Replying to Tickets and Updating Help Center Articles with the MCP Server

With write access, the Swifteq MCP Server lets your AI assistant update tickets and create or update Help Center articles. This article explains what happens in Zendesk when it does, and what to watch out for.

Before the AI assistant can make changes, Write Helpdesk Data must be authorized and the write permissions must allow it. Refer to Write Permissions for the MCP Server.

In this Article
Updating Tickets
Creating Tickets
Internal Notes and Public Replies
Attaching Files and Images
Applying Macros
Creating and Updating Articles
Categories, Sections and Images
Adding People to Organizations
Changing Macros
Merging Duplicate Tickets
What Cannot be Undone

Updating Tickets

The AI assistant can change a ticket's status, priority, type, subject, assignee, group, organization and custom fields, and add comments.

• Tags are only added or removed individually. Existing tags are never overwritten.
• CCs: the AI assistant can add people to a ticket's CCs or remove them, and the existing CCs are kept. CC'd people receive the ticket's public replies by email, so adding CCs needs Allow public ticket replies. CCs cannot be changed in the same request as an internal note, because Zendesk ignores them there.
• Custom statuses: if your account uses custom ticket statuses, the AI assistant can set the exact status by name.
• Problem and incident tickets: the AI assistant can link a ticket to a problem ticket as an incident, one ticket at a time, and unlink it again. A ticket that is not an incident yet becomes one. Solving a problem ticket also solves all its open incidents, adds the same comment to each and runs your triggers for each one, so a public comment can be emailed to every requester. Your AI assistant has to confirm this separately, so it tells you how many incidents will be solved before it goes ahead.
• Attribution: changes are shown in Zendesk as made by the Zendesk user behind the connection. For people on their own Zendesk login, that is themselves. Refer to Inviting Team Members to the MCP Server.

Creating Tickets

The AI assistant can create a new ticket with a subject and a first comment, and set the same fields as when updating a ticket, plus the brand and ticket form.

• Requester: the ticket can be for someone already in Zendesk, found by name or email address. Without a requester, it is an internal ticket from you. For an email address that is not in Zendesk yet, Zendesk adds the person as a new end user, so this needs Allow changes to users and organizations. When it is off, no ticket is created.
• First comment: a private internal note unless you ask for a public one. A public first comment is visible to the requester and needs Allow public ticket replies. When it is off, no ticket is created, and it is not created with a private note instead. The first comment is shown as written by the Zendesk user behind the connection, not by the requester.
• Files: the first comment can have files attached and images placed in it. Refer to Attaching Files and Images.
• CCs: the AI assistant can CC people on a new ticket that starts with a public comment. CCs are not allowed on a ticket that starts with an internal note, because Zendesk ignores them there. A CC email address that is not in Zendesk yet needs Allow changes to users and organizations. CCs also need to be turned on in your Zendesk ticket settings.
• Notifications: your Zendesk triggers run as for any new ticket and may email the requester, the CCs or others. The AI assistant tells you when Zendesk sent an email as the ticket was created, and which trigger sent it.
• Organization: a ticket can only be filed under an organization its requester belongs to. If you ask for another one, Zendesk uses the requester's default organization instead, and the AI assistant tells you.
• Asking twice: if the same request is made again within two hours, for example after a timeout, the AI assistant gets the ticket it already created instead of a duplicate.

Internal Notes and Public Replies

Zendesk does not have draft ticket comments, so the recommended way to use the AI assistant for replies is:

1. Ask the AI assistant to add its proposed reply as an internal note.
2. An agent reviews the note in Zendesk, edits it if needed and sends it to the customer.

Public replies, which customers can see, are only possible when Allow public ticket replies is on for the account, has not been turned off for you by your account owner, and is on in your own Me column.

Attaching Files and Images

The AI assistant can attach files to a public reply, an internal note or the first comment of a new ticket, and place images inside the text, for example a screenshot between two steps. Each comment can have up to 10 files, each up to 20 MB or your Zendesk account's attachment limit if lower, of the file types your Zendesk account allows.

• Files already in Zendesk: the AI assistant can attach a file from any ticket it can read, for example a document a customer sent on another ticket. The MCP Server copies the file within Zendesk, so this works in every AI assistant.
• Files on your computer: the AI assistant gets a short-lived upload link and uploads the file to it. This needs an AI assistant that can run commands, such as Claude Code. In Claude on the web and in the Claude desktop app, it can only work when code execution is turned on and allowed to reach mcp.swifteq.com, which an admin sets in Claude's settings.
• Images in the text: a placed image appears inside the reply, and in the email the customer receives, instead of in the list of attachments.
• Permissions: files follow their comment. An internal note with files needs the same permissions as any internal note, and a public reply with files needs Allow public ticket replies. A refused public reply is not posted, with or without its files.
• Privacy: files pass through the MCP Server on their way to Zendesk and are not stored.

Applying Macros

The AI assistant can apply a macro to a ticket the way an agent does in Zendesk. Ask it to preview the macro first: it shows what will change and the reply as the customer will get it.

