Zendesk

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Introduction

The Gurubase Zendesk App brings AI-powered assistance directly into your Zendesk Support workspace. Support teams shouldn’t have to jump between tickets, help center articles, docs, and logs just to craft a reliable answer. Gurubase works directly inside Zendesk to speed up resolution while keeping responses source-backed. It provides three powerful features to help support agents work more efficiently:

1. Chat Sidebar - Chat with your Guru AI directly in the ticket sidebar to get instant answers
2. Ticket Editor - Rewrite and improve your ticket responses with AI assistance
3. Knowledge Base Editor - Browse and improve your help center articles with AI

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Why Use Gurubase for Zendesk

Gurubase AI Copilot helps your support team resolve tickets faster with verifiable, hallucination-free responses:

• Draft ticket replies directly in Zendesk - No context switching between tools
• AI Trust Score + source references - Every answer includes confidence scoring and citations to your knowledge base
• Follow-up question suggestions - Close issues faster with AI-suggested next steps
• Tone adjustment - Rephrase responses for the right tone and copy directly into the Zendesk editor
• Visual playbooks with Mermaid - Guided troubleshooting with flowcharts and diagrams

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Better Answers with Zendesk Data Ingestion

Support teams often face the same questions repeatedly - and the answers are already in your existing tickets and help center articles. By combining the Gurubase Zendesk App with Zendesk Ingestion, you can train your Guru on your historical support data for more accurate, context-aware responses. How it works:

1. Ingest your Zendesk data - Connect Gurubase to your Zendesk instance to import past tickets and help center articles as data sources
2. AI learns from your history - Gurubase indexes ticket conversations, resolutions, and knowledge base content
3. Get better answers - The Zendesk app now provides answers grounded in your actual support history and documentation

What gets indexed:

• Past ticket conversations and resolutions
• Help center articles and documentation
• Comments and attachments (including images and text files)
• Customer interactions and agent responses

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Prerequisites

Before installing the Zendesk app, you’ll need:

1. A Gurubase account with at least one Guru created
2. Zendesk Ingestion connected for the same Zendesk account, which is how Gurubase knows which Guru the app belongs to. Each Guru you enter in the app settings must have this Zendesk account connected.
3. Admin access to your Zendesk Support instance

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Installation

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Step 1: Download the App Package

The Gurubase Zendesk app is distributed as a private app. Contact us to get access to the app package and schedule a demo.

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Step 2: Upload to Zendesk

1. Go to your Zendesk Admin Center
2. Navigate to Apps and Integrations → Apps → Zendesk Support Apps
3. Click Upload private app
4. Select the Gurubase app package (.zip file)
5. Click Upload

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Step 3: Configure the App

After uploading, you’ll be prompted to configure the app settings:

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Step 4: Install the App

1. Review the settings and click Install
2. The app will now appear in your Zendesk Support workspace

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Features

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Chat Sidebar

The Chat Sidebar appears in the ticket sidebar when viewing tickets. It provides five tabs to help agents find information quickly: Chat, Suggested Content, History, Customer Insights, and Playbooks.

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Chat Tab

The main chat interface for asking questions to your Guru AI.

• Ask questions about the current ticket or any topic
• When you open a ticket, an initial answer is generated automatically from the ticket’s first message, so an answer is ready without any action
• Get instant, source-backed answers from your knowledge base
• View AI Trust Score and source references for every response
• Copy responses directly into ticket replies
• Attach PNG images, .txt and .log files, PDF and DOCX for context-aware answers, within the Guru’s per-question attachment limits (the same ones the web chat uses). PDF works only when PDF processing is on for the Guru.
• Ask follow-up questions that continue in the same conversation thread, keeping context across the exchange
• Rate answers with thumbs up/down; a downvote opens a short feedback box so you can tell the AI what to improve
• Regenerate the initial answer with the Re-answer button next to the input field
• Clear chat to reset the conversation and start fresh

How to use:

1. Open any ticket in Zendesk
2. Find the Gurubase app in the right sidebar
3. Type your question and press Enter
4. The AI will respond with citations to your knowledge base

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History Tab

View and search your previous conversations with the AI assistant.

• Organized by time - Questions grouped by Today, Last Week, and Older
• Search functionality - Find specific past conversations
• Quick resume - Click any conversation to continue where you left off
• Source references - See which sources were used in previous answers

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Suggested Content Tab

Automatically surfaces relevant content from your knowledge base based on the current ticket context.

