Requires the conversations command group from hub-cli PR #251. hubspot conversations --help is authoritative. Archive uses the dry-run/digest/confirm guard pattern — follow it exactly.
Paging: never triage from a --format jsonl redirect
Every conversations list command defaults to --limit 100 and returns a cursor for the next page. --format jsonl prints only the data rows — the cursor is surfaced only by --format json, at .meta.next. So threads list --format jsonl > file silently stops at 100 threads: on a busy inbox the operator sees a clean run while every thread past the first page is never assigned, never archived, and missing from the counts. Raising --limit does not fix it — the endpoint caps the page size.
Use this helper for every bulk or counting operation:
# conv_page <output-file> <conversations list args...>
# Pages a conversations list endpoint to exhaustion, writing one JSON object
# per line to <output-file>.
conv_page() {
out=$1; shift
after=""
: > "$out"
while :; do
if [ -n "$after" ]; then
page=$(hubspot "$@" --format json --after "$after") || return 1
else
page=$(hubspot "$@" --format json) || return 1
fi
printf '%s' "$page" | jq -c '.data[]' >> "$out"
after=$(printf '%s' "$page" | jq -r '.meta.next // empty')
[ -n "$after" ] || break
done
}
The bare --format jsonl calls in steps 2–4 are fine for eyeballing the first page interactively. Steps 6–8 mutate or count, so they page.
1. Discover inboxes
Inbox IDs are portal-specific. Always enumerate at the start of a session — never hardcode.
conv_page /tmp/inboxes.jsonl conversations inboxes list
# {"id":"123","name":"Support Inbox","createdAt":"...","updatedAt":"..."}
# {"id":"124","name":"Sales Chat","createdAt":"...","updatedAt":"..."}
To see channels inside an inbox (email, live chat, form, etc.):
conv_page /tmp/channels.jsonl conversations channels list --inbox-id 123
# {"id":"456","name":"Support Email","type":"EMAIL","inboxId":"123"}
2. List open threads
threads list requires --inbox-id. Filter client-side on .status for a focused view:
# all threads in an inbox
hubspot conversations threads list --inbox-id 123 --format jsonl
# only OPEN threads
hubspot conversations threads list --inbox-id 123 --format jsonl \
| jq -c 'select(.status == "OPEN")'
Output shape per row:
{"id":"111","status":"OPEN","createdAt":"2026-07-28T10:02:00Z","latestMessageTimestamp":"2026-07-30T14:22:00Z","assignedTo":"A-78901","inboxId":"123","originalChannelId":"456","originalChannelAccountId":"148662","associatedContactId":"73235","spam":false,"archived":false}
A thread has no channelType — it names its originating channel by id, in originalChannelId, which you join against channels list (step 8). subject is also not guaranteed; read it through a // "(no subject)" fallback.
3. Find unassigned threads
assignedTo is null or absent for unassigned threads:
hubspot conversations threads list --inbox-id 123 --format jsonl \
| jq -c 'select(.status == "OPEN") | select(.assignedTo == null or .assignedTo == "")'
4. Find stale threads (no reply within N hours)
latestMessageTimestamp is ISO 8601 and compares lexicographically.
# macOS: threads with no activity in 24 hours
CUTOFF=$(date -u -v-24H +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)
# Linux: CUTOFF=$(date -u -d '24 hours ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)
hubspot conversations threads list --inbox-id 123 --format jsonl \
| jq -c --arg cutoff "$CUTOFF" \
'select(.status == "OPEN") | select(.latestMessageTimestamp < $cutoff)'
For 48-hour and 72-hour variants change -v-24H to -v-48H / -v-72H.
5. Look up an actor ID
assign takes an actor ID. Get a team member's actor ID by their agent ID or email. HubSpot actor IDs use the A- prefix:
hubspot conversations actors get --id A-123456 --format jsonl
To map owner IDs to actor IDs, cross-reference hubspot owners list --format jsonl (returns .email and .id) and use the actor ID format A-<ownerId> as a starting point — verify with actors get that the ID resolves.
owners list needs a service key. Under an OAuth login it returns 403 This endpoint does not support user-level OAuth tokens, so set HUBSPOT_ACCESS_TOKEN to a service key before the owner-to-actor lookup. The conversations commands themselves work under either auth mode.
6. Assign a thread
hubspot conversations threads assign --id 111 --actor-id A-123456
# {"id":"111","ok":true}
Bulk assign (all unassigned open threads to one actor). Two things matter here: read the id list from a file, not a pipe — a pipeline-fed while runs in a subshell, so counters and failure lists are discarded when it ends — and report a non-zero status at the end, so a partial run is never mistaken for a complete one.
ACTOR=A-123456
conv_page /tmp/threads.jsonl conversations threads list --inbox-id 123
jq -r 'select(.status == "OPEN")
| select(.assignedTo == null or .assignedTo == "")
| .id' /tmp/threads.jsonl > /tmp/assign_ids.txt
assign_threads() {
actor=$1; ids=$2
assigned=0
: > /tmp/assign_failed.txt
while read -r tid; do
if out=$(hubspot conversations threads assign --id "$tid" --actor-id "$actor" 2>&1); then
assigned=$((assigned + 1))
else
printf '%s\t%s\n' "$tid" "$out" >> /tmp/assign_failed.txt
fi
done < "$ids"
failed=$(wc -l < /tmp/assign_failed.txt)
echo "Assigned $assigned of $(wc -l < "$ids"); $failed failed"
[ "$failed" -eq 0 ] || { echo "Failures:"; cat /tmp/assign_failed.txt; return 1; }
}
assign_threads "$ACTOR" /tmp/assign_ids.txt
7. Archive resolved threads
Archive is guarded: run --dry-run first to get a digest, then re-run with --digest and --confirm (value = thread ID).
