The Freshdesk API, Practically
The Freshdesk API is clean, REST and well documented. Most of the work is knowing which endpoint to use and respecting the rate limit.
Freshdesk API authentication
Freshdesk uses your API key as the username in HTTP basic auth, with anything as the password. The key sits in your agent profile settings.
The key inherits that agent permissions, so create a dedicated service agent rather than borrowing an admin account somebody might deactivate. It also means an API integration can only do what that agent could do in the interface, which is a useful safety property.
The endpoints you will use
Rate limits and how to behave
Limits are per minute and vary by plan, and some endpoints cost more than one credit per call. The response headers tell you what you've left, so read them rather than guessing.
What the API will not decide for you
It will merge tickets on request. It won't tell you which two tickets are the same request, and that's the entire difficulty.
Building that yourself means holding a live index of the open queue, scoring similarity across subject and body, resolving identity across email addresses and domains, tuning thresholds, handling exclusions, and keeping all of it working as your queue changes. It is a product rather than a script, which is why automatic merging exists as a separate thing.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Freshdesk API documentation for creating a ticket?
The Freshdesk API documentation lives at developers.freshdesk.com. For a Freshdesk API create ticket call you POST to /api/v2/tickets with an email or requester_id, a subject, a description and a status.
Where do I find my Freshdesk API key?
In your agent profile settings. It authenticates as that agent, so use a dedicated service agent for integrations.
What is the Freshdesk API rate limit?
Per minute, varying by plan, with some endpoints costing more credits. Read the rate limit headers on every response.
Can the API merge tickets?
Merging is available programmatically, but choosing which tickets to merge is the part you have to build.
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