Freshdesk to GitHub Issues, with the code already found
The short answer
Connect Freshdesk, GitHub Issues and your code. When an agent escalates a ticket, Watari works out whether it is a real bug, writes a report an engineer can act on, points to the file and function behind it, and files it in GitHub Issues. If it is confident enough it also opens a draft pull request for your engineers to review. Reports of the same bug become one issue. Once the fix is deployed, an update goes back to every ticket that reported it.
What arrives in GitHub Issues
- An issue in the repository you chose, with the title, description, steps to reproduce, severity, and a link back to the full report in Watari.
- The files and functions most likely to contain the bug, ranked, with the reasoning for each.
- A link to the draft pull request when Watari opened one. Your engineers and your CI decide what merges.
- One issue per bug. When more tickets report the same problem they are attached to the issue that already exists.
- A feature request carries the behaviour the customer asked for, so it reads as a request and not as a defect.
Set it up
Connect Freshdesk
In Watari, open Settings, then Connected tools, and connect Freshdesk with your Freshdesk address and an API key.
Choose which tickets Watari reads
Create one automation rule in Freshdesk that fires when a ticket is escalated, for example when it moves to your Engineering group. Watari gives you the exact address, header and body to paste.
Connect your code
Connect the GitHub or Azure DevOps repository the product lives in. Watari reads it so it can find where a reported bug lives, and never keeps a copy of your source code.
Connect GitHub Issues
Install the Watari GitHub App and choose the repository issues should land in. You can also have each issue filed in the repository the bug was found in.
Escalate a ticket
An agent moves the ticket to that group, or sets its type. The bug report, the code it points to and the GitHub Issues issue follow without anyone rewriting anything.
Step by step, with screenshots: connect your support tool and choose where issues are filed.
What Watari reads in Freshdesk
The subject, description, public replies and private notes, priority, tags, the requester's company, and every attachment: screenshots, screen recordings, PDFs, logs and voice notes.
Your agents decide what Watari sees. It reads only the tickets they send, never the whole help desk.
What is filed in GitHub Issues
By default Watari files the bugs it is confident about and has located in your code, so GitHub Issues does not fill up with guesses. You can switch that to every bug it extracts.
In a public repository, the issue leaves out the customer's own words and any attachment links, and links to the report in Watari instead. Your customer's ticket is never published.
Filing in GitHub Issues is included in every plan and is never billed.
What the customer hears
Private notes on the ticket as the issue moves, each with a reply your agent can send now. They are on by default, you can switch them off, and your customer never sees them. Once the fix is live, one public reply on the ticket, or a private note if you prefer. Your team approves the wording first, and it waits for the deploy, so nobody tells a customer something is fixed before it is.
What it does not do
Filing can be switched off on its own, so a team that only wants the code located and pull requests drafted never has an issue opened in its repository.
Watari needs your code on GitHub or Azure DevOps (cloud). GitLab and Bitbucket are not supported yet. If all you need is to link a ticket to an issue by hand, a plain linking app between Freshdesk and GitHub Issues does that, and you do not need Watari for it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Freshdesk ticket create a GitHub Issues issue automatically, with the customer's message in it?
Yes. An agent moves the ticket to that group, or sets its type. Watari then files the GitHub Issues issue on its own, with the customer's own words in the description, the steps to reproduce and the code it points to. In a public repository, the issue leaves out the customer's own words and any attachment links, and links to the report in Watari instead. Your customer's ticket is never published.
How do I send Freshdesk tickets to GitHub Issues?
Connect Freshdesk, GitHub Issues and your repository in Watari, then choose which tickets it reads. From then on, escalating a ticket files a structured bug report in GitHub Issues with the code it points to.
Does every Freshdesk ticket become a GitHub Issues issue?
No. Only the tickets your agents escalate reach Watari, and by default only real bugs it has located in your code are filed. A ticket that needs no code change gets a suggested answer for your support team and no issue.
What happens when several customers report the same bug?
They are grouped. GitHub Issues gets one issue, and each new ticket is attached to it, so engineering sees the bug once along with how many customers it affects.
Does filing in GitHub Issues cost extra?
No. Watari bills for issues it maps to your code. Filing in GitHub Issues, draft pull requests and customer updates are included.
Does the customer get an update in Freshdesk?
Yes. After the fix is merged and deployed, an update your team approved is posted to every ticket that reported the bug.
When a support ticket reports a bug, your engineers get a drafted fix.
Connect your help desk or your issue tracker, then GitHub or Azure DevOps. Watari maps each bug to the exact file and function in your code and drafts the fix as a pull request your CI checks.
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