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Suite Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus
Support with Collaboration add-on
Support with Light agents add-on
Note: Most Zendesk Suite plans automatically include a default number of light agents based on your plan type, but you can buy more light agents if needed. These restrictions do not apply to legacy plans or add-ons.
  • Suite Growth plans include up to 50 light agents.
  • Suite Professional plans include up to 100 light agents.
  • Suite Enterprise plans include up to 1000 light agents.
  • Suite Enterprise Plus plans include up to 5000 light agents.

Light agents have limited permissions but can stay informed about tickets and, when needed, provide subject matter expertise and advice by adding private comments to the ticket. Ticket comments by light agents are private, including the first comment of any tickets they create. However, when a light agent is the ticket requester, and they're not a member of the group or brand, their private comment will be converted to public.

To assign a light agent role, see Setting roles and access in Zendesk Admin Center.

This article contains the following sections:

  • Understanding what light agents can do
  • Configuring light agent ticket access and reporting permissions
Related articles:
  • About light agents and contributors
You are prohibited from using the API or any Software to effectively provide light agents with access, functionality, or permissions that they are not otherwise permitted to use or access in the Zendesk Support Agent user interface (as set forth below).

Understanding what light agents can do

Light agents have the following access and permissions.

Note: If you've created shared macros, your light agents can't use a macro that applies an action that they don't have permission to do. For example, if you have a shared macro that changes the ticket status, light agents can access the macro but if they try to apply it, the ticket status won't change.
Area Light agents can... Light agents can't...

Tickets
  • View either tickets assigned to groups they're in or view all tickets
  • Make private comments. If they're the ticket requester and not a member of the group or brand, their private comment will be converted to public.
  • Be the ticket requester
  • Edit ticket properties at the time of ticket creation
  • Be CC'd on tickets (see Setting permissions for CCs and followers). End users won't be able to see light agents who are CC'd on a ticket.
  • Be added as a follower and add other agents as followers
  • Create tickets on behalf of existing end users. However, the end user won't be able to see it until another agent adds a public comment.
  • Edit ticket properties for tickets they're requesters on after the ticket is created
  • Add, access, and download attachments
  • Create, reply to, close, and reopen email-based side conversations
  • Add and remove tags from tickets where they're the requester. They can also bulk add tags where they're the requester but cannot bulk remove tags.
  • Use agent email forwarding to forward an email to your support address, creating a ticket with a private comment.
  • Reassign tickets to another agent in any of the light agent's groups, if they are the requester.
  • Be assigned to tickets
  • Change the ticket status, unless they're the ticket requester
  • Reassign tickets to another group, unless they are the ticket requester
  • Edit ticket properties, unless they're the ticket requester
  • CC agents or end users other than themselves, except for when they create a ticket on behalf of someone else via email
  • Use the @mention feature
  • Respond to CSAT surveys
  • Create, send, or be assigned side conversation child tickets
  • Use agent email forwarding to forward an email to your support address, creating a ticket with a public comment

People
  • View user profiles
  • Edit user profiles
  • Assume a user's identity
  • Change a user's password
  • Create new end users
  • View a user's device information

Help center (not available in Team plans)
  • View areas of the Help Center knowledge base and community that are restricted to agents
  • Add and edit articles in the knowledge base where agents have permission
  • Add and edit articles and posts in the community where agents have permission. See Creating community moderator groups.
  • Be a Guide admin (see note at left).
  • View article revisions

Reports
  • View Explore dashboards that have been shared with them in Zendesk (Professional and Enterprise plans only)
    • External link sharing is available only on Enterprise plans
  • Create Zendesk Explore queries and share dashboards

Views
  • See views
  • Filter views
  • Create or edit views

Business rules
  • Apply macros
  • (non-Enterprise plans) View triggers and automations
  • Create, view, edit or delete macros.
  • Create, edit, or delete triggers and automations. On Enterprise plans, light agents also can't view triggers or automations.
  • Typically be used as conditions in business rules

    For example, you can't create a ticket trigger notifies the assigned agent when a light agent adds a comments to a ticket. However, you can define trigger conditions that identify when the ticket requester is a light agent.

Channels

  
  • Serve a chat or messaging conversation
  • Respond to calls
  • Manage channels

Mail API

  
  • Use the Mail API

Apps
  • Use most installed Zendesk apps within Support
  • Perform permitted actions on their tickets in the Zendesk Support Mobile app
  

Configuring light agent ticket access and reporting permissions

After you understand when to use the light agent role and what they can do, you can configure some of the permissions. The method you use to configure permissions for light agents varies depending on whether you are on a Suite Growth, Professional, or Enterprise plan. You can configure options for ticket access for light agents, and, if you're on Suite Professional or above, you can additionally configure access to reports. The other light agent permissions shown in the table above can't be changed.

  • Configuring light agent permissions with Suite Growth and Professional
  • Configuring light agent permissions with Suite Enterprise

Configuring light agent permissions with Suite Growth and Professional

If you're using Suite Growth or Professional, you can configure light agent permissions for reports and ticket access.

To edit reporting and ticket permissions for light agents (Suite Growth or Professional)

  1. In Admin Center, click Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Agent interface.
  2. Next to Light Agent access, select an option for What kind of tickets can this agent access?:
    • All within this agent's group(s) for light agents to access only tickets in their groups.
    • Requested by end users in this agent's organization for light agents to access only tickets requested by end users in their organization. This also means the light agent won't be able to update organization fields for end users or lookup relationship fields that point to organizations.
    • All for light agents to access all tickets.
  3. If you selected All within this agent's group(s) above, and you want light agents to still be able to assign tickets to any group when they're the requester, also select Agent can assign to any group.
  4. For What can this agent do with reports, set Insights reporting permissions to Can view only or Cannot view.
  5. When you are finished, click Save.

Configuring light agent permissions with Suite Enterprise

If you're using Suite Enterprise, you can only configure light agent permissions for ticket access.

To edit reporting and ticket permissions for light agents (Enterprise)

You can't clone or modify the light agent role, except for the two settings for tickets and reporting.

  1. In Admin Center, click People in the sidebar, then select Team > Roles.
  2. Next to the Light agent role, click edit.

    If you are using Explore, you can only change settings in the Tickets section.

  3. Under Tickets, select an option for What kind of tickets can this agent access?:
    • Requested by end users in their organizations for light agents to access only tickets requested by end users in their organization. This also means the light agent won't be able to update organization fields for end users or lookup relationship fields that point to organizations. Light agents with Suite Enterprise can't access queries or edit Explore reports, but you can share Explore dashboards with them in view only mode.
    • All within their groups for light agents to access only tickets in their groups.
      • Assign tickets to any group for light agents to be able to assign tickets to groups they don't belong to, including private groups.
    • Within their groups and all public groups
      • Assign tickets to any group for light agents to be able to assign tickets to private groups they don't belong to.
    • All for light agents to access all tickets.
  4. If you selected All within this agent's group(s) above, and you want light agents to still be able to assign tickets to any group when they're the requester, also select Agent can assign to any group.
  5. Click Save.
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