python-zendesk-sdk 0.1.3

Modern Python SDK for Zendesk API

Python Zendesk SDK

Modern Python SDK for Zendesk API with async support, full type safety, and comprehensive error handling.

Features

• Async HTTP Client: Built on httpx with retry logic, rate limiting, and exponential backoff
• Type Safety: Full Pydantic v2 models for Users, Organizations, Tickets, Comments, and Help Center
• Help Center: Full CRUD for Categories, Sections, and Articles
• Pagination: Both offset-based and cursor-based pagination support
• Search: Zendesk search API support
• Configuration: Flexible configuration with environment variable support

Installation

pip install python-zendesk-sdk

Quick Start

import asyncio
from zendesk_sdk import ZendeskClient, ZendeskConfig

async def main():
    config = ZendeskConfig(
        subdomain="your-subdomain",
        email="[e-mail]",
        token="your-api-token",
    )

    async with ZendeskClient(config) as client:
        # Get users with pagination
        users_paginator = await client.get_users(per_page=10)
        users = await users_paginator.get_page()

        for user in users:
            print(f"User: {user.name} ({user.email})")

        # Get specific ticket
        ticket = await client.get_ticket(ticket_id=12345)
        print(f"Ticket: {ticket.subject}")

        # Search tickets
        results = await client.search_tickets("status:open priority:high")
        for ticket in results:
            print(f"High priority: {ticket.subject}")

asyncio.run(main())

Configuration

Direct instantiation

config = ZendeskConfig(
    subdomain="mycompany",
    email="[e-mail]",
    token="api_token_here"
)

Environment variables

export ZENDESK_SUBDOMAIN=mycompany
export ZENDESK_EMAIL=[e-mail]
export ZENDESK_TOKEN=api_token_here

config = ZendeskConfig()  # Will load from environment

API Methods

Users

• get_users() - List users with pagination
• get_user(user_id) - Get user by ID
• get_user_by_email(email) - Get user by email

Organizations

• get_organizations() - List organizations with pagination
• get_organization(organization_id) - Get organization by ID

Tickets

• get_tickets() - List tickets with pagination
• get_ticket(ticket_id) - Get ticket by ID
• get_user_tickets(user_id) - Get tickets for a user
• get_organization_tickets(organization_id) - Get tickets for an organization

Enriched Tickets

Load tickets with all related data (comments + users) in minimum API requests:

• get_enriched_ticket(ticket_id) - Get ticket with comments and all users
• search_enriched_tickets(query) - Search tickets with all related data
• get_organization_enriched_tickets(org_id) - Get organization tickets with all data
• get_user_enriched_tickets(user_id) - Get user tickets with all data

# Get ticket with all related data
enriched = await client.get_enriched_ticket(12345)

print(f"Ticket: {enriched.ticket.subject}")
print(f"Requester: {enriched.requester.name}")
print(f"Assignee: {enriched.assignee.name if enriched.assignee else 'Unassigned'}")

for comment in enriched.comments:
    author = enriched.get_comment_author(comment)
    print(f"Comment by {author.name}: {comment.body[:50]}...")

# Search with all data loaded
results = await client.search_enriched_tickets("status:open")
for item in results:
    print(f"{item.ticket.subject} - {len(item.comments)} comments")

Comments

• get_ticket_comments(ticket_id) - Get comments for a ticket
• add_ticket_comment(ticket_id, body, public=False) - Add a comment (private by default)
• make_comment_private(ticket_id, comment_id) - Convert public comment to internal note
• redact_comment_string(ticket_id, comment_id, text) - Permanently redact text from comment

Tags

• get_ticket_tags(ticket_id) - Get all tags for a ticket
• add_ticket_tags(ticket_id, tags) - Add tags without removing existing ones
• set_ticket_tags(ticket_id, tags) - Replace all tags with a new set
• remove_ticket_tags(ticket_id, tags) - Remove specific tags

# Get current tags
tags = await client.get_ticket_tags(12345)
# ["billing", "urgent"]

# Add new tags (keeps existing)
tags = await client.add_ticket_tags(12345, ["vip"])
# ["billing", "urgent", "vip"]

# Replace all tags
tags = await client.set_ticket_tags(12345, ["support", "priority"])
# ["support", "priority"]

# Remove specific tags
tags = await client.remove_ticket_tags(12345, ["priority"])
# ["support"]

Attachments

• download_attachment(content_url) - Download attachment content as bytes
• upload_attachment(data, filename, content_type) - Upload file and get token

