Integrating your app with Zendesk brings customer conversations into Aha! Builder. You can surface live ticket data alongside your own views to create customer-specific pages, escalation dashboards, and reports that show where support demand comes from.
In this article, we explain how to connect your application to Zendesk.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Prerequisites
Action |
Requirement |
|---|---|
Integration direction |
Two-way |
Credential type |
API token As of January 2026, email and password API authentication no longer works. All API requests must use a token or OAuth. |
Aha! Builder plans |
All Aha! Builder plans |
Required Aha! Builder permissions |
Application owner |
Zendesk plans |
All paid Zendesk plans
|
Zendesk permissions |
administrator to enable token access and create tokens |
Zendesk API tokens do not have granular scopes. They authenticate as the user whose email you provide and inherit that user's permissions.
Get your Zendesk API token
You will need an API token from Zendesk to connect your Aha! Builder application. Also note the email address for the authenticating account and your Zendesk subdomain. You will need all three values to authenticate.
Log in to Zendesk as an administrator.
Select Admin Center from the product dropdown in the upper-left corner above the sidebar, or go to
https://yoursubdomain.zendesk.com/admin.Navigate to API configuration and select the checkbox beside Allow API token access.
Navigate to API tokens and select Add API token.
Enter a description, such as Aha! Builder.
Select Save.
Copy your API token now and store it in a secure location. Zendesk will not show it again after you close the page.
Zendesk support resources |
|---|
Add your secrets in Aha! Builder
Once you have your API token, add it to your Aha! Builder application along with the authenticating email address and your Zendesk subdomain:
Navigate to your application in Aha! Builder.
Select Configuration in the top navigation bar.
Select the Secrets tab.
Select Add secret.
In the Secret name field, enter
ZENDESK_API_TOKEN.In the Value field, paste your API token.
Select Save.
Repeat steps 4–7 for
ZENDESK_EMAIL(the email address for the authenticating account) andZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN(your Zendesk subdomain, such asyourcompany).After saving the last secret, select Ask Elle to integrate to start an AI chat.
Your credentials are now available to your application code. Secrets are encrypted and stored securely. They are never exposed in your application's front-end code.
Secrets are environment-specific. If you have both a preview and a production environment, you will need to add the secrets to each one separately.
Use the integration
After you save your secrets, you can ask Elle to create features that use Zendesk data. Use prompts like these:
“Add a page that shows my open Zendesk tickets with their subject, status, and priority.”
“Create a dashboard that lists recent Zendesk tickets assigned to our team, sorted by priority.”
“Show a weekly summary of ticket volume by tag, grouped by product area.”
Elle can generate code that connects to the Zendesk API by using your secrets and displaying the data in your application.
Update a secret
You can update a secret's value at any time. For example, update it when you rotate your API token:
Navigate to your application in Aha! Builder.
Select Configuration in the top navigation bar.
Select the Secrets tab.
Select Edit next to the secret you want to update.
Enter the new value and select Save.
Remove a secret
To remove an integration secret from your application:
Navigate to your application in Aha! Builder.
Select Configuration in the top navigation bar.
Select the Secrets tab.
Select the more options menu ( ... ) next to the secret you want to remove.
Select Delete.
Select OK to confirm.
Removing a secret will break any features in your application that depend on it. Review your application after removing a secret to confirm it still functions correctly.