From zammad
Reads, searches, and triages Zammad tickets, articles, and Knowledge Base content, plus computes team-management metrics (agent load, customer health, aging backlog, escalation triage, churn risk, feedback mining) that the Zammad API cannot answer in a single call.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/zammad:zammad <command> [args] | install cli|mcp<command> [args] | install cli|mcpThis skill is limited to the following tools:
The summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
This skill drives the `zammad-cli` binary. **You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill.** If it is missing, install it first:
AGENTS.mdCHANGELOG.mdREADME.mdcli/LICENSEcli/Makefilecli/NOTICEcli/cmd/zammad-cli/main.gocli/cmd/zammad-mcp/main.gocli/go.modcli/go.sumcli/internal/cache/cache.gocli/internal/cli/agent_context.gocli/internal/cli/agent_load.gocli/internal/cli/agent_load_test.gocli/internal/cli/agent_trend.gocli/internal/cli/agent_trend_test.gocli/internal/cli/api_discovery.gocli/internal/cli/articles.gocli/internal/cli/articles_by-ticket.gocli/internal/cli/articles_create.goThis skill drives the zammad-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:
$HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:
npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install zammad --cli-only
zammad-cli --version$PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.5 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/project-management/zammad/cmd/zammad-cli@latest
If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.
A single Go binary for the whole Zammad REST + Knowledge Base surface with an offline SQLite store, structured --json/--select output, and --dry-run on every write. On top of parity it adds a team-management layer computed from your synced tickets: agent-load and agent-trend for workload, customer-health and churn-risk for account risk, overdue for aging backlog, escalate for sentiment triage, and feedback for mining what customers ask for. Works against any Zammad instance - set your instance URL and token.
Use this CLI when an agent needs to read, search, or triage Zammad tickets and Knowledge Base content, or to answer team-management questions - who is overloaded, which customers are at risk, what is aging, who sounds like they might churn, and what feedback themes are recurring. It is ideal for support-ops automation, standups, and account-health reviews where the answer requires aggregating across many tickets.
Do not use this CLI for:
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
agent-load - See each agent's current ticket load broken out by state (open/pending/backlog) so you can balance work before it piles up.
Reach for this when asked who is overloaded or how work is distributed across the support team right now.
zammad-cli agent-load --json
agent-trend - Show whether each agent's queue is growing or shrinking across the last N weeks, with opened-vs-closed deltas.
Reach for this when asked if the team is keeping up or falling behind over time.
zammad-cli agent-trend --weeks 2 --json
customer-health - Rank organizations by a health signal built from open count, oldest-open age, reopen rate, velocity, and last activity.
Reach for this to spot which customers are struggling before they complain.
zammad-cli customer-health --at-risk --json
overdue - Find aging tickets still in new/open/pending past a threshold, weighted by priority so the worst rise to the top.
Reach for this to catch tickets about to breach SLA or go stale.
zammad-cli overdue --days 3 --json
escalate - Surface active tickets whose recent customer messages read as upset (heuristic negative-signal scan), ranked by hits, age, and priority - with the matched snippets shown.
Reach for this to find customers who sound angry and should be escalated; it is keyword triage with snippets, so you make the final call.
zammad-cli escalate --json
churn-risk - Score each organization's churn risk from open backlog, overdue tickets, unanswered pending, and negative-sentiment customer messages, listing the contributing factors.
Reach for this to get ahead of churn; it surfaces the factors so you can judge and act.
zammad-cli churn-risk --json
feedback-scan - Bucket ticket and article text into feature-request, pricing, compliance, and bug themes with the source ticket refs and snippets.
Reach for this to mine what customers keep asking for across features, pricing, and compliance.
zammad-cli feedback-scan --bucket pricing --json
kb browse - Print the Knowledge Base as a category/answer tree parsed from the init bundle.
Reach for this to see the KB structure before reading or searching answers.
zammad-cli kb browse
kb search - Text search over KB answer titles and bodies from the live KB init bundle.
Reach for this to find the right KB answer by keyword.
zammad-cli kb search "restore" --json
kb get - Resolve a KB answer id from the init bundle to its full translated body.
