Create Zendesk Tickets from Email (CLI)

Command references used in this guide: nylas email search, nylas email list, and nylas email read.

How do I create a Zendesk ticket from email?

You create a Zendesk ticket from email by pulling the message as JSON and POSTing a ticket object to the Zendesk Tickets API. The CLI returns structured messages with nylas email search "*" --json, and a single POST to /api/v2/tickets.json opens a ticket. The request shape is documented in the Zendesk create-ticket reference.

First, install the CLI and confirm you can read the mailbox. The search command takes a positional query and an optional --from filter, so a single line returns the last 50 unread messages from a shared support alias. Pulling fields you don't need wastes tokens downstream, so scope the query before piping anywhere. See getting started for other install methods.

brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas

# Pull recent unread support mail as JSON
nylas email search "*" --from "support@yourco.com" --unread --json --limit 50 > inbox.json

What does the Zendesk ticket object need?

A Zendesk ticket needs at minimum a subject, a comment.body, and a requester with a name and email. The CLI message exposes .subject, .from[0].email, and .snippet, which map onto those fields one to one. Zendesk auto-creates the requester user if the email is new.

Build the ticket payload with jq so the mapping is explicit and null-safe. A message with no subject would otherwise open a blank ticket, so fall back to a placeholder. Zendesk requires API-token auth in the form {email}/token:{token}, and rejects requests over plain HTTP, so every call goes to your https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com host. The default rate ceiling on the Suite Team plan is 400 requests per minute, per the Zendesk rate-limit docs.

ZD="https://yourco.zendesk.com"
AUTH="agent@yourco.com/token:$ZENDESK_API_TOKEN"

jq -c '.[]' inbox.json | while read -r msg; do
  subject=$(echo "$msg" | jq -r '.subject // "(no subject)"')
  name=$(echo "$msg"    | jq -r '.from[0].name // .from[0].email')
  email=$(echo "$msg"   | jq -r '.from[0].email')
  body=$(echo "$msg"    | jq -r '.snippet // ""')

  jq -n --arg s "$subject" --arg b "$body" --arg n "$name" --arg e "$email" \
    '{ticket:{subject:$s, comment:{body:$b}, requester:{name:$n, email:$e}}}' \
    | curl -s -X POST "$ZD/api/v2/tickets.json" \
        -u "$AUTH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @-
done

How do I add tags, priority, and the full body?

You enrich the ticket by adding tags, a priority, and the complete message body instead of the snippet. The snippet from search truncates around 100 characters, so for the full text fetch the message with nylas email read <message-id> --json and read its .body. Zendesk accepts four priority values: low, normal, high, and urgent.

The read command returns the same message ID you already have from the search JSON, so chaining is direct. Set priority from a keyword scan of the subject and attach tags so your triage views and triggers fire automatically. Tags are free-form strings; a routing trigger can move any ticket tagged urgent-email into a dedicated group within seconds of creation.

MSG_ID="message-id-from-inbox.json"
full=$(nylas email read "$MSG_ID" --json | jq -r '.body // .snippet')

prio="normal"
echo "$full" | grep -qiE 'outage|urgent|down' && prio="urgent"

jq -n --arg b "$full" --arg p "$prio" \
  '{ticket:{subject:"Inbound: support", comment:{body:$b}, priority:$p,
            tags:["email-intake","auto-created"]}}' \
  | curl -s -X POST "$ZD/api/v2/tickets.json" \
      -u "$AUTH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @-

Why do I get duplicate tickets, and how do I stop them?

You get duplicate tickets because a poll that re-runs every few minutes re-reads the same messages and opens a new ticket each time. The fix is an external ID: Zendesk stores an external_id on every ticket, so set it to the message ID and the second create for the same email is a no-op you can detect. This is the payoff the TL;DR teased.

Before creating, query /api/v2/tickets.json?external_id=<id> and skip the POST when a ticket already exists. Combined with a --unread search and a nylas email mark step that flips the message to read after filing, you process each email exactly once. A 5-minute cron then keeps the queue current while opening zero duplicates across thousands of messages.

# Skip if a ticket already carries this message ID
exists=$(curl -s -u "$AUTH" \
  "$ZD/api/v2/tickets.json?external_id=$MSG_ID" | jq '.tickets | length')

if [ "$exists" -eq 0 ]; then
  jq -n --arg id "$MSG_ID" --arg s "$subject" --arg b "$body" \
    '{ticket:{external_id:$id, subject:$s, comment:{body:$b}}}' \
    | curl -s -X POST "$ZD/api/v2/tickets.json" \
        -u "$AUTH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @-
fi

How do I open tickets in real time instead of polling?

You open tickets in real time by driving the same create step from a webhook instead of a cron poll. Nylas fires a message.created trigger the moment a message lands, so a small listener turns each delivery into a Zendesk ticket within a second or two rather than waiting up to 5 minutes for the next poll.

Register the webhook with nylas webhook create, pointing it at your endpoint and subscribing to the message trigger. The handler reuses the exact jq-to-ticket mapping from above; only the trigger changes from a scheduled pull to an event push. Keep the external_id dedupe in place, since providers occasionally redeliver a webhook. See parse inbound email webhooks for the listener.

# Subscribe to new-message events and route them to your ticket handler
nylas webhook create \
  --url "https://your-handler.example.com/zendesk" \
  --triggers message.created \
  --description "Open a Zendesk ticket per inbound support email"

Next steps

• Email to Jira issues — the same pattern into a Jira project
• Email to ClickUp tasks — open tasks instead of tickets
• Send email to a Notion database — file messages as database pages
• Parse inbound email webhooks — open tickets in real time
• Receive inbound email with the CLI — read and filter the mailbox
• Full command reference — every flag and subcommand documented
• Zendesk API introduction — auth, subdomains, and request basics
• Zendesk create-ticket reference — the full ticket object schema
• RFC 5322 — the internet message format behind every sender and subject field