Announcing a new way to manage light agent permissions in non-Enterprise plans

Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends
August 31, 2026 | September 2, 2026 | September 15, 2026

Zendesk is introducing a new way for non-Enterprise plan admins to manage and view roles in Admin Center. Admins can now manage light agent permissions directly in Admin Center, replacing the previous settings experience in Agent Workspace. This update creates a consistent, role-based experience across all plan tiers and supports Zendesk’s ongoing investment in custom roles.

This announcement includes the following topics:

What's changing?

Why is Zendesk making this change?

What do I need to do?

What's changing?

A new Roles link is added under Admin Center > People > Team in Admin Center for non-Enterprise plans, and is now searchable from the Admin Center Search field.

The "Light agent access" section is removed from Workspaces > Agent Interface. In its place, admins will see a note directing them to manage light agent access through the new Roles page.

On non-Enterprise plans, the Roles page displays three roles: Admin, Contributor, and Light Agent.

Only the Light Agent role is editable on these plans. Admins can configure:

Ticket access — which tickets light agents can view

Explore access — whether light agents can access Explore

All other permissions on the light agent role remain enabled and greyed out.

Why is Zendesk making this change?

This update is part of Zendesk's broader initiative to bring consistency across all plan tiers, replacing fragmented, plan-specific settings with a single, consistent roles-based experience. For non-Enterprise plans, this means light agent management now lives in the same place it does for Enterprise customers, making administration more intuitive and reducing confusion when comparing plans or considering an upgrade. It also lays the architectural groundwork for extending fuller custom role capabilities to lower plans in the future.

What do I need to do?

No action is required. Existing light agent configurations will carry over automatically, and admins on non-Enterprise plans will see the new Roles page appear in Admin Center as the rollout reaches their account. Once available, admins can go to Admin Center > People > Team > Roles to view and manage light agent ticket and Explore access.

For more information, see Understanding and setting light agent permissions.

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.