Announcing custom variables, loop steps, and enhanced retry logic for action flows

Announced on | Rollout on
July 6, 2026 | July 2, 2026

Zendesk is excited to announce significant technical enhancements that add generally available support for custom variables, looping steps, and user-defined retry logic per step.

This announcement includes the following topics:

What is changing?

Why is Zendesk making this change?

What do I need to do?

What is changing?

With this release, admins now have intuitive ways to create variables and update them anywhere within an action flow.  This fixes data pagination bottlenecks for large integrations. Additionally, loop steps that allow repetition while conditions are met or for each target item allow admins to create more complex action flows. Making logic customizable on a per-step basis ensures workflows don't completely break from temporary, transient API outages, making action flows more resilient and eliminating the need for custom ZIS workarounds.

Why is Zendesk making this change?

Zendesk has heard your feedback and understands the importance of action flow resiliency and the need for complex logic steps, such as loops and custom variables. These features are designed to do just that.

What do I need to do?

No action is required. These updates are being rolled out to all accounts with access to the action builder. To begin using these new steps and configure retry logic, you can create a new action flow or edit an existing one.

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.