Announcing the ability to search for custom object records in action flows

Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends
August 28, 2026 | August 28, 2026 | September 3, 2026

Zendesk is pleased to announce that it is now possible to search for relevant custom object records directly within action flows, helping AI agent and human agents alike in retrieving additional customer context that is necessary to solve tickets.

This announcement includes the following topics:

What is changing?

Why is Zendesk making this change?

What do I need to do?

What is changing?

Action builder has a new Zendesk action: Search for custom object records. With this new action, you can retrieve related custom object records that isn't stored directly in a ticket, user profile, or organization already referenced in the action flow and without needing to know the custom object record ID.

For example, to fetch the ticket requester's five most recent returns, you could configure a Search for custom object records action in the following manner:

Search for object type: Return

Conditional filters: (Customer = Requester) AND (Status =Completed OR Status = Denied)

Sort order: Created at

Sort by: Descending

Page size: 5

With this information, an AI agent or action flow could determine whether to approve the return request or escalate to a human for approval.

For more information, see Understanding the difference between looking up and searching for custom object records in action flows.

Why is Zendesk making this change?

Zendesk understands that customer context frequently lives in custom objects, such as orders, contracts, entitlements, returns, and assets. Previously, an action flow could look up a custom object record when it already had the record ID, but it couldn't easily find related records based on information already available in the workflow. This new search action makes that related context available to downstream workflow steps, helping admins build more capable and personalized automations.

What do I need to do?

The new Search for custom object records action is being rolled out to all accounts with access to action flows and custom objects. You can create or edit your action flows to include this step. See Creating action flows and  Understanding the difference between looking up and searching for custom object records in action flows.

If you have feedback or questions related to this announcement, visit our community forum where we collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact Zendesk Customer Support.