Zendesk Support MCP server for AI agents

The Zendesk MCP Server provides AI assistants like Claude with seamless integration to Zendesk Support, enabling natural language interactions with your support ticket system. You can search, create, update, and manage Zendesk tickets through conversational AI without leaving your assistant interface.

Installation Options

Using NPM (Recommended)

npm install -g zd-mcp-server

Using NPX (No Installation)

npx zd-mcp-server

Configuration

Required Environment Variables

Set these environment variables in your system or MCP client configuration:

export ZENDESK_EMAIL="[email protected]"
export ZENDESK_TOKEN="your-zendesk-api-token"
export ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN="your-company"  # from https://your-company.zendesk.com

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

Location:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zendesk": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "zd-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ZENDESK_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "ZENDESK_TOKEN": "your-zendesk-api-token",
        "ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN": "your-company"
      }
    }
  }
}

If installed globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zendesk": {
      "command": "zd-mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "ZENDESK_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "ZENDESK_TOKEN": "your-zendesk-api-token",
        "ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN": "your-company"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor IDE Configuration

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zendesk": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "zd-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ZENDESK_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "ZENDESK_TOKEN": "your-zendesk-api-token",
        "ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN": "your-company"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Tool	Description	Example Usage
`zendesk_get_ticket`	Retrieve a ticket by ID	"Get ticket #12345"
`zendesk_get_ticket_details`	Get detailed ticket with comments	"Show me full details for ticket #67890"
`zendesk_search`	Search tickets with query syntax	"Find all urgent tickets from last week"
`zendesk_create_ticket`	Create a new ticket	"Create a high priority ticket for login issues"
`zendesk_update_ticket`	Update ticket properties	"Set ticket #555 to solved status"
`zendesk_add_private_note`	Add internal agent notes	"Add a private note about investigation progress"
`zendesk_add_public_note`	Add public customer comments	"Reply to customer with solution steps"
`zendesk_get_linked_incidents`	Get incident tickets linked to problems	"Show incidents related to this problem ticket"

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can use natural language with your AI assistant:

Ticket Management

"Show me all high priority tickets assigned to me"
"Create a new ticket: Customer can't access dashboard, priority urgent"
"Update ticket #12345 status to pending and add a note about waiting for customer response"

Search & Discovery

"Find all solved tickets from this week tagged with 'billing'"
"Search for open tickets containing 'password reset'"
"Show me tickets created by [email protected] in the last 30 days"

Customer Communication

"Add a public comment to ticket #789: 'We've identified the issue and working on a fix'"
"Add a private note: 'Customer confirmed the workaround is effective'"

Advanced Queries

"Find all problem tickets that have linked incidents"
"Show me escalated tickets that haven't been updated in 2 days"
"Get details for ticket #456 including all comments and history"

Authentication Setup

1. Generate API Token

Log in to your Zendesk account
Go to Admin Center → Apps and integrations → APIs → Zendesk API
Click Add API token
Add description: "MCP Server Integration"
Click Create and copy the token
Important: Save this token securely - you won't see it again

2. Find Your Subdomain

Your Zendesk URL format: https://YOUR-SUBDOMAIN.zendesk.com Use YOUR-SUBDOMAIN as the ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN value.

3. Required Permissions

Ensure your Zendesk user account has:

Agent role (minimum)
Ticket access permissions
API access enabled

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Authentication failed" errors

Verify your API token is correct and hasn't expired
Ensure your email address matches your Zendesk account
Check that your subdomain is spelled correctly (no .zendesk.com suffix)

"Permission denied" errors

Verify your Zendesk user has Agent permissions or higher
Ensure API access is enabled for your account
Check if your token has the required scopes

"Server not found" errors

Ensure you've installed the package: npm install -g zd-mcp-server
Try using npx instead: npx zd-mcp-server
Check that your MCP client configuration file syntax is correct

Debug Mode

Enable debug logging:

DEBUG=zd-mcp-server:* zd-mcp-server

Advanced Search Syntax

Zendesk search supports powerful query operators:

# Status-based searches
status:open status:pending status:solved

# Priority searches  
priority:urgent priority:high priority:normal priority:low

# Date-based searches
created>2024-01-01 updated<2024-01-31

# Tag searches
tags:billing tags:technical-issue

# Requester searches
requester:[email protected]

# Complex combinations
status:open priority:high created>2024-01-01 tags:billing

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "zendesk" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","zd-mcp-server"],"env":{"ZENDESK_EMAIL":"[email protected]","ZENDESK_TOKEN":"your-zendesk-api-token","ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN":"your-company"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "zendesk": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "zd-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ZENDESK_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
                "ZENDESK_TOKEN": "your-zendesk-api-token",
                "ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN": "your-company"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "zendesk": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "zd-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ZENDESK_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
                "ZENDESK_TOKEN": "your-zendesk-api-token",
                "ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN": "your-company"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect