Workflow recipe: Using auto assist to create Jira issues for troubleshooting


It’s common for agents to use Zendesk to interact with end users, and then use Jira to create issues when help is required from the IT or engineering team.


What's my plan?







Add-on

Copilot









It’s common for agents to use Zendesk to interact with end users, and then use Jira to
create issues when help is required from the IT or engineering team.
In this recipe, we’ll streamline that process by creating an auto assist procedure to guide agents through
troubleshooting common problems and automatically creating a Jira issue for the IT team
if more specialized assistance is required.
This article contains the following topics:

Workflow goal
Prerequisites
Creating a Jira project
Creating a Jira app and OAuth client
Getting the client ID and secret
Finding your Jira Cloud ID
Registering your Jira OAuth client in Zendesk
Creating a connection between Zendesk and Jira
Creating an action to create a Jira issue
Creating a procedure to guide agents
Customizing your procedure
Troubleshooting issues



Workflow goal

We’re going to use auto assist to help agents troubleshoot common IT issues, and, if
necessary, create a Jira issue to request help from the IT team.
To facilitate this, we’ll do the following:

In Jira:
Identify or create a new Jira project, so we have somewhere to create
Jira issues.
Create a Jira OAuth client.


In Zendesk:
Register the Jira OAuth client so you can use it to create an OAuth
token.
Create a connection, which makes it easy to create an OAuth token and
safely store it for use with your action.
Create an action, which uses the connection to make a call to the Jira
API and create a Jira issue.
Create a procedure, which tells auto assist what steps are required to
guide the agent through creating a Jira issue.
Test that everything is working.






Prerequisites

To accomplish this workflow, you’ll need the following:

A Jira Cloud instance
Tip: Consider using a
new Jira sandbox or free plan instance rather than your production Jira
instance until you’re comfortable with how everything works.

A Jira user with sufficient permissions to create a project, create issues
within that project, and create a Jira OAuth client.
Tip: If you’re using a Jira Free plan, all users are admins and have
the permissions you need.

A Zendesk account with the Copilot add-on.
An admin user login for the Zendesk account.




Creating a Jira project

In Jira, identify a project to use or create a new one. It doesn’t matter whether
it’s scrum or kanban. Make sure your Jira user has access to the project.
Make note of the key for your project (for example, ENGREQ), as you’ll need this
later.



Creating a Jira app and OAuth client

To create a Jira application and OAuth 2.0 integration, perform the steps described
in Enabling OAuth 2.0 (3LO) in the Jira Cloud
Platform documentation. Make sure to configure the following values.
When creating the app and OAuth client, set the Callback URL to:
https://zis.zendesk.com/api/services/zis/connections/oauth/callback

Note: It’s important to use the URL exactly as shown above.
Don’t change “zis” to your own subdomain. ZIS is a Zendesk service that securely
handles the interaction between Zendesk and Jira.

When adding an API to the app:


Select Permissions in the left menu.
Find Jira API and click Add. After a moment, the Add button
will change to Configure.

Click Configure.
Find Jira platform REST API and click Edit Scopes.
Make sure View Jira issue data and Create and manage issues
are selected. This will allow the action you create later to create, read,
and change Jira issues.

Click Save.





Getting the client ID and secret

In Jira, get the client ID and secret:


Open the Jira Developer Console.
Go to the Settings tab.
Make a note of the Client ID and Secret.






Finding your Jira Cloud ID

While you’re logged into the Jira Developer Console, go to:
https://<YOUR_JIRA_SUBDOMAIN>.atlassian.net/_edge/tenant_info

Make a note of the Cloud ID, as you’ll need it when you create the action later.



Registering your Jira OAuth client in Zendesk

Registering your Jira OAuth client allows you to use it within Zendesk, instead of
having to interact with it using API requests.
To register your Jira OAuth client in Zendesk


In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Connections > OAuth
Clients.
Click Add client.
Fill out the following fields:

Name: Give the client a meaningful name so you can find it
easily later (for example, Jira_client).

OAuth grant type: Authorization code

Client ID: The Jira client's ID

Client Secret: The Jira client's secret

Authorize URL: auth.atlassian.com/authorize Token URL:
auth.atlassian.com/oauth/token

Scopes: read:jira-work write:jira-work offline_access


Click Save.






Creating a connection between Zendesk and Jira

Next, you’ll create a connection to allow Zendesk to access your Jira instance.
Tip: For more information about connections, see
Creating connections to integrate with
external services.

To create the connection


In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Connections >
Connections.
Click Create connection.
Fill out the following fields:

Connection name: Give the client a meaningful name so you can
easily find it later (for example, Jira_oauth_token).

Choose authentication type: OAuth 2.0

Client: Select the Jira OAuth client you registered in
Zendesk.

Scopes: Leave this blank.

Allowed domain: api.atlassian.com


Click Save. You’re taken through an OAuth screen to allow Zendesk
to access your Jira instance.



Tip: If you don’t see this screen,
check that it hasn’t been blocked by your browser.


Click Accept. You’re returned to the Connections page, where you
should see a new entry for your new connection. If the Create connection
screen you were working on is still open, you can safely close it
now.






Creating an action to create a Jira issue

In Zendesk, you’ll create an action that uses the Jira issue API endpoint to create a new
issue.


Tip: For more information about actions, see Creating and managing actions for auto
assist.

To create the action



In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Custom
actions.

