Using New Relic actions in action flows

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.


What's my plan?






All Suites

Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus









Support

Team, Professional, or Enterprise






Summary: ◀▼
You can connect action flows to New Relic using an API key to automate workflows involving data queries, entity lookups, entity searches, and alert condition creation. Use a dedicated service account for secure integration. This connection lets you run NRQL queries, retrieve entity details, search entities by criteria, and create alert conditions to monitor and manage your systems directly within your workflows.


By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as New Relic,
admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving
collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.
Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are
referred to collectively as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:
Connecting New Relic to action builder
Using New Relic actions in action flows




Connecting New Relic to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the
action builder to the external system.
When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:
All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the
external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service
account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external
system.
All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.


To create a User API key in New Relic
The New Relic connection uses API key authentication. You will need to provide a User
API key from your New Relic account. This key is used for querying data and managing
configurations. The API key must have appropriate permissions to access the New
Relic APIs for the actions you plan to use.
See the New Relic documentation for more
information on New Relic API keys.


Important: Keep your API key secure. Do not share
it or commit it to version control. Use a dedicated service account API key for
production workflows.

Go to the New Relic user menu.
Select API Keys.
Create a new API key.
Save the API key or keep the window open so you can copy and paste it into
Zendesk. You'll need it when connecting New Relic to action
builder.




To connect action builder to New Relic
In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action
flows.

Create or edit an action flow.
Open the step sidebar.
Under External actions, click New Relic.
Click Connect.
Follow New Relic's prompts to enter your New Relic API key and complete the
connection.
Important: All external
actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who
connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a
dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when
connecting to each external system.



After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and
details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for
New Relic.



Using New Relic actions in action flows

The following New Relic actions are available:
Query data
Lookup entity
Search entities
Create alert
condition




Querying data

Use the Query data action to run NRQL queries against your New Relic
telemetry data.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account ID, NRQL
query The Account ID field provides a
dropdown of accounts accessible with your API
key.
NRQL query uses SQL-like syntax. Example:
SELECT count(*) FROM Transaction WHERE
appName='WebApp' SINCE 1 hour ago.

Optional: Timeout
The
Timeout field accepts values from 1 to 120 seconds and
defaults to 10 seconds.



Output
Query results including array of result objects with
fields determined by the NRQL SELECT clause, row count, and
total result value for aggregation queries.








Looking up an entity

Use the Lookup entity action to retrieve detailed information about a
specific monitored entity.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account ID,
Entity The Entity field is a
searchable dropdown. Type at least 2 characters of the
entity name to search. Search results show the entity
name and type, with a link to the entity in New Relic.
Select the entity you want to look up to retrieve its
full details including current alert status and
associated tags.



Output
Entity details including entity GUID, name, type, URL,
reporting status, alert severity, and tags with
metadata.








Searching entities

Use the Search entities action to find monitored entities matching search
criteria.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account ID Optional:
Search query, Entity
type, Alert severity,
Tag filter, Max
results
Consider the following when
using the Search entities action:

All search filters are optional and can be combined.
The Search query field uses New Relic entity search
syntax (for example, name LIKE
'Web%').
Entity type provides a dropdown of available entity
types. Alert severity options include NOT_ALERTING,
WARNING, and CRITICAL.
Tag filter uses key:value format (for example,
environment:production).
Max results accepts values from 1 to 200 and
defaults to 50.




Output
Array of entity objects containing entity GUID, name,
type, URL, domain, reporting status, alert severity, and
tags, along with total count and indicator if more results
are available.








Creating an alert condition

Use the Create alert condition action to create a new NRQL alert condition
in New Relic.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Account ID, Alert
policy, Condition name,
NRQL query, Critical
threshold Optional: Warning
threshold, Threshold
duration, Threshold
operator,
Enabled
Consider the following
when using the Create alert condition action:
The Alert policy field is a searchable dropdown
that displays policies from the selected account.
The NRQL query must return a single numeric
value for threshold comparison (for example,
SELECT count(*) FROM ZendeskTicketCreated
SINCE 1 hour ago).
Critical threshold is the numeric value that
triggers a critical alert.
Warning threshold is optional and triggers a
warning-level alert.
Threshold duration specifies how long the
threshold must be exceeded before alerting, in
seconds (range: 60-3600, defaults to 300).
Threshold operator options are ABOVE, BELOW, or
EQUALS (defaults to ABOVE).
Enabled determines whether the condition is
active immediately (defaults to true).





Output
Alert condition details including condition ID, condition
name, policy ID, and enabled status.








{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10943521537818-Using-New-Relic-actions-in-action-flows",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10943521537818-Using-New-Relic-actions-in-action-flows",
"headline": "Using New Relic actions in action flows",
"description": "You can connect an external monitoring system to an action builder to automate workflows by querying data, looking up entities, searching entities, and creating alert conditions using API key authentication and configured inputs and outputs.",
"articleSection": "Product help",
"datePublished": "2026-06-25T19:51:35.575314+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-06-25T19:51:37.954626+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10943521537818-Using-New-Relic-actions-in-action-flows"