Creating action flows to automate processes across Zendesk and external systems (EAP)

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An action flow is a user-defined automated workflow. Each action flow consists of an action flow trigger, which initiates the flow, and one or more steps. Action flows can run in response to their configured trigger or be initiated by agents using agent copilot auto assist.

For example, you might define an action flow that is triggered when a ticket's form changes from the standard Support form to the custom Incident ticket form. When this happens, the action flow changes the ticket's priority to urgent, creates a Jira issue, adds a link to the Jira issue to the ticket, and sends the relevant team a Slack message notifying them of the urgent Jira issue.

This article describes how to create an action flow.

This article contains the following topics:

• Anatomy of an action flow
• Creating an action flow
• Adding steps to action flows
• Providing inputs for steps

Related articles:

• Understanding external steps for action flows
• Editing and managing action flows

Anatomy of an action flow

At its core, an action flow is a series of steps. The following types of steps are available:

• Action flow trigger: The condition under which the action flow is initiated. This can be a Zendesk event or an agent using agent copilot auto assist.
  The following action flow triggers are available for the EAP:

  • Ticket events (including ticket lifecycle, such as creation, and ticket updates to: ticket properties, routing, comments, SLAs, schedules, and CSAT)
    Note: Action flows initiated by ticket updates often run when a ticket is created, too, because ticket values are perceived as changing from null or empty to an actual value.
  • User events (including user creation; updates to a user's name, role, organization, group, brand, and so on; adding or changing a profile picture; changes to a user's identity; and changes to a user's status, such as suspended or deleted)
    Note:

    • The User last login changed action flow trigger only fires if the previous login occurred more than 20 minutes ago.
    • The User commenting permission changed action flow trigger only fires if the user's profile is updated to change their Comment permissions. This doesn't apply to the custom role permissions on Enterprise plans and above.
  • Action flow suggested by auto assist approved by agent
• Zendesk steps: Actions related to Zendesk objects.
  During the EAP, the following steps are available:

  • Create ticket
  • Look up ticket
  • Update ticket
  • Look up user
  • Look up organization
• External steps: Actions related to external systems you've connected to. The steps available vary by system. See Understanding external steps for action flows.
• Branch steps: Branches are steps that split your action flow into two paths based on a user-defined condition.
• Actions: User-defined automated tasks that update or query data using any API. Actions are used by agent copilot auto assist and action flows.

With the exception of some action flow triggers, steps always require a data input. Commonly, the input of one step is the data returned from a previous step, known as that step's output. However, in some cases, you can specify static inputs. Additionally, not all steps provide an output. For more information, see Providing inputs for steps.

Creating an action flow

Admins can create up to 10 action flows. Each flow can consist of one action flow trigger and up to 50 steps.

To create an action flow

1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
2. Click Create flow.
3. Enter a unique Name and a Description to help other admins understand the action flow.
   Note: Agent copilot auto assist uses the action flow's name and description to determine when an action flow should be suggested to an agent. For help writing good names and descriptions, see the best practices.
4. Click Next.
5. Click + Add trigger, and then use the step sidebar to configure the condition under which the action flow is initiated and any required inputs.

   See Adding an action flow trigger.

6. Below the trigger event step, click the Add step icon (). Then use the step sidebar to configure it.

   See Adding steps to action flows.

7. Repeat step 6 beneath other steps as needed to complete your action flow.
8. Click Save.

   New action flows are inactive by default. Before an action flow can be used, you must activate the flow.

9. (Optional) Test the action flow.
10. When you're ready to use the action flow, click Activate.

Adding an action flow trigger

Every action flow begins with a trigger event. This is what initiates the flow.

To add an action flow trigger

1. Open an action flow.
2. In the visual workflow builder, click + Add trigger.
3. In the step sidebar, select whether you want the action flow to be initiated by a Ticket event or when a Suggested action flow is approved by agent.
4. Click through the available options and select a single action flow trigger.
5. For Agent copilot > Action flow > Suggested action flow approved by agent, you can configure an input to be provided by auto assist:
   1. In the step sidebar, click + Add input.
   2. Enter a Name and Description.