Click Create action.
In the Name field, enter Create IT task.
In the Description field, enter Creates an IT task for the team to
do, and responds with the ID of the task.
Define the following three Inputs:









Input name
Input description
Input type


name
A brief name for the task.
string


description
Full details of the task. Must be less than 200
characters.
string


priority
Priority indicates how severe or urgent the task
is. Priority is represented by a single number.
Valid values are typically 2 (high impact or
urgency issue), 3 (standard issue), and
4 (low impact or urgency issue).
string






Note: You may need to modify the numeric values
used for the priority to suit your specific Jira setup.

Define your API configuration:

Request method: POST

Endpoint URL:
https://api.atlassian.com/ex/jira/<YOUR_Jira_CLOUD_ID>/rest/api/2/issue

Authentication: Select the connection you created
earlier.



Define the Body:
{
"fields": {
"summary": "{{name}}",
"description": "{{description}}",
"priority": {
"id": "{{priority}}"
},
"issuetype": {
"id": "10004"
},
"project": {
"key": "ENQREQ"
}
}
}

Keep the following points in mind when defining the body:
Use the {+} icon to insert the placeholders for priority,
name, and description.
The project key value should be the key you identified earlier.
10004 is the default ID for the Jira issue type Task. Depending on
your Jira setup, you might need to use a different ID. Learn how to
find your issue type IDs in Jira here.



Define an Output:








Output name
Output description


task_id
The human-readable ID for the new task.






Click Save.





Creating a procedure to guide agents

Next, you’ll create a procedure that auto assist can use to help guide agents.
Tip: For more information about procedures, see
Creating and managing procedures for auto
assist.

To create a procedure


In Knowledge admin, click
Procedures in the sidebar.
Click Create procedure.
In the Name field, enter a descriptive name, such as IT task
helper.
In the body field, enter the following content: Your job is to help
create IT tasks for the IT team.
Step 1: Ask the user what
they need help with.
List the following common requests:
Order new access card
Drink tray will not open
Printer problem
Other




Step 2: Gather more details about the task.

Order new access card: Ask the user to provide name,
position description, eye color.

Drink tray will not open: Ask the user if they have tried
pressing the button on the front of the PC tower. Ask if they
have tried right-click and eject.

Printer problem: Ask for the printer name, which is
located on the front of the unit. Ask for more details about the
problem.

Other: This is a catchall for any other issue. Ask the
user to explain what the problem is.



Step 3: Determine priority.
Ask the user what impact this is having on them and how urgently it needs to be fixed.
Based on this information, assign a priority of 2 (high), 3
(regular), or 4 (low).


Step 4: Summarize issue and get user confirmation.

Based on the information provided, generate a name and description for the task. The description
must be no longer than 200 characters.
Show the name and description to the user. Ask them to confirm.
Strictly do not create the task until the user has
confirmed.




Step 5: Create IT task.
Tell the user you are going to create the task now and to please wait a moment. For example,
"Thanks for confirming the details. I'll log the task with the
team now. Please hold on a moment."
Then create an IT task using the name, description, and priority
generated in steps 3 and 4.



Step 6: Share IT task ID.
After the IT task is
created, give the task ID to the user.



Step 7: Wrap up

Thank the user and wrap up the conversation.



Click Save.




Note: You might need to modify the numeric values used for the
priority in step 3 of the sample procedure above to suit your specific Jira
setup. They should match the values you set for the priority input when creating
the Jira action earlier in this workflow recipe.




Customizing your procedure

You can further customize the procedure and action in this workflow recipe to suit
your needs. For example:

In steps 1 and 2 of the procedure, you could change the list of common tasks and
troubleshooting steps to suit your specific requirements.
In step 3 of the procedure, you could add different priority levels. If you do,
make sure you also update the input in the action you created.
You could add additional steps to gather further information that gets added to
corresponding fields on the Jira Issue (for example, the environment the issue
is happening in, or data for custom fields). If you do, make sure you also
update the inputs and body in the action you created.

You can also create a similar “Can I get an update on my IT task?” procedure so that
end users can stay informed about the progress of their ticket. To get started:


Create a new action that fetches a
Jira Issue based on the issue ID and returns useful information like the status
and last updated time as outputs.

Create a new procedure that asks the
user for their issue ID and gives them the latest update on the issue.




Troubleshooting issues

If you encounter authorization problems with Jira:

Check that your Jira user has the right permissions to access the project.

If you encounter issues with the action:

Check the action executions in the integration log.
Make sure the numeric values in the action align with your Jira setup (for
example, priority 2/3/4, issue type 10004) and that you’re using the correct key
for your project (for example, ENGREQ).

If the procedure is not working as expected:

Check that the naming and description for the action and its inputs and outputs
are consistent with the naming you use in the procedure.

If auto assist doesn’t start on the ticket:

Check that the Zendesk user you’re testing with is included in the groups that
have access to auto assist. See Turning on and configuring access to auto
assist.
Check that your conversation bot answer includes the tag
agent_copilot_enabled.



{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8662137780378",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8662137780378",
"headline": "Workflow recipe: Using auto assist to create Jira issues for troubleshooting",
"description": "You can use an auto assist procedure to guide agents through troubleshooting common IT issues and automatically create Jira issues for specialized assistance when needed.",
"articleSection": "Workflow best practices and recipes",
"datePublished": "2025-01-06T21:40:56+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-04-30T22:19:42.235261+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8662137780378"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com",
"softwareAddOn": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Copilot",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/4405303717658"
}
}
}
