Workflow WebhooksWorkflow Webhooks

How to connect Zendesk to Shopify Flow

Zendesk can call a webhook from a trigger or automation whenever a ticket changes. Workflow Webhooks turns that call into a Shopify Flow trigger, so your store can react to it: tag a customer, add an order note, send an internal email, update a metafield - anything Shopify Flow can do.

This guide sets up the whole path - Zendesk sends, Workflow Webhooks receives and verifies, Shopify Flow acts - with Zendesk's HMAC signature checked on every request, so nothing but Zendesk can start your workflow.

What you can build

  • Tag the Shopify customer behind a ticket that was escalated, so your team sees it in the admin.
  • Add an order note when a support ticket about that order is solved.
  • Email a manager when a bad satisfaction rating comes from a high-value customer.

Typical events to send: a ticket is created, a ticket is solved, a satisfaction rating comes in.

Before you begin

  • Workflow Webhooks installed on your Shopify store.
  • Shopify Flow installed, which is free from the Shopify App Store.
  • An account on Zendesk with permission to create webhooks.

Step 1 - Create the webhook in Workflow Webhooks

  1. Open Workflow Webhooks -> Webhooks -> Create webhook and give it a name you will recognise in Flow, such as Zendesk events.
  2. Under Authentication, choose HMAC.
  3. Under Signature provider, pick Zendesk. The app fills in the header, algorithm, signed payload and replay window for you - there is nothing else to configure.
  4. Leave the secret empty for now and Save. Copy the webhook URL shown on the page.

See Authentication for the other authentication modes, and Payload mapping and Flow variables for choosing which fields reach Flow.

Step 2 - Add the endpoint in Zendesk

In Zendesk Admin Center, open Apps and integrations -> Webhooks, create a webhook pointing at the URL you copied, connect it to a trigger, then use Reveal secret.

How to find your Zendesk signing secret

The signing secret of the webhook (Admin Center -> Apps and integrations -> Webhooks -> Reveal secret).

Zendesk's own documentation on webhook signatures has the exact wording and screenshots for your account.

Paste that secret into the webhook's Secret field in Workflow Webhooks and save. From that moment every Zendesk delivery is verified before it reaches Flow.

What this checks

What Value
Signature header X-Zendesk-Webhook-Signature
Where the signature sits The whole header value
What is signed {header:x-zendesk-webhook-signature-timestamp}{body}
Signature HMAC-SHA256, base64 encoded
Timestamp Not used by this sender
Replay protection None - this sender does not sign a timestamp, so every valid signature stays valid
The secret Used as plain text. Paste it exactly as the sender shows it

In the signed payload, {body} is the raw request body, byte for byte, and {header:x-zendesk-webhook-signature-timestamp} is the x-zendesk-webhook-signature-timestamp request header.

A request that fails any of these is rejected with 401, is recorded in History and troubleshooting, and never starts a workflow.

Step 3 - Build the Shopify Flow workflow

  1. In Shopify Flow, create a workflow and choose the Workflow Webhooks trigger.
  2. Press Record events, then send a test event from Zendesk (or use Send test in Workflow Webhooks) so Flow learns the shape of your data.
  3. Every webhook you own fires the same Flow trigger, so add a first condition on the webhook id to keep this workflow to Zendesk only. The id is shown on the webhook page.
  4. Add your actions - tag a customer, add a note, send an internal email, update a metafield.

Step 4 - Test it end to end

Trigger a real event in Zendesk. In Workflow Webhooks -> History you should see the invocation with status Success. If the signature was wrong you get a failed entry with the reason instead, and Verifying signed webhooks explains the signature tester that shows you exactly which step failed.

The signature does not match▾

In this order: the secret (the most common cause - an extra space, or a key from the wrong environment), whether the sender is using a different endpoint's secret, and whether anything between Zendesk and the app rewrites the body. Signatures cover the raw bytes, so a proxy that re-formats JSON breaks them. The signature tester on the webhook page shows the exact text that was signed.

I get 401 on every request▾

Check that the webhook's authentication is set to HMAC with the Zendesk provider selected, that the secret is filled in, and that Zendesk is posting to the URL exactly as the app shows it, including the code at the end.

Nothing appears in History▾

The request never arrived. Re-check the URL in Zendesk, and look at Zendesk's own delivery log for the response it got. A 404 means a wrong or deleted webhook, a 429 means you are over your plan's invocation limit - see Plans and usage.

The workflow runs for the wrong events▾

Every webhook in your store fires the same Flow trigger. Add a condition on the webhook id as the first step of the workflow, or narrow the events you send from Zendesk.