• Context-aware - Uses semantic search based on ticket subject and description
• Quick access - Click to open relevant articles, docs, or previous tickets

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Customer Insights Tab

Gives agents an at-a-glance read on the health of the ticket’s organization, computed from its support history.

• Customer health score - A single color-coded gauge (excellent / warning / critical) summarizing the account’s standing
• Ticket volume - Ticket counts over the last 1, 3, and 12 months
• Score breakdown - A detailed grid of contributing metrics (SLA achievement, feedback score, resolution time, open duration, customer tone, topic similarity, remote sessions, and more), each with its own score, reasoning, and expandable details
• Clickable ticket links - Ticket IDs throughout the panel open the corresponding Zendesk ticket
• Re-calculate - Refresh the insights on demand, bypassing the cache

Expand any metric to see the tickets behind its score, with links straight to the relevant Zendesk tickets.

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Playbooks Tab

Access visual troubleshooting guides and step-by-step playbooks with Mermaid diagram support.

• Visual flowcharts - Mermaid diagrams for guided troubleshooting
• Interactive navigation - Zoom, pan, and explore complex workflows
• Export & full screen - Download a playbook diagram as a PNG or open it full-screen in a new tab
• Labeled organization - Playbooks are automatically loaded based on labels

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Ticket Editor

The Ticket Editor helps agents craft better responses by rewriting and improving their draft replies using AI. Available Actions: Every action preserves the addressee, greeting, and sign-off exactly as written in the draft, cleans up typos and grammar, and never invents facts or inserts boilerplate openers like “I hope this message finds you well”. How to use:

1. Write your draft response in the ticket comment box
2. Click on the Gurubase Ticket Editor icon
3. Select a transformation action (Expand, Simplify, Make more friendly, Make more formal) or enter custom instructions
4. Review the diff view showing original vs. improved text
5. Click Save to apply changes or Discard to keep the original

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Knowledge Base Editor

The Knowledge Base Editor allows you to browse, search, and improve your Zendesk help center articles using AI. Features:

• Article Browser - Browse all your help center articles with search, label filtering, and sorting by last-updated (newest or oldest first)
• Progress Tracking - A sidebar counter shows how many articles have been rewritten with Gurubase (X / Total, with a percentage and progress bar)
• Collapsible Sidebar - Hide the article list to give the editor the full width
• Article Breadcrumb - The open article’s title, Draft badge, Help Center link, and current labels pin to the top bar so the editor body stays uncluttered
• Quick Actions - Open any article directly in the Zendesk editor or download it as a PDF from the list
• AI Improvement - Improve articles with preset or custom prompts
• Rewrite History - Step back and forward through the original and each AI rewrite, with a duration indicator for each pass
• Suggested Title & Labels - Get an AI-suggested title (inline-editable) and labels for your article, add your own, and remove any you don’t want
• Bulk Improve - Run a preset on a batch of articles and review each result one by one
• Diff View - Compare original and improved content, switching independently between Rendered or Source view and Inline or Split layout. In the Split layout the Current side marks removals in red and the Proposed side marks additions in green
• Jump Between Changes - Step through additions and modifications one at a time with prev/next controls in the Rendered and Split views
• Change Overview Ruler - A colored strip beside the scrollbar maps every change onto the whole document, so changes far below the fold are visible at a glance. Additions, removals, and modifications show as green, red, and amber bands. Click it to jump
• Copy HTML - Copy the full proposed HTML from the diff toolbar
• Edit Content - Make manual edits to the original article on the Current tab and save them as the new version
• Compare HTML - Upload an external HTML file (or fetch one from S3) and diff it against the current article. Each side (Current and Proposed) has its own Improve and Edit controls plus back/forward version history, so you can refine either side before publishing it
• S3 Updates - A sync queue that surfaces articles with a newer version available in S3 and lets you review and apply them one by one
• Persistent Selection - The last article you opened is automatically reopened when you return to the editor
• Direct Editing - Edit the improved content before saving
• Tracking Labels - Published AI rewrites are tagged with a gb label and a gb-v# version so you can see at a glance which articles have been improved
• PDF Export - Download articles as PDF documents

How to use:

1. Click on the Gurubase icon in the Zendesk navigation bar
2. Browse or search for articles in the left sidebar
3. Click an article to view its content
4. Click Improve with AI and select a preset or enter custom instructions

5. Review the changes in the Improved or Diff View tabs
6. Edit labels in the suggestions panel if needed
7. Click Save Changes to update the article in Zendesk

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Editing the Original Article

Use Edit Content on the Current tab to make manual edits without first running an AI improvement. Both the rendered view and the raw HTML stay in sync while you type. Click Save Changes to keep the edit as a pending update, or discard to revert to the original.