# Single thread — two steps
hubspot conversations threads archive --id 111 --dry-run
# {"id":"111","digest":"blast-29cfdd48b583","ok":true,"executed":false,"dry_run":true}
hubspot conversations threads archive --id 111 --digest blast-29cfdd48b583 --confirm 111
# {"id":"111","ok":true}
Bulk archive — preview, then execute
Bulk archive runs as two separate phases with a human decision between them. Do not collapse them into one loop that dry-runs and archives each thread in turn: that starts destroying threads before anyone has seen the full candidate set, and there is no point at which the operation can be declined as a whole.
Phase 1 — preview. Read-only; nothing is mutated.
INBOX=123
conv_page /tmp/threads.jsonl conversations threads list --inbox-id "$INBOX"
jq -c 'select(.status == "CLOSED")
| {id, last_activity: .latestMessageTimestamp, assigned_to: .assignedTo}' \
/tmp/threads.jsonl > /tmp/archive_candidates.jsonl
echo "Candidates for archive: $(wc -l < /tmp/archive_candidates.jsonl)"
jq -r '"\(.id) \(.last_activity // "?") \(.assigned_to // "unassigned")"' \
/tmp/archive_candidates.jsonl
Stop here and get the candidate list approved. Re-run phase 1 as often as you like; it changes nothing.
Persist candidate ids, not digests. A digest is only valid for 5 minutes (
DIGEST_TTL_SECONDSinsrc/hub/guard.rs), so digests minted during preview would come backdigest_expiredafter any realistic review pause. Phase 2 therefore mints each digest immediately before it uses it.
Phase 2 — execute. Only after the list above is approved.
jq -r '.id' /tmp/archive_candidates.jsonl > /tmp/archive_ids.txt
archive_threads() {
ids=$1
archived=0
: > /tmp/archive_failed.txt
while read -r tid; do
preview=$(hubspot conversations threads archive --id "$tid" --dry-run 2>&1)
digest=$(printf '%s' "$preview" | jq -r '.digest // empty' 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$digest" ]; then
printf '%s\tdry-run\t%s\n' "$tid" "$preview" >> /tmp/archive_failed.txt
continue
fi
if out=$(hubspot conversations threads archive --id "$tid" --digest "$digest" --confirm "$tid" 2>&1); then
archived=$((archived + 1))
else
printf '%s\tarchive\t%s\n' "$tid" "$out" >> /tmp/archive_failed.txt
fi
done < "$ids"
failed=$(wc -l < /tmp/archive_failed.txt)
echo "Archived $archived of $(wc -l < "$ids"); $failed failed"
[ "$failed" -eq 0 ] || { echo "Failures (id / phase / error):"; cat /tmp/archive_failed.txt; return 1; }
}
archive_threads /tmp/archive_ids.txt
A failing thread is recorded and the run continues, but the function returns non-zero and prints every failure, so a partially drained inbox is never reported as a clean run. Re-running phase 2 on the same id file is safe — already-archived threads simply fail and are listed.
To undo, use restore:
hubspot conversations threads restore --id 111
8. Produce a triage summary
Count threads by status across an inbox:
echo "=== Inbox 123 triage summary ==="
conv_page /tmp/threads.jsonl conversations threads list --inbox-id 123
echo "Total threads: $(wc -l < /tmp/threads.jsonl)"
echo "Open: $(jq -c 'select(.status=="OPEN")' /tmp/threads.jsonl | wc -l)"
echo "Closed: $(jq -c 'select(.status=="CLOSED")' /tmp/threads.jsonl | wc -l)"
echo "Unassigned (open): $(jq -c 'select(.status=="OPEN") | select(.assignedTo==null or .assignedTo=="")' /tmp/threads.jsonl | wc -l)"
# Breakdown by channel type. Threads carry originalChannelId, not a type name,
# so build a channelId -> type map from `channels list` and join on it.
conv_page /tmp/channels.jsonl conversations channels list --inbox-id 123
CHANNEL_TYPES=$(jq -s 'map({key: (.id|tostring), value: .type}) | from_entries' /tmp/channels.jsonl)
echo ""
echo "=== By channel type ==="
jq -r --argjson types "$CHANNEL_TYPES" \
'$types[(.originalChannelId | tostring)] // "UNKNOWN"' /tmp/threads.jsonl \
| sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
For a multi-inbox summary, loop over all inbox IDs from step 1 and aggregate.
Known constraints
threads listrequires--inbox-id— there is no portal-wide thread listing.- No server-side filter on
statusorassignedTo— filter client-side withjq. - Every
listcommand pages at 100 rows and only--format jsonexposes the cursor (.meta.next). Bulk and counting steps must useconv_page; a bare--format jsonlredirect silently truncates and makes a partial run look complete. - Threads carry no
channelType— joinoriginalChannelIdagainstchannels listfor a type. A thread can switch channels mid-conversation, so this describes where it started. - Bulk archive cannot be collapsed into a single pipe through
--digest/--confirm; each thread must be archived individually with its own two-step flow, and the candidate set must be previewed and approved before any of it executes. - Digests expire 5 minutes after the
--dry-runthat minted them, so they cannot be collected up front and applied later — mint each one immediately before use. - Drive bulk loops from a file rather than a pipe: a pipeline-fed
whilebody runs in a subshell, so failure counts collected inside it are lost when the loop exits. actors getlooks up a single actor by ID; there is no actors list command. Start fromhubspot owners listfor owner-to-actor mapping.