Reach for this to read a KB answer's full content.
zammad-cli kb get 42
ticket note - Add an internal or partner-visible note to a ticket in one line, with correct content-type defaults.
Reach for this to log work on a ticket without hand-building the article payload.
zammad-cli ticket note 12345 --body "Investigated, awaiting logs" --internal --dry-run
articles - Read and add ticket articles (notes and emails)
zammad-cli articles by-ticket - List all articles for a ticketzammad-cli articles create - Add an article (note or email) to a ticketzammad-cli articles get - Get a single article by idgroups - Ticket routing groups
zammad-cli groups get - Get a group by idzammad-cli groups list - List all groupskb - Knowledge Base categories and answers
zammad-cli kb answer-create - Create a KB answer. Pass translations_attributes as JSON, then publish or mark internal.zammad-cli kb answer-delete - Delete a KB answer (requires KB editor permission)zammad-cli kb answer-internal - Mark a KB answer internal (agent-only)zammad-cli kb answer-publish - Publish a KB answer (make it public)zammad-cli kb category-create - Create a KB category. Pass translations_attributes as JSON.zammad-cli kb init - Fetch the full Knowledge Base bundle (categories, answers, translations). Used by 'kb browse/search/get'.organizations - Read and manage organizations (customers / partners)
zammad-cli organizations create - Create an organizationzammad-cli organizations get - Get an organization by idzammad-cli organizations list - List organizations (paginated)zammad-cli organizations search - Search organizations by name or custom fieldzammad-cli organizations update - Update an organizationoverviews - Agent ticket overviews (saved views)
zammad-cli overviews get - Get an overview (and its tickets) by idzammad-cli overviews list - List all overviewspriorities - Ticket priority reference (id -> name map)
zammad-cli priorities - List ticket prioritiesstates - Ticket state reference (id -> name map)
zammad-cli states - List ticket statestags - Ticket tags
zammad-cli tags add - Add a tag to an objectzammad-cli tags all - List every tag defined in the instance (vocabulary)zammad-cli tags list - List tags on an object (defaults to a ticket)zammad-cli tags remove - Remove a tag from an objecttickets - Read, search, create, and change Zammad tickets
zammad-cli tickets create - Create a ticket. Provide title, group, a customer, and an initial article.zammad-cli tickets delete - Delete a ticket permanently (requires admin / delete permission)zammad-cli tickets get - Get a ticket by idzammad-cli tickets list - List tickets (paginated)zammad-cli tickets search - Search tickets with Zammad query syntax (e.g. 'state:open owner_id:3')zammad-cli tickets update - Update a ticket (state, priority, owner, title, organization)users - Read and manage users (agents and customers)
zammad-cli users create - Create a userzammad-cli users get - Get a user by idzammad-cli users list - List users (paginated)zammad-cli users me - Get the authenticated user (auth self-check)zammad-cli users search - Search users by email, name, or query (e.g. organization_id:5)zammad-cli users update - Update a userWhen you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:
zammad-cli which "<capability in your own words>"
which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match - fall back to --help or use a narrower query.
zammad-cli agent-load --json --select agent,open,pending,backlog
One row per agent with open, pending, and total backlog counts.
zammad-cli customer-health --at-risk --json --select organization,open,oldest_open_days,last_activity_days,signal
Organizations flagged at-risk with the health factors that triggered the flag, using --select to keep the payload small on a deeply aggregated response.
zammad-cli escalate --json
Ranked tickets with matched negative-signal snippets so you judge true sentiment.
zammad-cli feedback-scan --bucket pricing --json
Tickets and article snippets bucketed as pricing feedback with source refs.
zammad-cli kb search "backup restore" --json
Keyword search over Knowledge Base answers (from the live KB init bundle).
Zammad uses a personal access token sent as Authorization: Token token=<TOKEN>. Create one in your Zammad instance under Profile → Token Access, then set ZAMMAD_API_TOKEN. Point the CLI at your instance with ZAMMAD_URL (e.g. https://support.example.com). The token's permissions cap what the CLI can do; a token without write scopes keeps every command read-only regardless of flags.
Run zammad-cli doctor to verify setup.
Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.
