# External Data Sources

Integrating external data sources into email templates allows for highly personalized and dynamic content, improving engagement and relevance. This guide will walk you through setting up external data sources and utilizing them in your email templates.

External data sources provide dynamic content to your email templates by pulling information from external APIs. This is useful for:

* Personalizing content based on an external feed
* Displaying real-time data like flight status from an API
* Customizing links by passing parameters and getting back final links through an external tool


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.bird.com/applications/content/external-data-sources.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
