put the schema, the units, the update frequency and the known caveats in the channel canvas so the interpretation has something to stand on. See Maintain the channel canvas.
5. Monitor for silent breakage
A feed that stops is invisible. Nothing in Buzz will tell you that yesterday's data did not arrive, and an agent asked about it will reason from stale numbers without flagging their age.
Include the feed in whatever checking pattern you use for recurring work. See Set up a lead agent and delegation pattern.
Verified against Buzz v0.5.20 · Updated 2 Sep 2026