• Reply: placeholders such as {{ticket.requester.first_name}} and dynamic content are filled in for the ticket, in the requester's language. You can ask for the text to be edited for this ticket only. The macro itself does not change.
• Internal note or public reply: the reply is added as an internal note unless the macro is set to reply publicly, or you ask for a public reply. A public reply needs Allow public ticket replies. You can always ask for a macro to be applied as an internal note.
• Fields and files: the macro's changes to status, tags, group, assignee and other fields are made, and its files are attached. If a file cannot be attached, nothing is sent.
• Signature and assignee: placeholders such as {{current_user.name}} are filled in for the Zendesk user behind the connection, using their agent alias if they have one, and a macro that assigns the ticket to the current user assigns it to them. On a shared connection, that is the person who connected the account, and the AI assistant tells you so.
• Applying twice: if the same macro was applied to the ticket in the last 10 minutes, nothing is sent again unless you ask.
• Usage: the macro is recorded on the ticket as in Zendesk, so its usage counts include it.

Creating and Updating Articles

• New articles and article updates are saved as drafts by default.
• Publishing directly is only possible when Allow publishing Help Center articles is on for the account, has not been turned off for you by your account owner, and is on in your own Me column. When it is off, a request to publish is refused and nothing is saved, so ask for a draft instead.
• The AI assistant can update translations in any language, and creates the translation if it does not exist yet.

Categories, Sections and Images

• The AI assistant can create categories and sections, rename them and change their order. Categories and sections do not have a draft state, but Help Center themes usually hide them until they contain a published article.
• Creating categories requires the connected Zendesk user to be a Help Center manager.
• The AI assistant can upload images, such as screenshots, and place them in articles.

Adding People to Organizations

When Allow changes to users and organizations is on, the AI assistant can add a person to an organization. This helps when a ticket is under the wrong organization: Zendesk only lets you set a ticket's organization to one its requester belongs to, so the AI assistant adds the requester to the right organization first, then updates the ticket.

• Shared tickets: if the organization shares its tickets, an end user added to it can see all of that organization's tickets in the Help Center.
• Default organization: when the organization becomes the person's default organization, Zendesk moves their open tickets into it in the background, and those tickets take on the organization's tags, which can fire triggers. The AI assistant tells you when this applies.
• One organization per user: if your Zendesk account allows each user only one organization, the AI assistant moves someone out of their current organization only when you ask it to.

Changing Macros

When Allow changes to macros is on, the AI assistant can create macros, change their wording, actions, title or who can use them, and deactivate or reactivate them.

• Shared macros: a change to a macro used by every agent, or by a group, changes what those agents send from that moment. Replies already sent are not affected.
• Every change is shown: the AI assistant returns each change with its old and new value, so it can be changed back.
• Removing a macro: macros are deactivated, not deleted. Agents no longer see a deactivated macro, and it can be reactivated at any time. The AI assistant warns you when a macro you deactivate was used in the last 7 days.
• Zendesk permissions apply: changing a shared or group macro needs a Zendesk admin or a role allowed to manage macros. Agents can only change their own personal macros.

Merging Duplicate Tickets

When Allow merging tickets is on, the AI assistant can merge up to 5 duplicate tickets into one ticket, as an agent does in Zendesk.

• Finding duplicates: the AI assistant searches for tickets from the same requester created around the same time, compares their subjects and descriptions, and shows you the likely duplicates.
• It always asks first: before every merge, the AI assistant shows you which tickets go into which, with their subjects and requester, and waits for your yes.
• Same requester only: tickets from different requesters are never merged, whatever the settings say.
• Comments: each merged ticket gets a comment saying where it went, and the ticket you keep gets a comment naming each merged ticket and quoting its latest public message. Both are internal notes unless you ask for public replies, which also needs Allow public ticket replies. You can also ask for your own wording.
• What Zendesk changes: each merged ticket is closed, tagged closed_by_merge and assigned to the Zendesk user behind the connection. Files on a merged ticket are copied to the ticket you keep, and people CC'd on it become CCs there. Tags, fields and status are not carried over. The AI assistant tells you about these changes.

What Cannot be Undone

• Comments cannot be deleted in Zendesk once added, and public replies are sent to the customer.
• Attached files cannot be removed through the MCP Server. They can be redacted in Zendesk.
• Articles cannot be deleted through the MCP Server. Delete unwanted articles in Zendesk.
• Tickets cannot be deleted through the MCP Server, including tickets it created. Delete a ticket created by mistake in Zendesk. There is also no tool to mark tickets as spam.
• Merges cannot be undone. Zendesk has no way to unmerge tickets.
• Organization memberships cannot be removed through the MCP Server. Remove the person from the organization in Zendesk.
• Incidents solved with their problem ticket stay solved if the problem ticket is reopened. Reopen them in Zendesk if needed.
• Macros cannot be deleted through the MCP Server. A deactivated macro can be reactivated, and a change to a macro can be changed back. A reply sent by applying a macro is a comment like any other.

If you need help, please contact Swifteq support using the Live Chat or email support@swifteq.com.