Pipeable - JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
Filterable - --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:
zammad-cli articles get 12345 --agent --select id,name,status
Previewable - --dry-run shows the request without sending
Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
Explicit retries - use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success, and use --ignore-missing only when a missing delete target should count as success
Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:
{
"meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
"results": <data>
}
Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set - piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.
Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:
Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set ZAMMAD_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.
Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: ZAMMAD_CONFIG_DIR, ZAMMAD_DATA_DIR, ZAMMAD_STATE_DIR, ZAMMAD_CACHE_DIR.
Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, ZAMMAD_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.
config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.
Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.
Run zammad-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.
For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:
{
"mcpServers": {
"zammad": {
"command": "zammad-mcp",
"env": {
"ZAMMAD_HOME": "/srv/zammad"
}
}
}
}
Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use ZAMMAD_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing ZAMMAD_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.
This CLI ships a self-capturing learning loop. The CLI does its own bookkeeping: every invocation is journaled locally, a failed flag followed by a corrected retry auto-derives a flag_alias candidate, and a teach on a query family without a playbook auto-synthesizes a playbook_candidate from the session's journal. Your job is judgment only: recall first, act on surfaced candidates, teach the final answer, playbook amend when you observe a correction. You never record failures by hand.
recall before any discoveryBefore list/search/drill commands on a new user question, run:
zammad-cli recall "<user's question>" --agent
The response envelope:
{
"query": "...",
"normalized": "<normalized form>",
"query_entities": ["..."],
"found": true | false,
"match_score": 0.0,
"results": [
{ "resource_id": "...", "resource_type": "...", "venue": "...",
"confidence": 2, "entity_match": "exact|partial|unknown",
"source": "taught|preseed|pattern", "warnings": ["..."] }
],
"mismatches": [ /* only when --debug-mismatches */ ],
"warnings": [ /* top-level */ ],
"candidates": [
{ "id": 12, "class": "flag_alias | playbook_candidate",
"summary": "...", "sightings": 3, "last_seen": "...",
"rationale": "...",
"next_action": ["<trial command>", "zammad-cli learnings confirm 12"] }
],
"playbook": {
"query_family": "...",
"playbook": {
"steps": [ { "cmd": "<command with {slot} substitution>", "purpose": "..." } ],
"entity_slots": ["$ENTITY"],
"expected_tool_calls": 3
},
"slots_resolved": { "$ENTITY": { "token": "<live token>", "canonical": "<canonical>" } },
"notes": "<workarounds + gotchas for this query family>"
},
"notes": "<duplicate surface for non-playbook callers>"
}
Empty-store short-circuit: if the store has no learnings, playbooks, or candidates yet (recall finds nothing and learnings list and learnings candidates are both empty), skip recall for the rest of this session instead of taxing every query; resume recall-first once something has been taught.
Read candidates, playbook, notes, results[0], and warnings in that order:
if Candidates present (warnings include "candidates_present"):
-> candidates are try-then-confirm, never facts. Follow each candidate's
two-step next_action verbatim: run the trial command first, then run
`learnings confirm <id>` only after the trial verified the behavior.
Reject a wrong candidate with `learnings reject <id>`.
-> NEVER re-teach something recall surfaced as a candidate; confirm or
reject that candidate instead of teaching a duplicate.
-> candidates ride alongside playbooks and resource hits, not instead of
them; continue with the branches below after acting on them.
if Playbook present:
-> READ Playbook.notes verbatim FIRST (workarounds + gotchas the CLI surface doesn't expose)
-> replay Playbook.steps in order, substituting Playbook.slots_resolved entries
for the entity slot tokens. If a step's slot is unresolved, fall back to
discovery for that step only.
-> the Playbook's expected_tool_calls is a budget; if you find yourself running
materially more, record the divergence via `zammad-cli playbook amend`
at end-of-session.
elif Notes present (no Playbook):
-> read Notes verbatim before any discovery step; they carry known gotchas
for this query family even when no structured choreography exists yet.
elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "exact" AND Results[0].Confidence >= 2:
-> skip discovery; fetch live data for Results[*].ResourceID in parallel
elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "partial":
-> candidate hint, NOT a hit; read the resource title to validate before trusting
elif (any row in Mismatches[] when --debug-mismatches was passed):
-> treat as cold start; the stored learning is for a different entity
(different canonical resolved from query_entities)
else: // Found == false, no playbook, no notes
-> cold start; run discovery normally; teach the answer afterward (Step 4).
