Attio Integration: Your CRM on Every Call
Connect your Attio account to Backdrop. Look up the people, companies, deals, notes, and tasks your Attio user can see, live on calls, without changing them.
Walkthrough: connecting Attio, the authorization screen, asking Backdrop about Attio records, and disconnecting.
Backdrop is a sales engineering copilot that listens to your live calls and answers the technical and account questions that come up in them. With Attio connected, the deal context you keep in your CRM is on hand during the call: who the buyer is, where the deal stands, and what was said last time.
How it works
Backdrop connects to your Attio workspace through Attio's hosted MCP server, using OAuth. The connection is personal (it belongs to your user, not your workspace). Attio's authorization grants access to its MCP tools, which include both reads and writes. Backdrop limits its use to read and search tools, so it does not change your Attio data.
Once connected, Backdrop looks things up in Attio in two places:
- Live calls. When a call matches a meeting on your calendar, Backdrop looks up the matching person and company records, the deal, and the notes from previous conversations as the call starts, and keeps looking while the call runs. It uses that to brief you on the account and to ground its answers in what your team already knows.
- Ask Backdrop. Whenever you ask Backdrop a question, during a call or outside one, it searches Attio alongside your other connected sources and answers with what it finds, telling you which record the answer came from.
Backdrop reads on demand, as part of answering a question. It does not bulk-export or continuously sync your Attio workspace, and it never writes to it.
What Backdrop reads
Backdrop enables only the read and search tools behind these capabilities:
| What Backdrop reads | Why |
|---|---|
| people, companies, deals, and other records | Identify who is on the call and the account behind it, and read the deal's current state. |
| object and list attribute definitions | Interpret the attributes on those records, including custom ones, and label them correctly for you. |
| lists and list entries | Find where the account sits in your pipeline and other processes. |
| notes | Recall what was discussed and promised on previous calls. |
| comments and comment replies | Pick up the internal context your team has left on a record. |
| tasks | Surface the open follow-ups on the account. |
| meetings and call recordings | Match the live call to its Attio meeting and read the history of earlier calls. |
Backdrop never creates, edits, merges, or deletes anything in Attio, and it never registers webhooks. This restriction is enforced by the tools Backdrop enables, rather than a read-only OAuth grant.
Before you start
- A Backdrop account and the Backdrop desktop app. See installing Backdrop.
- Your Attio permissions apply. Records your user can't see in Attio stay hidden from Backdrop too.
- The connection is yours alone. Teammates and admins can't use it.
Connect Attio
In the Backdrop app, open Knowledge from the sidebar.
Find Attio, or type its name in Search integrations…, and click Connect on its card.
In the Personal row, click Connect. Your browser opens Attio's sign-in and authorization page. While you finish there, Backdrop shows Waiting… with a Cancel button.
Sign in to Attio, pick the workspace you want Backdrop to read, and click Confirm. Attio lists the standard permissions for its MCP server: run MCP tools, keep access offline, and read your identity. These permissions are broader than read-only access; Backdrop enables only read and search tools, so nothing in Attio is changed.
When the Attio card turns green and reads For you, you're connected.
You can also connect Attio while you set up Backdrop, in the Connect your tools step, or later from the Connect your own tools row of the setup checklist on the home screen.
Why Attio's approval screen may mention Nango
Backdrop uses Nango to store and refresh connection credentials securely, so
Attio's approval screen may name Nango, or api.nango.dev. That is expected.
Use it on a call
- Before the call, open the meeting in Backdrop. The brief includes the account's Attio context: the company, the people attending, the deal, and the notes and follow-ups from last time.
- During the call, ask Backdrop anything about the account, for example "what did we promise them about SSO?" or "what stage is this deal in, and who owns it?". Answers name the Attio record they came from.
- After the call, Backdrop's summary and the questions it flagged sit alongside the same account context, so you can write your CRM update from one place.
Disconnect Attio
- Open Knowledge and click Manage on the Attio card.
- In the Personal row, click Disconnect, then confirm.
Backdrop revokes the connection and stops reading Attio on your behalf. You can also revoke Backdrop's access from your Attio workspace settings. You can connect it again at any time.
Troubleshooting
- "Connection timed out, please try again": the Attio sign-in wasn't finished within two minutes. Click Connect and try again.
- "This integration is already connected. Disconnect it first.": Attio is already connected for you. Disconnect it, then connect again.
- The card says connected, but Backdrop can't find your records: your Attio access may have expired or been revoked. Disconnect Attio, then connect it again.
- Backdrop can't see a record you expect: check that your own Attio user can see it. Backdrop never sees more than you do.
Still stuck? Email support@getbackdrop.ai, or see the personal integrations overview.