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The moment it happens

Turn a Slack message into a Zendesk ticket with an emoji

React to any Slack message with 🎫 and it becomes a Zendesk ticket, with the link posted back in the thread.

Runs
The moment it happens
Apps
Slack, Zendesk
AI
Not needed
Access
reactions:read, channels:history, chat:write; Zendesk write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when someone reacts to a Slack message with :ticket:, create a Zendesk ticket from the message text and reply in the thread with the ticket link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Customers and partners raise problems in shared Slack channels. Account managers promise to look into it, then the message scrolls away. A week later nobody can remember who was meant to follow up, and there is no record in Zendesk of the issue at all.

A single emoji turns the message into a proper ticket, so the request is tracked, assigned and reported on like everything else support handles.

What you get out of it

  • Requests are not lost in chat

    Anything worth tracking becomes a ticket in seconds, before it scrolls out of view.

  • Support keeps one queue

    Issues raised in Slack join the same Zendesk queue as email and chat, with the same SLAs and reporting.

  • Everyone can see it was picked up

    The ticket link appears in the Slack thread, so the person who asked knows it is being handled.

  • Nothing to learn

    Anyone in the channel can raise a ticket with a reaction, with no form to fill in and no Zendesk login.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Slack tells ClickRuntime when someone adds the 🎫 reaction to a message.

  2. It fetches the text of that message and who wrote it.

  3. It checks the message has not already been turned into a ticket.

  4. A new Zendesk ticket is created with the message, the channel name and a link back to Slack.

  5. The ticket link is posted as a reply in the message's thread.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Slack, then invite the app to the channel (type /invite @ClickRuntime there)
  • Connect Zendesk
  • Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens
Turn a Slack message into a Zendesk ticket with an emojijust nowSucceeded
Slack · #acme-shared↳ Ticket #8840 created: "Invoices for March are missing the VAT number"

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Google Sheets
  • Combine it with other Slack and Zendesk steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
turn_a_slack_message_into_a_zendesk_ticket.pyexample
from slack_sdk import WebClient
from clickruntime import on_event, http, credentials, state

ZD, AGENT = "https://yourcompany.zendesk.com/api/v2", "you@yourcompany.com"

def zd(method, path, **kw):
    r = http.request(method, ZD + path, auth=(f"{AGENT}/token", credentials.secret("ZENDESK_API_TOKEN")), **kw)
    return r.raise_for_status() or (r.json() if r.content else None)


@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json or {}
    if body.get("type") == "url_verification":
        return {"challenge": body["challenge"]}
    ev = body["event"]
    if ev.get("reaction") != "ticket" or state.get(f"done:{ev['item']['ts']}"):
        return {"created": False}
    slack = WebClient(token=credentials.connection("slack", "work"))
    channel, ts = ev["item"]["channel"], ev["item"]["ts"]
    msg = slack.conversations_history(channel=channel, latest=ts, inclusive=True, limit=1)["messages"][0]
    link = slack.chat_getPermalink(channel=channel, message_ts=ts)["permalink"]
    ticket = zd("POST", "/tickets", json={"ticket": {"subject": msg["text"][:80],
                "comment": {"body": f"{msg['text']}\n\nRaised from Slack: {link}"}, "tags": ["from_slack"]}})["ticket"]
    slack.chat_postMessage(channel=channel, thread_ts=ts, text=f"Ticket #{ticket['id']} created: https://yourcompany.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{ticket['id']}")
    state.set(f"done:{ts}", ticket["id"])
    return {"created": ticket["id"]}

FAQ

Common questions

Can anyone in the channel create a ticket?
Anyone who can add a reaction can. If you want to limit it, the automation can check the person against a list before creating the ticket.
Which details go into the ticket?
The message text, who wrote it, the channel name and a link back to the Slack message.
What if two people react with the same emoji?
Only the first reaction creates a ticket. Later ones are ignored.
What permissions does it need?
reactions:read, channels:history, chat:write; Zendesk write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run for each event the app sends.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Turn a Slack message into a Zendesk ticket with an emoji” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.