Zendesk Support MCP Server

Create a powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Zendesk Support in minutes with our AI Gateway. This guide walks you through setting up seamless Zendesk integration with enterprise-grade security and instant OAuth authentication.

About Zendesk Support API

Zendesk is the leading customer service platform trusted by over 200,000 businesses worldwide. The Zendesk Support API provides comprehensive access to tickets, users, organizations, and helpdesk features:

• Ticket Management: Create, update, and resolve support tickets
• User & Organization: Manage customers, agents, and company profiles
• Knowledge Base: Access help center articles and community content
• Automation: Triggers, macros, views, and business rules
• SLA Management: Service level agreements and escalation policies
• Analytics: Satisfaction ratings, reporting, and insights
• Omnichannel: Email, chat, voice, social media integration
• Custom Fields: Flexible data capture and ticket routing

Key Features

• REST API v2: Comprehensive RESTful interface
• Real-time Updates: Webhooks and live data
• Rate Limiting: 400 requests per minute (varies by plan)
• Bulk Operations: Process multiple tickets efficiently
• Side-loading: Reduce API calls with related data
• Incremental Export: Track changes over time
• Custom Apps: Extend functionality with apps
• Multiple Brands: Multi-brand support architecture

What You Can Do with Zendesk Support MCP Server

The MCP server transforms Zendesk's API into a natural language interface, enabling AI agents to:

Ticket Management

• Smart Ticket Operations

  • "Create a high-priority ticket for the server outage"
  • "Find all unresolved tickets older than 48 hours"
  • "Assign all billing tickets to the finance team"
  • "Merge duplicate tickets about the same issue"

• Bulk Ticket Processing

  • "Update all pending tickets with a status message"
  • "Close all resolved tickets with satisfaction survey"
  • "Escalate tickets breaching SLA to managers"
  • "Tag all feature requests for product team review"

• Ticket Intelligence

  • "Show me tickets with negative sentiment"
  • "Find tickets waiting for customer response"
  • "List tickets about login issues from today"
  • "Identify tickets that need follow-up"

Customer Management

• User Operations

  • "Find all VIP customers with open tickets"
  • "Update customer organization for enterprise clients"
  • "Tag frequent requesters for priority support"
  • "Merge duplicate customer profiles"

• Organization Tracking

  • "List all tickets from Acme Corporation"
  • "Show organizations with expired contracts"
  • "Track support volume by company size"
  • "Identify organizations needing success calls"

• Agent Management

  • "Show agent workload distribution"
  • "Find available agents for live chat"
  • "Track agent performance metrics"
  • "Balance ticket assignments across team"

Automation & Workflows

• Smart Routing

  • "Route technical tickets to engineering team"
  • "Assign VIP tickets to senior agents"
  • "Distribute tickets based on expertise"
  • "Escalate based on customer tier"

• Auto-Responses

  • "Send acknowledgment for new tickets"
  • "Reply with relevant KB articles"
  • "Follow up on waiting tickets"
  • "Send satisfaction surveys after resolution"

• Trigger Management

  • "Create alerts for urgent keywords"
  • "Auto-tag tickets by content"
  • "Set priority based on customer type"
  • "Notify managers of escalations"

Analytics & Reporting

• Performance Metrics

  • "Generate weekly support team report"
  • "Show average resolution time by category"
  • "Track first response time trends"
  • "Analyze ticket volume patterns"

• Customer Insights

  • "Show satisfaction scores by agent"
  • "Find common issues this month"
  • "Track repeat ticket creators"
  • "Analyze sentiment trends"

• SLA Monitoring

  • "List tickets approaching SLA breach"
  • "Show SLA performance by priority"
  • "Track escalation patterns"
  • "Generate compliance reports"

Communication Enhancement

• Multi-channel Support

  • "Merge email and chat conversations"
  • "Convert social media posts to tickets"
  • "Track customer journey across channels"
  • "Unify communication history"

• Proactive Support

  • "Identify customers needing outreach"
  • "Send updates about known issues"
  • "Notify about maintenance windows"
  • "Follow up after product updates"

• Knowledge Management

  • "Link tickets to KB articles"
  • "Create articles from resolved tickets"
  • "Update outdated documentation"
  • "Track article effectiveness"

System Integration

• Cross-Platform Sync

  • "Create Jira issues from bug tickets"
  • "Update CRM with support interactions"
  • "Sync customer data with billing system"
  • "Log tickets in project management tools"

• AI-Enhanced Features

  • "Categorize tickets automatically"
  • "Suggest responses based on history"
  • "Predict ticket priority and routing"
  • "Extract key information from messages"

Prerequisites

• Access to Cequence AI Gateway
• Zendesk Support account (any plan with API access)
• Administrator or API token access
• Subdomain for your Zendesk instance

Step 1: Create Zendesk OAuth App

Before setting up the MCP server, you need to create an OAuth application in Zendesk.

