Zendesk (Help desk)

Connect Zendesk to show open support tickets: subject, status, priority and who asked. Connect once for the company (Global) or per brand. Open tickets refresh every 10 minutes and are only ever read, never changed.

What it lights up #

Customer Success · tickets

Option A: an OAuth client (recommended, and the only option on new Zendesk accounts) #

Zendesk is retiring API tokens, so connect with an OAuth client. The terminal uses it to get a short-lived, read-only access token and asks for a new one well before the old one expires. Nothing for you to renew.

Sign in to Zendesk as the admin the terminal should read as. A dedicated service admin is best. The terminal sees what that admin sees, because an OAuth client's tokens act as the person who created the client.
In Admin Center, open Apps and integrations → APIs → OAuth clients and choose Add OAuth client.
Name it VX Terminal and set Client kind to Confidential. Zendesk asks for a redirect URL, which this connection never uses: enter your terminal's own https:// address. Leave Scopes empty, or allow read. Save.
Copy the Identifier and the Secret. Zendesk shows the Secret only once. If you lose it, regenerate it and enter the new one.

In VX Terminal, fill in Zendesk subdomain, Client ID (the Identifier) and Client secret, and leave Agent email and API token blank.

Option B: an existing API token (until Zendesk switches them off) #

If you already connected with a Zendesk API token, it keeps working for now. Zendesk is phasing these tokens out:

Zendesk accounts created on or after 28 July 2026 can't create or use API tokens.
From 27 October 2026 nobody can create a new API token.
On 30 April 2027 every remaining API token stops working.
A token that isn't used for 30 days is switched off automatically. The terminal uses it every 10 minutes, so it won't go idle while connected.

In VX Terminal, fill in Zendesk subdomain, Agent email (an agent or admin; the terminal sees the tickets that person can see) and API token, and leave Client ID and Client secret blank. Test then reminds you that the token stops working on 30 April 2027.

To move an existing connection to an OAuth client, open it with Edit, add the Client ID and Client secret from Option A, press Test, then Save. When both are saved, the OAuth client is used.

Connect it in VX Terminal #

Open Settings → Connections, find Help desk (Zendesk) under Customers and press Connect on the row (or Add for a brand).
Zendesk subdomain: just the first part of your Zendesk address, acme for acme.zendesk.com.
Add the credentials from Option A or B, press Test, then Save.

How Test works #

With an OAuth client, Test asks Zendesk for a 5-minute, read-only access token. With either option, it then reads the name and role of the user it signs in as, for example "Connected as Ada Ops (admin) · OAuth client, read-only". Nothing is changed.

Common errors #

Message	Fix
"Zendesk subdomain must be just the first part of your zendesk.com address, in lowercase letters, digits and hyphens (acme for acme.zendesk.com)"	Enter only `acme`, not `acme.zendesk.com` or a URL.
"Enter the OAuth client's Client ID and Client secret (or, until Zendesk retires them, an agent email and API token)"	Fill in one of the two options.
"Client secret is required with a Client ID" / "Client ID is required with a Client secret"	Option A needs both values.
"Agent email is required with an API token" / "API token is required with an agent email, …"	Option B needs both values.
"Zendesk rejected the Client ID and secret …"	Copy the Identifier and the Secret again from Admin Center → Apps and integrations → APIs → OAuth clients. Regenerate the Secret if it was lost, and check the client is Confidential.
"Zendesk won't give this OAuth client the read scope. …"	Edit the OAuth client and allow the read scope, or clear its scope list.
"Zendesk won't let this OAuth client use client credentials. …"	Set Client kind to Confidential.
"Zendesk refused access. The OAuth client may lack the read scope, or its owner may be suspended."	Allow the read scope, or recreate the client as an active admin.
"Zendesk rejected the email and API token. …"	Check the email belongs to an agent, the token was copied whole, and token access is turned on. A token switched off by Zendesk also fails here, so move to an OAuth client (Option A).
"Zendesk didn't sign the token in. Check the email and API token, and that token access is turned on."	Same as above.
"Signed in as …, but that's an end user, who can't read the ticket queue. …"	Use an agent's or an admin's email, or create the OAuth client as an admin.
"Zendesk refused access. The agent may be suspended, or API access may be off for this account."	Unsuspend the agent, or turn API access on.
"There's no Zendesk account at ….zendesk.com. Check the subdomain."	Fix the subdomain.
"….zendesk.com redirected instead of answering. Check the subdomain is the account's own zendesk.com name."	Use the account's own `zendesk.com` name, not a custom host name.
"Zendesk is rate-limiting this account. Wait a minute and test again."	Wait, then test again.

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