How to add Confluence to Dropbox Dash

Updated May 09, 2025
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This article describes a feature available to all Dropbox Dash customers.

You can add your organization’s Atlassian Confluence account to Dropbox Dash so you can access and search across your pages, spaces, and blogs by title and metadata directly within Dash. You can also find answers to questions about your content and use Dash Assist to chat and create new content for spaces, pages, and blogs.
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Note: Dash can only support Confluence accounts with a single site. If you have multiple Confluence sites, Dash won’t correctly ingest your Confluence data.

Overview of setup

Step 1: Create an admin service account with an Org Admin role in Confluence.

Step 2: Add Confluence to Dash using one of the two supported authentication methods. Learn how to select the right method for your team.

  • API key method
  • OAuth method

How to create an admin service account in Confluence

To add Confluence to Dash, a Confluence admin must authenticate and authorize a company-level integration between Confluence and Dash. For better security and to prevent issues with the Confluence and Dash integration (like if an admin leaves), it's recommended to create a non-human admin service account in Confluence for this integration.

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Notes:

  • The recommended service account name is “svc-dropboxdash-atlassian-confluence”. 
  • Before creating a Confluence account for the service account used with Dash, make sure there’s an email address for “svc-dropboxdash-atlassian-confluence,” like “svc-dropboxdash-atlassian-confluence@company_domain_name.com.” This email will be used to log in and receive messages to complete the Dropbox account setup.
  • Learn more about service account naming conventions and recommendations.

To create an admin service account in Confluence, you’ll need to:

  1. Invite a service account to Confluence.
    • Complete this step if your service account isn't automatically added to your Confluence site. If it is added automatically, proceed to step 2.
  2. Add the Org Admin role to the service account.

How to invite a service account to Confluence

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Notes:

  1. Log in to Atlassian Administration with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Directory.
  3. Click Invite users.
  4. Enter the email address for the service account user in the Invite by email address… field.
  5. Select the product access: Confluence Software
  6. Click Invite users
    • You’ll be returned to the Atlassian admin page for Users and should see “svc-dropboxdash-atlassian-confluence” as an invited user.
  7. Open the email account for the user “svc-dropboxdash-atlassian-confluence” and locate the invitation to Confluence.
  8. Click Accept Invite.
  9. In the pop-up window, enter “svc-dropboxdash-atlassian-confluence” in the Full name field.
  10. Enter a new password in the Password field.
    • Note the password somewhere safe, such as your password management vault.
  11. Click Continue.
  12. You'll be asked to select a role that best describes your team's work. Select an option appropriate from the dropdown menu, then click Finish.
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Note: The service account's access and control scope should be limited to Confluence. If you have multiple Atlassian products, you'll need to set the Product roles for those that aren't Confluence specific to None.‍

How to add the org admin role to the service account

  1. Log in to Atlassian Administration with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Directory > Users.
  3. Find the service account, then click their avatar or Show details.
  4. Click More actions () at the top of the page, then select Assign org admin role.
  5. Click Assign role to confirm.

Once you’ve set up your service account, you’ll need to choose which authentication method you’d like to use to add Confluence to Dash.

How to select the correct authentication method

Method 1: API key method

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Note: API keys live for one year by default. You may need to renew them and re-establish the Dash connection after that period. 

To use this authentication method, create an API key and an Org API key:

Scope

Purpose

Documentation

read:classification-levels:admin

Read classification levels

Get all classification levels by orgId, Get a classification level

read:domains:admin

Read domains

Domains APIs

read:policies:admin

Read policies

Get single policy, Get list of policies, Validate a policy

read:tokens:admin

Read API keys and tokens

Get all API tokens in an org, Get API token count in an org, Get API key count in an org, Get all API keys in an org

Add Confluence to Dash 

  1. Log in to dash.ai using your admin credentials.
  2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the lower left.
  3. Select Admin console.
  4. Click Dash in the left sidebar.
  5. Click Apps.
  6. Click the More apps tab.
  7. Click addAdd to the right of Confluence.
  8. Select API Key.
  9. Enter the subdomain:
  10. Enter the API key generated in the section above
  11. Enter the email address of the service account you created in the previous section.
  12. Enter the org API key generated in the previous section.
  13. Click Next.
  14. Click Done
  15. Click the Your apps tab.

 

You should now see Confluence. 

Method 2: OAuth method

Notes

  • To set up Confluence using OAuth, you’ll need to set the default email visibility in your settings to public. Learn more about configuring your email address privacy and why it’s safe. This is a requirement for installed apps (like Dash) to access permissioning data. 
  • The permissions on ingested data may not be complete with the OAuth method if default email visibility isn’t set to public or if individual users override email visibility settings on their Atlassian account. 
  • If you choose to add Confluence to Dash using the OAuth method, you’ll need to grant the following API permissions:
    • Access and sync Confluence content, even when you're not online: This permission is needed to ingest and keep Confluence page content up to date, including when you’re not actively logged in.
    • Search and preview Confluence content: This permission enables search functionality and shows previews, summaries, and metadata (like last updated info) in results.
    • Display space and page-level metadata: This permission is used to show which space a page belongs to and related space-level info.
    • Respect user and group permissions: These permissions ensure only users with the right access can view certain content, based on their identity and group membership.
    • Track permission changes to keep results accurate: This permission allows Dash to detect when content access changes, so outdated content is removed from search.
    • Access tasks and custom properties in Confluence: This permission ingests Confluence-specific elements like tasks or page-level properties your organization may be using.

Add Confluence to Dash 

  1. Log in to dash.ai using your admin credentials.
  2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the lower left.
  3. Select Admin console.
  4. Click Dash in the left sidebar.
  5. Click Apps.
  6. Click the More apps tab.
  7. Click addAdd to the right of Confluence.
  8. Select OAuth, then click Start.
  9. Click Next.
  10. Complete the Atlassian login steps with your svc-dropboxdash-confluence service account, then click Accept
    • Note: If you require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for accounts in your environment, you may be prompted for additional authentication associated with the service account.
  11. Click Done.
  12. Click the Your apps tab.
You should now see Confluence.
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