1.1 Access Zendesk Admin Center

1. Log in to your Zendesk Support account
2. Navigate to Admin Center (gear icon Admin Center)
3. Go to Apps and integrations APIs Zendesk APIs

1.2 Enable OAuth Access

1. In the OAuth Clients section, click Add OAuth Client

2. Fill in the client details:

   • Client Name: "AI Gateway MCP Integration"
   • Company: Your organization name
   • Redirect URLs:

     https://auth.aigateway.cequence.ai/v1/outbound/oauth/callback

3. Save the client

1.3 Get OAuth Credentials

After creating the client:

1. Note down the Client ID (Unique Identifier)
2. Generate and copy the Client Secret
3. Save these credentials securely

1.4 Configure API Token (Alternative)

For simpler authentication:

1. Go to Apps and integrations APIs Zendesk APIs
2. Enable Token Access
3. Click Add API token
4. Copy the generated token

Step 2: Access AI Gateway Apps

1. Log in to your Cequence AI Gateway dashboard
2. Navigate to Apps in the left sidebar
3. You'll see the list of available third-party applications

Step 3: Find and Select Zendesk Support API

1. In the Apps section, browse through the Third-party category
2. Look for Zendesk Support or use the search function
3. Click on the Zendesk Support API card to view details

The Zendesk Support API card shows:

• Number of available endpoints
• Integration capabilities
• Quick description of functionality

Step 4: Create MCP Server

1. Click the Create MCP Server button on the Zendesk Support API card
2. You'll be redirected to the MCP Server creation wizard

Step 5: Configure API Endpoints

In the App Configuration step:

1. Base URL format: https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2
2. Select API endpoints to expose to your MCP server based on your needs
3. Click Next to proceed

Step 6: MCP Server Basic Setup

Configure your MCP server details:

1. MCP Server Name: Enter a descriptive name

   • Example: "Zendesk Support Automation"
   • This name will identify your server in the dashboard

2. Description (Optional): Add details about the server's purpose

   • Example: "Automated ticket management and customer support operations"

3. Production Mode: Toggle based on your needs

   • ON for production environments
   • OFF for development/testing

4. Click Next to continue

Step 7: Configure Authentication

This is where you'll use your Zendesk OAuth credentials:

1. Authentication Type: Select OAuth 2.0

2. Fill in the OAuth configuration:

   • Authorization URL:

     https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/oauth/authorizations/new

   • Token URL:

     https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/oauth/tokens

   • Client ID: Paste from Zendesk OAuth client
   • Client Secret: Paste from Zendesk OAuth client
   • Redirect URI:

     https://auth.aigateway.cequence.ai/v1/outbound/oauth/callback

3. Scopes: Select from the available Zendesk scopes (see next section)

Available Zendesk OAuth Scopes

Configure the appropriate scopes based on your application needs:

Core Access

• read

  • Read access to all resources
  • View tickets, users, organizations
  • Access help center content
  • See all configurations

• write

  • Create and update resources
  • Manage tickets and users
  • Modify configurations
  • Full write capabilities

Ticket Operations

• tickets:read

  • View all tickets
  • Access ticket fields and comments
  • See ticket history
  • Read satisfaction ratings

• tickets:write

  • Create new tickets
  • Update ticket properties
  • Add comments and attachments
  • Change ticket status

User Management

• users:read

  • View user profiles
  • Access user fields
  • See user organizations
  • Read user identities

• users:write

  • Create and update users
  • Manage user roles
  • Update user fields
  • Handle user identities

Organization Access

• organizations:read

  • View organization data
  • Access organization fields
  • See organization members
  • Read organization tickets

• organizations:write

  • Create and update organizations
  • Manage organization fields
  • Update memberships
  • Modify organization data

Additional Scopes

• auditlogs:read

  • Access audit trail
  • View change history
  • Monitor user activities
  • Compliance tracking

• hc:read / hc:write

  • Help Center access
  • Manage articles
  • Community content
  • Knowledge base

• apps:read / apps:write

  • Manage Zendesk apps
  • App configurations
  • Custom integrations

Automation Scopes

• triggers:read / triggers:write

  • Manage triggers
  • Automation rules
  • Business logic

• automations:read / automations:write

  • Time-based automation
  • Scheduled actions
  • Workflow management

• targets:read / targets:write

  • Webhook targets
  • Email targets
  • Integration endpoints

• webhooks:read / webhooks:write

  • Webhook subscriptions
  • Real-time events
  • Event management

Recommended Scope Combinations

For Ticket Management:

read
write
tickets:read
tickets:write
users:read

For Full Support Operations:

read
write
tickets:read
tickets:write
users:read
users:write
organizations:read
organizations:write

For Automation & Integration:

read
write
triggers:read
triggers:write
automations:read
automations:write
webhooks:read
webhooks:write

Step 8: Configure Security

Set up API protection features:

1. API Protection: Toggle ON to enable

   • Protects against bot attacks, DDoS, and threats
   • Monitors for suspicious activity
   • Rate limiting and anomaly detection

2. Protection Features (when enabled):

   • Auto-scaling protection
   • Managed infrastructure
   • Built-in monitoring
   • Zero maintenance required

3. Click Next to continue

Step 9: Choose Deployment Method

Select your deployment preference:

Option A: Deploy to Cequence Cloud (Recommended)

• Fully managed deployment
• Automatic scaling and monitoring
• Built-in high availability
• Features included:
  • Auto-scaling
  • Managed infrastructure
  • Built-in monitoring
  • Zero maintenance

Option B: Deploy with Helm Chart

• Self-managed Kubernetes deployment
• Full control over infrastructure
• Requires:
  • Kubernetes cluster
  • Helm 3.x installed
  • Container registry access

Click Next after selecting your deployment method.