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Compare HTML Tab

Use the Compare HTML tab to upload an external HTML file and diff it against the current article. The diff supports the same two-axis mode picker (Rendered or Source, Inline or Split), making it easy to review proposed changes from another tool or to migrate content into Zendesk. Each side of the diff carries its own controls in its header:

• Improve - Rewrite that side (Current or Proposed) in place with a preset or custom instructions, exactly like the main Improve with AI but scoped to one side.
• Edit - Adjust that side’s HTML by hand; the rendered view and raw HTML stay in sync while you type, and the diff re-renders when you save.
• Version history - Back/forward arrows and a Reset step through every improve and edit made to that side, or return it to its initial version. The two sides keep independent histories.
• Apply & Publish - Publish that side to the Zendesk article on its own.

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S3 Updates

When articles are authored or updated outside Zendesk and pushed to S3, the S3 Updates entry in the left sidebar keeps them in sync. It shows a count badge for how many articles have a newer version waiting in S3. How to use:

1. Click S3 Updates in the left sidebar to open the queue of pending articles (each with its title and the S3 version’s last-modified time)
2. Click an article to open it in the Compare HTML tab with the latest S3 version fetched and diffed automatically
3. Review the diff, then Apply & Publish to update the Zendesk article, or Dismiss to mark the current S3 version handled without publishing

Once a version is applied or dismissed, the article drops off the queue and only reappears if an even newer version is uploaded to S3.

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Bulk Improve

Use Bulk Improve in the left sidebar to run a preset on multiple articles in one batch and review the results one by one. How to use:

1. Click Bulk Improve at the top of the article list
2. Enter selection mode, tick the articles you want to include (up to 10 per batch), and choose a preset prompt
3. Gurubase queues the batch, marks each row as it progresses (pending → improving → ready), and unlocks review as soon as the first row is ready
4. Open a ready row to review the diff, then click Publish to apply, Reject to discard, or Cancel to leave the row for later
5. While reviewing a row you can run Improve with AI again to refine that result before publishing it

The batch is stored locally, so a page refresh resumes exactly where you left off. Only one job can run at a time; clear the current batch to start a new one. Extra improve passes you run while reviewing a row are not stored with the batch. Publish to keep them; rejecting or cancelling asks for confirmation and brings back the original batch result the next time you open the row.

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Diff Modes

The diff toolbar exposes two independent segmented controls: Rendered + Split labels each pane Current and Proposed and lets each side scroll independently. Source + Split renders a two-column source diff with the same headers. The overflow menu adds Word Wrap (for Source), Copy Diff (git-style unified diff), and Copy HTML (full proposed HTML). Every mode also shows a change overview ruler along the right edge: green for additions, red for removals, amber for a modified line or a style/attribute change. A translucent box marks the part of the document you are currently looking at, and clicking anywhere on the ruler scrolls there.

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Stale Session Warning

Zendesk writes from the editor are signed with a token that the Zendesk page mints when it loads. On a tab left open for a long time that token goes stale even though you are still logged in, and every publish then fails with a permission error. The editor checks the token in the background and shows a bar at the top of the app with a Reload button as soon as it goes stale, so you find out before starting an edit rather than halfway through publishing one. The check never modifies an article.

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Configuring KB Editor Presets

To customize the rewrite options available in the “Improve with AI” dropdown, configure KB Editor Presets in your Gurubase dashboard:

1. Go to your Guru’s Settings page
2. Navigate to Advanced → KB Editor Presets
3. Add presets with a title and prompt for each rewrite option

Each preset appears as a quick action button in the Knowledge Base Editor, allowing agents to apply common improvements with a single click.

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Configuration for Self-Hosted

For self-hosted Gurubase, the app package is built per install with the panel URLs pointing at your own Gurubase domain. Contact us for a package matching your instance, then follow the same upload and configure steps above. There is no Base URL setting to edit after install.

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Next Steps