Zendesk Chat

Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) is the live chat and messaging product in the Zendesk suite. The Zendesk Chat API exposes chat accounts, agents, departments, chats, triggers, and related configuration, letting you ingest chat and agent activity for analytics or programmatically manage your Chat account. This connector authenticates with an OAuth access token and can be used as both a data source and a destination.

Power end-to-end data operations for your Zendesk Chat API with Nexla. Our bi-directional Zendesk Chat connector is purpose-built for Zendesk Chat, making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to Zendesk Chat or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your Zendesk Chat workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

• Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
• Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
• API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
• Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites

Before creating a Zendesk Chat credential, you need an OAuth access token for your Zendesk Chat account and the base URL of the Chat API. Zendesk Chat authenticates API requests with an OAuth access token passed as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

To obtain your credentials, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Zendesk account with an administrator role that has access to the Chat dashboard.

2. Create a Chat API client (OAuth client) to obtain a client ID and client secret. In an integrated Chat account this is done from the Zendesk Admin Center or the Chat dashboard under the API/OAuth clients settings; note the client ID and client secret, as the secret is shown only once.

3. Use the client credentials to generate an OAuth access token through one of Zendesk Chat's supported OAuth flows (authorization code, implicit, or confidential grant), as described in the Zendesk Chat OAuth documentation. Copy the resulting access token and store it securely.

4. Determine your Chat API base URL. This is your Zendesk subdomain followed by the Chat API path, for example https://your-subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/chat (with no trailing slash).

The access token is sent as Authorization: Bearer <token> on every request and grants access to Chat resources based on the scopes granted when the token was issued. If a token is compromised, revoke it in your Zendesk Chat account and generate a new one. For details on creating OAuth clients and generating tokens, see the Zendesk Chat OAuth Authentication documentation and the Zendesk Chat API reference.

Authenticate

Credentials required

Field	Required	Secret	Description
OAuth Access Token	Yes	Yes	Zendesk Chat OAuth access token. Sent as 'Authorization: Bearer <token>'.
Base URL	Yes	No	Zendesk Chat API base URL, e.g. https://your-subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/chat (no trailing slash).

Create a credential in Nexla

1. After selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

3. Enter your Zendesk Chat OAuth access token in the OAuth Access Token field. This token is sent as Authorization: Bearer <token> on every request and must be kept confidential.

4. Enter your Chat API base URL in the Base URL field, for example https://your-subdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/chat with no trailing slash.

   If your access token is compromised, revoke it in your Zendesk Chat account and generate a new one. The access token grants access to your Chat account data based on its granted scopes and should be treated as sensitive information.

   For details on OAuth clients, token generation, and available endpoints, see the Zendesk Chat OAuth Authentication documentation and the Zendesk Chat API reference.

5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation.

Use as a data source

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the Zendesk Chat connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Zendesk Chat account, and click Next; or, create a new Zendesk Chat credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Zendesk Chat endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below.

[Rest API] Show Account

Retrieve the Zendesk Chat account.

This endpoint returns details for the Zendesk Chat account associated with the credential. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Roles

Retrieve roles.

This endpoint returns the roles defined in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Agents

Retrieve agents.

• This endpoint is paginated. Nexla automatically pages through the results until all available records have been ingested.

This endpoint returns the agents in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Agent Timeline

Retrieve agent_timeline.

• This is an incremental endpoint and is paginated. Nexla automatically pages through the results until all available records have been ingested.

This endpoint returns agent timeline (availability) records for your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Bans

Retrieve bans.

• This endpoint is paginated. Nexla automatically pages through the results until all available records have been ingested.

This endpoint returns the visitor and IP bans configured in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Chats

Retrieve chats.

• This is an incremental endpoint and is paginated. Nexla automatically pages through the results until all available records have been ingested.

This endpoint returns chat records for your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Departments

Retrieve departments.

This endpoint returns the departments defined in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Goals

Retrieve goals.

This endpoint returns the goals configured in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Routing Settings

Retrieve routing_settings.

This endpoint returns the account-level routing settings for your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Shortcuts

Retrieve shortcuts.

This endpoint returns the shortcuts defined in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Skills

Retrieve skills.

This endpoint returns the skills defined in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] List Triggers

Retrieve triggers.

This endpoint returns the triggers configured in your Zendesk Chat account. For more information about the response fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration

Zendesk Chat data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid Zendesk Chat API endpoint, including endpoints not covered by the pre-built templates, chained API calls, or custom request parameters. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Zendesk Chat data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.

Use as a destination

Click the + icon on the Nexset that will be sent to the Zendesk Chat destination, and select the Send to Destination option from the menu. Select the Zendesk Chat connector from the list of available destination connectors, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Zendesk Chat account, and click Next; or, create a new Zendesk Chat credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure destinations to send data to common Zendesk Chat endpoints. Select the endpoint to which data will be sent from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Then, click on the template in the list below to expand it, and follow the instructions to configure additional endpoint settings.

[Rest API] Create Agent

Creates a new agent in the Zendesk Chat account.

• Each record from your Nexset is sent as a JSON request body to create a new agent. The record should contain the agent fields required by the Zendesk Chat API.

The request body must match the format expected by the Zendesk Chat API. For details on the required and optional agent fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] Update Agent

Updates details of an existing agent by agent ID.

• Provide the Agent ID of the agent to update. Each record from your Nexset is sent as a JSON request body with the fields to change.

The request body must match the format expected by the Zendesk Chat API. For details on the updatable agent fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] Create Department

Creates a new department in the Zendesk Chat account.

• Each record from your Nexset is sent as a JSON request body to create a new department. The record should contain the department fields required by the Zendesk Chat API.

The request body must match the format expected by the Zendesk Chat API. For details on the required and optional department fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] Update Department

Updates an existing department by department ID.

• Provide the Department ID of the department to update. Each record from your Nexset is sent as a JSON request body with the fields to change.

The request body must match the format expected by the Zendesk Chat API. For details on the updatable department fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

[Rest API] Create Trigger

Adds a new trigger to the Zendesk Chat account.

• Each record from your Nexset is sent as a JSON request body to create a new trigger. The record should contain the trigger definition required by the Zendesk Chat API.

The request body must match the format expected by the Zendesk Chat API. For details on the trigger definition and available fields, see the Zendesk Chat API reference.

Manual configuration

Zendesk Chat destinations can also be manually configured to send data to any valid Zendesk Chat API endpoint. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, data format, endpoint URL, request headers, attribute exclusions, record batching, and response webhooks.

Zendesk Chat APIs expect JSON format for create and update operations. For update operations, include the ID of the object to be updated in the endpoint URL.

Save & activate

Once all endpoint settings have been configured, click the Done button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the destination. To send the data to the configured Zendesk Chat endpoint, open the destination resource menu, and select Activate.

The Nexset data will not be sent to the Zendesk Chat endpoint until the destination is activated. Destinations can be activated immediately or at a later time, providing full control over data movement.