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A connected Zendesk account gives your agents live access to your helpdesk, during a conversation or before and after it: identify the caller by phone number, read their open tickets, create or update tickets, and record what was discussed as a public comment or private note.

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Available tools

These tools appear in your agent’s function menu once the account is connected. See use integration tools in an agent for how to add and configure them. A typical support agent uses Search User at the start of the call to identify the caller by {{user_number}}, List User Requested Tickets to read their open tickets, and Create Ticket or Add Ticket Comment to record the outcome.
Pass the caller’s number as-is, for example {{user_number}}. Search User strips the country code and matches the remaining digits against any format Zendesk stores, so 10-digit and E.164 profiles both match.

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Required role

Every tool call runs as the account that signed in when connecting, under Zendesk’s read and write OAuth scopes; there are no per-tool scopes to grant. The account’s role sets what each tool can do:
  • Agent or admin — every tool works.
  • Light agent — the read tools work, and so does Create Ticket, including on behalf of an end user. Add Ticket Comment can add private notes but not public replies, and Update Ticket can change status or fields only on tickets the account itself requested. Because every light-agent comment is private, a ticket a light agent opens stays invisible to the requester until a full agent adds a public comment.
  • End user — can’t search users or work tickets through the API; reconnect with an agent or admin account.
If the role changes after connecting, the token’s permissions change with it. The connection isn’t flagged; the affected tools just start failing.

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Troubleshooting

The search strips the country code and matches the remaining digits against any stored format, so a format mismatch usually isn’t the cause. Check that the number is on the Zendesk user profile’s phone field at all, and that the search input is a real phone number rather than an extension or free text.

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FAQ

The Add Ticket Comment tool takes a public flag. When true, the requester sees the comment and gets Zendesk’s usual notifications; when false, it’s an internal note visible only to your team. Configure the flag as a fixed value on the tool, or let the agent decide from context.
By default, the account that signed in when connecting (see Prerequisites on using a dedicated integration account). The Create Ticket tool also takes an optional requester ID, so you can file the ticket as coming from the caller by passing the user ID a Search User call returned.
No. Zendesk tools read and write your helpdesk live. Nothing is copied into Retell, and there’s no background sync to configure.
Yes. Update Ticket can set the status, including solved. Have the agent confirm with the caller before closing anything.

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Next steps

Integration tools for prompt agents

Add Zendesk tools to a single- or multi-prompt agent and test them with live requests.

Integration tools in conversation flow

Call Zendesk tools from a function node and branch on the result.

Connect Zendesk

Set up the OAuth connection and what the signed-in account needs.

Dynamic variables

Pass the caller’s number into tools and reuse tool results later in the call.