Sources
A source is any place Kinn reads from. Sources are the input to everything Kinn does — when you ask a question, the answer is built only from the sources you've connected. Without at least one, there's nothing to query.
How sources connect
Sources come in two broad shapes, depending on whether you're pointing Kinn at a space you control or at public content anyone can see.
Spaces you own or control. For these you grant Kinn access and then choose the slice it can see — a Discord server (where you pick the channels), your Jira projects, or your GitHub repositories. Kinn only ever sees what you've explicitly connected.
Public content you point Kinn at. For these there's nothing to own — you just tell Kinn what to follow: subreddits on Reddit, channels or playlists on YouTube, or creator profiles and individual video URLs on TikTok and Instagram. Some ask you to authorize read-only access first; others need no account connection at all.
Either way the principle is the same: you decide exactly what Kinn watches, and it watches nothing else.
Reading vs. writing
Most sources are read-only — Kinn ingests what's there and never changes it. A few are two-way: on top of reading, Kinn can write back. Jira is the clearest example — Kinn can create and update issues in the projects you connect, which is how a bug surfaced in your community becomes a tracked ticket.
Two-way sources can make changes in the connected system. They're always scoped to what you've connected (for example, specific Jira projects), and each integration's page spells out exactly what it can and can't do.
At a glance
| Source | How you connect it | You scope it to | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discord | Authorize a bot in your server | Channels | Read-only |
| Authorize read-only access | Subreddits | Read-only | |
| YouTube | Authorize read-only access | Channels, playlists, videos | Read-only |
| TikTok | No account needed | Profiles, video URLs | Read-only |
| No account needed | Profiles, post URLs | Read-only | |
| Steam | No account needed | Games (store page / App ID) | Read-only |
| App Store (iOS) | By store listing (+ optional API key) | Apps (App ID) | Read-only |
| Google Play | By store listing | Apps (package name) | Read-only |
| Jira | Authorize via Atlassian | Selected projects | Two-way |
| GitHub | Install the GitHub App | Selected repositories | Read-only |
See Integrations for setup on each.
How syncing works
When you first connect a source, Kinn pulls in a window of recent history so you have something to query right away. After that, it keeps up with new activity in the background.
How far back the initial sync reaches, and how quickly new activity shows up, varies by source — each integration page notes the specifics.
Why connect more than one
Kinn's answers are only as complete as the sources behind them. Connecting more sources doesn't just add volume — it lets Kinn connect signal across them. A bug that shows up in your Discord, your subreddit, and your GitHub issues at once is a very different priority than one mentioned in a single stray comment, and Kinn can only see that pattern if all three are connected.
A common shape for a setup:
- A community source or two (Discord, Reddit, Steam) for what people are saying
- A social source (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram) if creators or video are part of your story
- A tracker (Jira, GitHub) to tie what you learn back to your backlog
Managing sources
You can add, pause, or remove sources at any time, and adjust what each one is scoped to. Removing a source stops Kinn from reading it going forward.
See Integrations for per-source setup.