Guide steps in workflows

Plans and permissions:

• Add-on: AI agents, billed separately
• Add or edit a Guide step: Admin, Manager, or Team Lead role, or a custom role with Workflows set to Can create, edit, and delete workflows

Use a Guide step to describe how to handle a case in plain language, the way you’d train a team member, instead of building a separate step for every lookup, decision, and reply. One Guide step can check data, call your APIs and connector tools, use knowledge articles and macros, update the ticket, and reply to the customer.

To add one, open a workflow in AI support > Workflows, select + after a step, select Add step, and choose Guide.

How Guide steps work

• You write the instructions in Response instructions. The AI agent follows them in order, deciding which branch applies from the conversation and the data it has.
• To use data, a tool, an article, or another step, insert a reference: type @, or select Insert block, and choose it from the list. The reference appears as a chip in your instructions.
• In chat, the instructions can also show the customer a button list or a carousel to choose from. See Interactive replies.
• The AI agent uses only what’s inserted as a reference. A name typed as plain text, such as “use the get_customer_info tool”, isn’t reliable.
• A Guide step can use any variable that earlier steps created, and it can set smart fields for later steps to use.
• Enable knowledge access lets the AI agent search your knowledge base to answer questions. To limit it to some articles, choose tags under Only use articles with these tags.
• Articles you insert in the instructions are always available to the AI agent.
• Because the logic is in the instructions, the same Guide step can work on email, chat, and voice. Use the channel reference to change what happens on each.

When to use a Guide step

Use a Guide step when:

• The workflow would need more than five or six separate steps.
• The workflow runs on live channels, chat or voice, which need more flexible logic.
• The same workflow needs to work on several channels.
• The logic has several branches or conditions.

Use separate steps instead when:

• You need one simple action, such as a single ticket update.
• You need an exact, technical integration, where a dedicated Custom API tool step gives you more control over the request and its branches.
• You need a comparison with exactly one right answer, such as two dates matching. See Does the step compare two exact values?.

Build a Guide step

1. Add a Guide step to the workflow and, optionally, enter a Step name.

2. In Response instructions, write the steps in plain language, based on or copied from your SOP. For example:

   1. Check their account
   2. If the account is in good standing, process their request
   3. If the account has issues, explain how to fix them
   4. Update the ticket

3. Replace the parts that need data or an action with references. Type @ and choose the variable, tool, article, or step:

   1. Check @account_status for email @customer_email
   2. If @account_status equals "active", process their request
   3. If @account_status equals "suspended", use @account_suspension_article
   4. Update the ticket status to "solved"

4. Select Save step, then save or publish the workflow.

5. Test the workflow with typical requests, the same request phrased differently, edge cases such as missing data or an API error, and unexpected replies from the customer. See Building workflows.

What you can reference

Type @ in Response instructions, or select Insert block, to insert any of these.

Smart fields

Reusable fields set up in Configure > Smart fields. Use them to read a value, or to set one based on the logic in your instructions, such as “if X, set the field to Y”. See Smart fields.

Workflow data

The output of earlier steps in the workflow, such as API results, Analyze case variables, and lookup results. System values are here too, such as the channel (_channel), the current date (_current_date), and the day of the week (_day_of_week).

Channel

How the customer contacted you, so you can change what happens on phone, chat, or email without building separate workflows.

Google Sheets lookup

Select Configure Google sheets lookup and point to a sheet. The AI agent searches the sheet and finds the matching row.

API endpoints

Call an endpoint set up in Configure > Tools and connectors, with its smart field mappings and request body, without a separate Custom API tool step. See Custom API endpoints.

Connector tools

Call an MCP tool or a SQL query tool from a connector. See MCP connectors and Database connectors.

Knowledge articles

The AI agent uses the article to write an informed reply, so you don’t need to paste its text or rewrite its steps.

Canned responses

Reuse a Zendesk macro in the reply.

Zendesk ticket fields

Set the Ticket status, other ticket fields, and their values.

Chat agent interactive replies

Add a Button list or Carousel to a chat reply. See Interactive replies.

Reference a new step

Creates a new step, such as a reply or a handoff, and continues there when the instructions say so.

Reference existing step

Continues at a step that’s already in the workflow.

Exit guide

Ends the Guide step, for example when the issue is resolved.

Example: return requests

This Guide step handles return requests. It looks up the order through an API endpoint, checks the return policy in a Google Sheet, replies with a macro, updates the ticket, and hands off to a person when the request is outside the policy.