If the family has no playbook yet, that teach auto-synthesizes a
playbook candidate from this session's journal - you do not need to
record one by hand.
Playbook and Notes are orthogonal to the per-resource path. A recall response can carry both a Playbook AND a Results[] hit - use both: the Playbook tells you which choreography to run; the resource hits short-circuit specific steps. Default to skipping mismatches; pass --debug-mismatches only when investigating cold-start surprises.
Candidate judgment details: learnings confirm <id> prints the candidate's full payload before materializing it - check that the printed payload matches the behavior you verified. learnings reject <id> tombstones the derivation signature so the same candidate does not resurface. The envelope carries only the few candidates worth acting on now; zammad-cli learnings candidates lists the full open set.
Graceful degradation: if learnings confirm is an unknown command, you are driving an older binary - ignore the candidates guidance and follow the rest of the protocol.
warningslow_confidence: row exists at confidence<2. Treat as a hint, not a skip-discovery hit.resource_not_in_store: the local store doesn't have the resource the learning points at. The match validator couldn't classify entities - direct-fetch and re-evaluate.cross_alias_match (per-result): the row was taught under a different alias and matched the live query's canonical via entity_lookups (e.g., a "USA" teach satisfying a "United States" recall). Trust the resource_id.similar_shape_different_entity:<canonical> (top-level): a structurally matching row exists but its canonical entity differs from the live query's. Treated as cold start; the warning carries the conflicting canonical as a hint, but the row is NOT promoted into Results.ambiguous_alias (top-level): a single query entity resolved to multiple canonicals (e.g., "Cards" → Arizona Cardinals + St. Louis Cardinals). Surface the ambiguity from context before committing to a resource.candidates_present (top-level): the envelope carries a candidates section. Handle it via the candidates branch in Step 2 before anything else.lookup_refresh_available (top-level): an entity in the query has no lookup row yet, but synced data could provide one. Run zammad-cli sync to refresh entity lookups.no_learnings_for_query_family: the table had no rows above the Jaccard floor. Pure cold start.teach & after finalizing your response - alwaysTeaching is unconditional. After resolving a query the store could not answer, background-teach the final resource mapping - no call-count threshold, no judging whether it was "worth" learning. The teach is the anchor of the loop: it triggers playbook synthesis for a family without a playbook, and same-referent phrasings fold into one family so near-duplicate teaches do not fragment the store. Fire it after assembling your user-facing response but BEFORE emitting it, with a shell & so the call returns immediately:
zammad-cli teach --query "<user's question>" --resource-type <type> --resource <id1> --resource <id2>
# (append shell `&` to background it)
Silent on success. Errors only land in teach.log under the resolved state dir. Teach the most specific resource - if the user asked a broad question and you walked through parent records to find the specific answer, teach the leaf id, not the parent. The CLI uses seeded entity_lookups for cross-alias resolution at recall time, so a teach under one alias (e.g., "Niners") satisfies future queries under another alias (e.g., "49ers", "San Francisco") automatically.
PII rule: teach the structural question with identifiers stripped - never include names, emails, phone numbers, account ids, or other personal identifiers in taught queries or notes. The CLI scans teach queries for obvious email/phone shapes and warns, but does not block; strip before teaching rather than relying on the warning.
You do not need to decide whether a session "deserves" a playbook: a teach on a family without one auto-synthesizes a playbook_candidate from the session's journal, and the next session judges it via confirm/reject. Attach explicit playbook flags only when you already hold choreography worth recording verbatim - workarounds the CLI didn't surface (silently-dropped flags, undocumented params, pagination tricks, payload gotchas). Prefer the integrated one-call form - record the resource learning and the playbook in the same teach invocation:
