# Vendor facets — Zendesk. Helpdesk with a hosted Help Center (knowledge base), community forums on
# Professional and up, and host mapping onto the provider's own subdomain. Headline: one 2-point
# pointer check (support_channel, ~45% catalog pass rate, not saturated), plus getting-started and
# authentication pages only where the provider actually writes them there. No native llms.txt, and
# its MCP work is Zendesk consuming MCP servers, not publishing one for the provider's API.
vendor: zendesk
name: Zendesk
website: https://www.zendesk.com
areas:
- support
registry_keys:
- zendesk
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  Zendesk moves one check on its own: a declared Help Center or community is a support channel, worth
  2 points in developer ergonomics. Its knowledge base can also carry a getting-started guide and an authentication
  page, but only if the provider writes those pages for its API and declares them; Zendesk supplies the
  shelf, not the content. It has no native llms.txt (a community request has been under review since January
  2026), and its MCP connectivity makes Zendesk an MCP client, which scores nothing for the provider's
  API.
features:
- id: help-center
  name: Help Center knowledge base
  description: >-
    Hosted, themeable knowledge base of articles in sections and categories, with a knowledge builder
    that drafts articles from ticket data.
  source: https://www.zendesk.com/service/help-center/
  tier: paid
- id: host-mapping
  name: Host mapping
  description: >-
    Serves the Help Center on a subdomain of the provider's own domain (e.g. support.example.com) with
    Zendesk-provisioned SSL; agent and sign-in pages stay on zendesk.com.
  source: >-
    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838571930-Host-mapping-Changing-the-URL-of-your-help-center
  tier: paid
- id: community
  name: Help Center community forums
  description: >-
    Discussion topics and posts inside the Help Center where customers ask and answer questions; Professional,
    Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
  source: >-
    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882689306-Planning-and-activating-community-in-your-help-center
  tier: paid
- id: generative-search
  name: Generative search in the Help Center
  description: >-
    Answers help-center searches with a generated response grounded in the provider's articles, with source
    links.
  source: https://www.zendesk.com/service/help-center/
  tier: paid
- id: mcp-client
  name: MCP connections in action flows
  description: >-
    Lets Zendesk admins connect Zendesk to external MCP servers and use their tools in action flows (Zendesk
    as MCP client, early access).
  source: >-
    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10497779528730-Connecting-to-MCP-servers-and-using-MCP-tools-in-action-flows
  tier: paid
maps:
- feature: help-center
  check: support_channel
  layer: composite
  credit: 1.0
  provider_must: >-
    Declare the Help Center (or its community) in apis.yml common[] as HelpCenter, Support or Community.
    The check is binary: a Help Center and a community together earn the same 2 points as either one.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.45
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.69
- feature: help-center
  check: getting_started_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider writes a real getting-started guide for its API as a Help Center article and
    declares that article as GettingStarted. Most Zendesk help centers hold end-user product help, not
    API onboarding.
  provider_must: Write the guide and declare its URL as GettingStarted.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.206
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 5
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.636
- feature: help-center
  check: authentication_documented
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider documents its API authentication in a Help Center article and declares it as
    Authentication. Zendesk has no API-auth template; the content is entirely the provider's.
  provider_must: Write the page and declare its URL as Authentication.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.368
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 5
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.94
  saturated: true
  saturated_note: >-
    94% of providers with a contract, docs and a reference already earn this; the vendor cannot move it
    for most of its buyers.
earns_nothing:
- feature: community
  check: support_channel
  why: >-
    The community is a second way to earn the same binary 2-point check the Help Center already earns;
    it adds nothing on top.
- feature: host-mapping
  why: >-
    No check reads which host a support pointer lives on; support.example.com and example.zendesk.com
    score the same.
- feature: generative-search
  check: llms_txt_published
  why: >-
    AI answers rendered inside the Help Center page are not an llms.txt and are not a published artifact
    any check reads.
- feature: mcp-client
  check: mcp_server
  layer: agent_readiness
  why: Zendesk consuming external MCP servers is not the provider publishing an MCP server for its own
    API.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - llms_txt_published
  - status_page_present
  - change_log_present
  - contract_present
  - api_reference_present
  - sdk_count_1
  note: >-
    No native llms.txt for help centers (community idea "Support llms.txt files for Zendesk knowledge
    bases", under review as of July 2026; a third-party marketplace app generates one), no status page
    product, and nothing that produces a contract, reference or SDK.
unscored_practice:
- feature: generative-search
  why: >-
    Grounded AI answers over the provider's own articles are a real agent-facing support practice; no
    check reads them.
surface:
  developer_ergonomics:
    reachable: 12.0
    total: 42
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 0
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- >-
  https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10497779528730-Connecting-to-MCP-servers-and-using-MCP-tools-in-action-flows
- >-
  https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838571930-Host-mapping-Changing-the-URL-of-your-help-center
- >-
  https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882689306-Planning-and-activating-community-in-your-help-center
- https://www.zendesk.com/service/help-center/
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 20
    in_baseline: 5
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5211
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 5 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 3995
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.9
    p90: 1.0
    max: 1.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.9
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.0
    p90: 0.0
    max: 0.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.0
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    developer_ergonomics: 4.8
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 217
    emerging -> thin: 66
    developing -> strong: 34
    strong -> exemplar: 8
    minimal -> emerging: 1
  agent_readiness_band_moves: {}
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written