# Download an attachment from a comment
comments = await client.get_ticket_comments(12345)
for comment in comments:
    for attachment in comment.attachments or []:
        content = await client.download_attachment(attachment.content_url)
        with open(attachment.file_name, "wb") as f:
            f.write(content)

# Upload a file and attach to a comment
with open("screenshot.png", "rb") as f:
    token = await client.upload_attachment(
        f.read(),
        "screenshot.png",
        "image/png"
    )

await client.add_ticket_comment(
    ticket_id=12345,
    body="See attached screenshot",
    uploads=[token]
)

Search

• search(query) - General search
• search_users(query) - Search users
• search_tickets(query) - Search tickets
• search_organizations(query) - Search organizations

Help Center

Access Help Center (Guide) via client.help_center namespace:

Categories

• get_categories() - List categories with pagination
• get_category(category_id) - Get category by ID
• create_category(name, description, position) - Create category
• update_category(category_id, ...) - Update category
• delete_category(category_id, force=True) - Delete category (cascade deletes sections/articles)

Sections

• get_sections() - List all sections with pagination
• get_category_sections(category_id) - List sections in a category
• get_section(section_id) - Get section by ID
• create_section(category_id, name, description, position) - Create section
• update_section(section_id, ...) - Update section
• delete_section(section_id, force=True) - Delete section (cascade deletes articles)

Articles

• get_articles() - List all articles with pagination
• get_section_articles(section_id) - List articles in a section
• get_category_articles(category_id) - List articles in a category
• get_article(article_id) - Get article by ID
• create_article(section_id, title, body, ...) - Create article
• update_article(article_id, ...) - Update article
• delete_article(article_id) - Delete article
• search_articles(query, ...) - Full-text search with snippets

async with ZendeskClient(config) as client:
    hc = client.help_center

    # Create category -> section -> article hierarchy
    category = await hc.create_category(
        name="Product Documentation",
        description="Help articles for our product"
    )

    section = await hc.create_section(
        category_id=category.id,
        name="Getting Started"
    )

    article = await hc.create_article(
        section_id=section.id,
        title="Installation Guide",
        body="<h1>Installation</h1><p>Follow these steps...</p>",
        permission_group_id=252606,  # Required
        draft=False,  # Publish immediately
        label_names=["installation", "guide"],
    )

    # Search articles (useful for AI assistants)
    results = await hc.search_articles("password reset")
    for article in results:
        print(f"{article.title}")
        print(f"Snippet: {article.snippet}")  # Matching text with <em> tags

    # Paginate through all articles
    paginator = await hc.get_articles(per_page=50)
    async for article_data in paginator:
        print(article_data["title"])

    # Update article
    await hc.update_article(
        article.id,
        title="Updated Title",
        promoted=True,
        label_names=["updated", "featured"],
    )

    # Cascade delete (removes category + all sections + all articles)
    await hc.delete_category(category.id, force=True)

Note: delete_category() and delete_section() require force=True as a safety measure since they cascade delete all child content.

Error Handling

The SDK provides specific exception classes for different error types:

from zendesk_sdk.exceptions import (
    ZendeskAuthException,
    ZendeskHTTPException,
    ZendeskRateLimitException,
    ZendeskTimeoutException,
    ZendeskValidationException,
)

async with ZendeskClient(config) as client:
    try:
        user = await client.get_user(user_id=12345)
    except ZendeskAuthException as e:
        # 401/403 - Authentication failed
        print(f"Auth error: {e.message}")
    except ZendeskRateLimitException as e:
        # 429 - Rate limit exceeded
        print(f"Rate limited, retry after: {e.retry_after}s")
    except ZendeskHTTPException as e:
        # Other HTTP errors (404, 500, etc.)
        print(f"HTTP {e.status_code}: {e.message}")
    except ZendeskTimeoutException as e:
        # Request timeout
        print(f"Timeout: {e.message}")

Automatic Retry

The SDK automatically retries on:

• Rate limiting (429) - with respect to Retry-After header
• Server errors (5xx) - with exponential backoff
• Network errors and timeouts

Configure retry behavior:

config = ZendeskConfig(
    subdomain="mycompany",
    email="[e-mail]",
    token="api_token",
    timeout=30.0,      # Request timeout in seconds
    max_retries=3,     # Number of retry attempts
)

Examples

See the examples/ directory for complete usage examples:

• basic_usage.py - Basic configuration and API operations
• pagination_example.py - Working with paginated results
• error_handling.py - Error handling patterns
• enriched_tickets.py - Loading tickets with related data
• help_center.py - Help Center categories, sections, and articles

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• httpx
• pydantic >=2.0

License

MIT License