# Common case: record both the resource learning AND the playbook in one call.
zammad-cli teach \
--query "<user's question>" \
--resource <id> \
--playbook-file ~/playbooks/<shape>.json \
--playbook-notes-file ~/playbooks/<shape>-notes.md
# (append shell `&` to background it)
# Alternate: playbook-only (no resource to record alongside).
zammad-cli teach-playbook \
--query "<user's question>" \
--playbook-file ~/playbooks/<shape>.json \
--notes-file ~/playbooks/<shape>-notes.md
Playbook files are JSON with steps, entity_slots, expected_tool_calls. Notes files are markdown carrying the gotchas verbatim. File-free callers (MCP-only agents) pass the same content inline: --playbook-json and --playbook-notes on the integrated teach form, --playbook-json and --notes on teach-playbook. On the integrated teach form, the playbook flags are optional - omit them entirely for a resource-only teach. On the standalone teach-playbook form, at least one of the playbook and notes flags must be set; both empty is rejected. Playbooks are keyed on the structural query family (entities stripped) so a recipe taught from one entity-shaped query applies to every other query of the same shape, with slots_resolved binding the live query's canonical at recall time.
When you DO find a playbook on a future recall, treat it as ground truth: replay the steps with slots_resolved substitutions, skip the discovery that the choreography already documents, and read notes before any step.
playbook amend & when your debug response identifies a correctionIf your debug-protocol response identifies a concrete correction the notes or playbook should know - a workaround, an undocumented endpoint shape, a stale field name, observed schema drift, an empty-payload fallback - fire playbook amend BEFORE emitting your user-facing response. Same fire-and-forget posture as teach.
zammad-cli playbook amend \
--query "<exact recall query string>" \
--add-note "<your concrete correction>"
# (append shell `&` to background it)
What counts as worth amending: a behavior you OBSERVED this session that future-you would benefit from knowing. Examples worth amending:
{meta, results}, payload nested two levels deeper than the docs claim).What does NOT belong in notes:
The amend command appends to the family's existing notes with a timestamped marker ([amend YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MMZ]: <text>). Multiple amends accumulate; the audit trail is visible. If no playbook exists yet for the family, amend creates a notes-only one (so cold-start corrections still land).
playbook amend notes are designed to potentially flow upstream as shared knowledge in future versions of the Printing Press. Keep them clean of user-identifying content so the upstream-contribution path stays open without retroactive scrubbing:
If a correction is only meaningful with user-specific context, it belongs in a personal note, not in the playbook amend.
zammad-cli learnings stats reports recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution rate, and candidate confirm/reject counts from the local learn_events table. Rates are null until they have a denominator; everything stays on this machine. Use it to check whether the loop is earning its keep for this CLI.
--no-learn on a single command short-circuits both recall and the teach write path. Use for deterministic agent flows or tests that must not be affected by accumulated learnings.ZAMMAD_NO_LEARN=true in the environment globally disables the pipeline.When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:
zammad-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
zammad-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
zammad-cli feedback list --json --limit 10
Entries are stored locally as feedback.jsonl under the resolved data dir. They are never POSTed unless ZAMMAD_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or ZAMMAD_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.
Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.
Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:
| Sink | Effect |
|---|---|
stdout | Default; write to stdout only |
file:<path> | Atomically write output to <path> (tmp + rename) |
webhook:<url> | POST the output body to the URL (application/json or application/x-ndjson when --compact) |
Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.
A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled or recurring agent reuses the same saved flags while providing different input each run.
zammad-cli profile save briefing --json
zammad-cli --profile briefing articles get 12345
zammad-cli profile list --json
zammad-cli profile show briefing
zammad-cli profile delete briefing --yes
Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Success |
| 2 | Usage error (wrong arguments) |
| 3 | Resource not found |
| 4 | Authentication required |
| 5 | API error (upstream issue) |
| 7 | Rate limited (wait and retry) |
| 10 | Config error |
Parse $ARGUMENTS:
help, or --help → show zammad-cli --help outputinstall → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above--agent)go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/project-management/zammad/cmd/zammad-mcp@latest
claude mcp add zammad-mcp -- zammad-mcp
claude mcp listwhich zammad-cli
If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).--agent flag:
zammad-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
zammad-cli <command> --help.npx claudepluginhub servosity/msp-skills --plugin zammadAutomates Zendesk operations via Composio's Zendesk toolkit through Rube MCP: tickets, users, organizations, replies. Always searches tools first for current schemas.
Automates Freshdesk helpdesk operations (tickets, contacts, companies, notes, replies) via Rube MCP (Composio). Always checks for current tool schemas before actions.
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