      Providing clear and detailed names and descriptions for inputs helps auto assist determine the correct information to provide when the action flow runs.

      It is possible to have auto assist provide a ticket ID as input for this action flow trigger. To do so, you must name the input zendesk_ticket_id and set the type to number. If the input name and type aren't exact matches to this, auto assist won't be able to add the ticket ID.

   3. For Type, select one of the following options: True/False (Boolean), Text, Number (Integer), or Decimal.
   4. Click Save.

Adding steps to action flows

In addition to the action flow trigger, you must add at least one step. There are four types of steps you can add to an action flow:

• Zendesk steps
• External steps
• Branch steps
• Action steps

Adding Zendesk or external steps

Zendesk steps perform Zendesk-specific actions, such as modifying a ticket's priority. External steps perform actions specific to the connected system, such as sending a Slack message or creating a Jira issue. Action flows can consist of Zendesk steps and external steps for multiple connected systems.

The attribution of actions performed by an action flow depend on the type of step:

• Zendesk steps that are performed by the flow are attributed to the system user.
• Regardless of how an action flow is triggered, external steps are attributed to the admin who connected the external system.

To add steps to an action flow

1. Open an action flow.
2. In the action builder, beneath an existing step, click the Add step icon ().
3. In the step sidebar, under Zendesk steps or External steps click through the menu options to select the step.
4. In the step sidebar, enter the required inputs for the selected step. See Providing inputs for steps.

Adding branch steps

Although some action flows progress linearly, it's common for them to include one or more branches. When you add a branch, you must define a single condition for the If condition is met branch. The Else branch encompasses everything that doesn't meet the If condition, so no configuration is required for the second branch.

To add branch steps to an action flow

1. Open an action flow.
2. In the visual workflow builder, beneath an existing step, click the Add step icon ().
3. In the step sidebar, under Flow control, select Branch.
4. Configure the If condition is met branch's condition:
   • Select the Variable. This is data output from a previous step in the action flow.
   • Select the Operator that describes the relationship between the condition's variable and value. The available operators change based on the variable selected.
   • Enter the Value used when evaluating the condition.
     Note:

     • These values are case-sensitive. It's important to note that Zendesk tickets use lower-case for the type, status, and priority fields. For example, when referring to a ticket's type, entering a value of Incident would fail to match because it's expecting incident.
     • The value field isn't required when using the Is present or Is not present operators.

Adding action steps

Actions are user-defined tasks that update data using any API the user specified. The actions defined for auto assist are also available as steps for action flows. For more information, see Creating and managing actions.

Note: Actions created prior to March 13, 2025 must be re-saved in order to be available as steps in action flows.

Additionally, it's important to understand that the action step reflects the action as it was defined at the moment it was added to the action flow. If an action is updated after it was added to an action flow, you must delete the action step in the flow and re-add it to see the changes.

To add action steps to an action flow

1. Open an action flow.
2. In the visual workflow builder, beneath an existing step, click the Add step icon ().
3. In the step sidebar, under Actions, select one of the actions you've created.
4. Provide static values or variables as inputs into the input fields required by the action.

   For more information, see Providing inputs for steps.

Providing inputs for steps

When specifying inputs for steps, you must provide values that correspond to the input's data type, such as text, number, decimal, list, or true/false.

For most inputs, you can provide static values, which can be entered or fetched from Zendesk or a connected external system when configuring the step, or variables, which are data output from a previous step in the action flow. Certain inputs require you to select a predefined value from a list, such as a ticket status or priority or data from a connected external system, such as a Slack channel name or Jira project ID. For inputs that allow you to enter values rather than selecting from a predefined list, it's possible to combine static and variable values.

Note: If a mismatch occurs between the type and the value, the action builder automatically attempts to correct the mismatch, which could result in incompatible values that cause the action flow to fail.