How to Provision Helperbird with SDS, SFTP, or Clever

How Helperbird Provisioning Works

Helperbird is a browser extension. It does not require a separate login portal, student database, or manual account creation. There are two ways to activate Helperbird for your users, and both work seamlessly with existing school rostering systems.

Option 1: Managed Subscription Key

The simplest way to deploy Helperbird is by pushing your subscription key to all devices through your management platform.

Google Admin Console:

1. Open the Google Admin Console.
2. Go to Devices > Chrome > Apps & extensions.
3. Select the organizational unit (OU) for your students or staff.
4. Find Helperbird and open the Policy for extensions field.
5. Add your subscription key to the JSON policy:

{
	"subKey": {
		"Value": "YOUR-SUBSCRIPTION-KEY-HERE"
	},
	"isAdminControl": {
		"Value": true
	}
}

6. Click Save. The key syncs automatically to all Chromebooks in that OU.

Microsoft Intune:

1. Open the Microsoft Intune admin center.
2. Navigate to your browser extension management policies.
3. Push the Helperbird subscription key as a managed setting to your target devices or user groups.

In both cases, Helperbird picks up the subscription key from chrome.storage.managed on every page load. No student action is needed. The extension activates silently.

Option 2: Sign In with Google or Microsoft

Students can also activate Helperbird by signing in with their Google or Microsoft account directly within the extension.

1. The student opens Settings → Account in Helperbird.
2. In Chrome, they choose Continue with Google Account. In Edge, they choose Continue with Microsoft Account.
3. They allow access to their browser profile's email address. Helperbird checks it against the school's subscription.

In most school environments, the email the student is signed into their browser with is their school email. This means Helperbird automatically recognizes them as part of your organization and activates their license.

The school email must be covered by an active subscription. Signing into the device alone does not activate Helperbird; the student must complete the steps above. See the email login guide for supported browsers.

Rostering with SDS, SFTP, or Clever

If your school or district uses Microsoft School Data Sync (SDS), SFTP, or Clever for rostering, these systems feed into your identity provider (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365). Because Helperbird authenticates against those same identity providers, your existing rostering workflows apply automatically.

Here is how the flow works:

1. Your rostering system (SDS, SFTP, or Clever) syncs student and staff accounts to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
2. Students sign into their device with their school account.
3. Helperbird activates using either the managed subscription key (pushed via Google Admin or Intune) or by recognizing the signed-in school email.

There is no separate Helperbird roster to manage. When a student is added or removed in your rostering system, their access to Helperbird follows automatically because it is tied to their school account and device policy.

How It Works Together

The key point is that Helperbird does not require a separate user database. It integrates directly with the identity providers that your rostering systems already feed into.

Related Guides

• How to Deploy Helperbird to Your School or Business
• Installing Helperbird Through the Google Admin Console
• Helperbird Intune Deployment
• How to Set Helperbird JSON Policy in Google Admin
• How to Set Up a Child Organizational Unit for Helperbird
• Helperbird Unlimited License Management
• How to Assign Helperbird Accommodations to Students