This article describes how the Helpdesk plugin works with the Redmine Agent plugin. Everything below needs the Agent plugin installed; without it Helpdesk works as usual. All data and actions follow the permissions of the user and, for MCP, the scopes of the OAuth token. See MCP server and AI assistant tools for general setup.
What the AI gets
- Context of an issue: when the issue is a Helpdesk ticket (needs View helpdesk tickets) the model knows it is a message from a customer. For drafts of a comment or description it receives the ticket id, contact and channel; for summaries it also gets the direction of the last message, sender, ticket date, the contact card (name, company, emails, phones), reaction, first response and resolve times, the last responses and the customer vote.
- A comment written in a ticket is sent to the customer by email. The AI is told so; the draft is only inserted into the form and nothing is sent until you save it.
AI assistant tools (PRO)
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
helpdesk_ticket_read |
the conversation of a ticket: the contact, the channel, the direction of the last message and the thread (incoming messages with the replies sent after them; internal notes are marked and never quoted). The source .eml of a message can be read with read_attachment |
helpdesk_tickets_search |
the latest 10 earlier tickets of a contact: issue id, subject, status, channel and date, to see the history with this customer |
The model calls helpdesk_ticket_read before drafting a reply.
MCP tools
| Tool | Needs | Mode | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
list_helpdesk_tickets |
View helpdesk tickets | read | filter by project, contact_id, issue_id, from_address, source (email, web, phone, twitter, conversation) |
get_helpdesk_ticket |
View helpdesk tickets | read | a ticket by issue id with its journal messages; read the source email of a message with read_attachment |
create_helpdesk_ticket |
Edit helpdesk tickets | destructive | create a ticket for a contact (contact_id or email; a missing contact is created when the user has Add contacts). No email is sent unless send_as is set |
send_helpdesk_reply |
Send response and Edit helpdesk tickets | destructive | sends an email to the customer and saves it as an issue note; from_address defaults to the project settings |
Important: send_helpdesk_reply and create_helpdesk_ticket with send_as send real emails on behalf of the user without a confirmation inside Redmine. Keep the tool approval prompt of the MCP client enabled, or do not tick the scopes send_response and edit_helpdesk_tickets in the OAuth application of clients that must not send mail.