Step 10: Review and Deploy

Review your MCP server configuration:

• MCP Server Name: Your chosen name
• Base URL: https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2
• Selected Endpoints: Number of endpoints selected
• Authentication: OAuth 2.0 (Configured)
• API Protection: Enabled/Disabled
• Deployment: Cequence Cloud or Helm

Click Create & Deploy to finalize the setup.

Step 11: Post-Deployment Setup

After successful deployment:

1. Note the MCP Server URL provided

2. Test the OAuth flow:

   • Click "Test Connection"
   • You'll be redirected to Zendesk authorization
   • Approve the requested permissions
   • Confirm successful connection

3. Configure AI Agents:

   • The MCP server is now available for AI agent connections
   • Use the provided server URL in your AI agent configuration

Using Your Zendesk Support MCP Server

With Claude Desktop

1. Open Claude Desktop settings

2. Add your MCP server:

   {
     "servers": {
       "zendesk": {
         "url": "your-mcp-server-url",
         "auth": {
           "type": "oauth2",
           "client_id": "your-client-id"
         }
       }
     }
   }

3. Start using natural language commands:

   • "Show me all open tickets from VIP customers"
   • "Create a ticket for the reported bug in checkout"
   • "Find tickets that haven't been updated in 24 hours"
   • "Assign all billing tickets to the finance team"
   • "Generate a report of this week's ticket volume"

API Integration Example

// Initialize MCP client
const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
  serverUrl: 'your-mcp-server-url',
  auth: {
    type: 'oauth2',
    token: 'user-access-token'
  }
});

// Search tickets
const tickets = await mcpClient.zendesk.tickets.search({
  query: 'status:open priority:high created>24hours',
  sort_by: 'created_at',
  sort_order: 'desc'
});

// Create a ticket
const newTicket = await mcpClient.zendesk.tickets.create({
  ticket: {
    subject: 'Unable to access account',
    comment: {
      body: 'Customer reports login issues after password reset'
    },
    priority: 'high',
    tags: ['login', 'account-access'],
    custom_fields: [
      { id: 360000000000, value: 'web' }
    ]
  }
});

// Update multiple tickets
await mcpClient.zendesk.tickets.updateMany({
  tickets: [
    {
      id: 123,
      status: 'pending',
      assignee_id: 456
    },
    {
      id: 124,
      status: 'solved',
      tags: ['resolved', 'automated']
    }
  ]
});

// Add a comment
await mcpClient.zendesk.tickets.addComment({
  ticket_id: 123,
  comment: {
    body: 'We have identified the issue and are working on a fix.',
    public: true,
    attachments: ['token-from-upload']
  }
});

Common Use Cases

Customer Support Operations

• Ticket triage and routing
• SLA management
• Escalation workflows
• Response templates
• Customer satisfaction tracking

Help Desk Automation

• Auto-assignment rules
• Canned responses
• Ticket tagging
• Priority management
• Follow-up scheduling

Quality Assurance

• Response quality monitoring
• Agent performance tracking
• Customer feedback analysis
• Training identification
• Process improvement

Integration Workflows

• CRM synchronization
• Bug tracking integration
• Billing system updates
• Communication platform sync
• Analytics pipeline

Security Best Practices

1. OAuth Security:

   • Use minimum required scopes
   • Implement token rotation
   • Store credentials securely
   • Monitor token usage

2. API Rate Limits:

   • Respect Zendesk limits (400/min)
   • Implement request queuing
   • Use bulk endpoints
   • Cache frequently used data

3. Data Protection:

   • Filter sensitive information
   • Implement audit logging
   • Follow data retention policies
   • Encrypt data in transit

4. Access Control:

   • Use role-based permissions
   • Implement IP restrictions
   • Regular access reviews
   • Monitor unusual activity

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. 401 Authentication Error

   • Verify OAuth token validity
   • Check subdomain is correct
   • Ensure scopes are granted
   • Regenerate tokens if needed

2. 403 Forbidden

   • Check user permissions
   • Verify API access enabled
   • Ensure correct role assignment
   • Check plan limitations

3. 429 Rate Limit

   • Default: 400 requests/minute
   • Implement backoff strategy
   • Use bulk operations
   • Consider side-loading

4. 422 Validation Error

   • Check required fields
   • Validate custom field IDs
   • Verify data formats
   • Review business rules

Getting Help

• Documentation: AI Gateway Docs
• Support: support@cequence.ai
• Community: AI Gateway Forum
• Zendesk API Docs: developer.zendesk.com
• Zendesk Status: status.zendesk.com

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