---
title: Plain overview & authentication
sidebarTitle: Overview & authentication
---

## Overview

Plain is the customer support tool for technical teams and products.
It aims to bring engineering and customer service teams together by creating a modern opinionated platform that's fantastic to build with.

## Installing the Plain packages

<CodeGroup>

```bash npm
npm install @trigger.dev/plain@latest
```

```bash pnpm
pnpm install @trigger.dev/plain@latest
```

```bash yarn
yarn add @trigger.dev/plain@latest
```

</CodeGroup>

## Authentication

Plain supports API Keys, to create yours read the [Plain authentication guide](https://www.plain.com/docs/graphql-api/authentication).

```ts
import { Plain } from "@trigger.dev/plain";

export const plain = new Plain({
  id: "plain",
  apiKey: process.env.PLAIN_API_KEY!,
});
```

## Tasks

Once you have set up a Plain client, you can use it to create tasks.

<CardGroup>
  <Card title="Tasks" icon="sparkles" href="/integrations/apis/plain-tasks">
    Perform tasks such as creating/updating customers and adding timeline entries.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Example jobs

<Card title="Code examples" icon="code" href="https://trigger.dev/apis/plain">
  Check out pre-built jobs using Plain in our API section.
</Card>