Browse / Support and bookkeeping
osTicket
Widely deployed GPL support ticket system whose own API only creates tickets; MCP wrappers need a companion plugin.
osTicket turns email, phone, and web-form inquiries into tickets for agents, with departments, SLAs, help topics, canned responses, and a knowledge base. It is free under GPL-2.0 with hosted SupportSystem and commercial support from the Builder. The official API is ticket creation only, so agent operability runs through third-party MCP wrappers that depend on an extra osTicket API plugin.
- we need a plain email-to-ticket help desk that thousands of small teams already run and our own IT can host on PHP and MySQL
- we mostly need our agent to open tickets from other systems; reading and updating them is a nice-to-have we accept a plugin for
- Official API is creation-only; every read or update path needs a third-party plugin and wrapper
- Recommended wrapper has 1 star and depends on the NKS osTicket API plugin being installed
- Last push 2026-06-17, inside the window but the slowest of the support picks
- GPL-2.0 copyleft
Last activity Jun 17, 2026. Fit: adaptable 2, operable 1.
Editions
Free (self-hosted) · Free open source
- Clone
git clone https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket - DownloadDownload
SupportSystem (hosted) · Free closed source
- HostedOpen the hosted app
Adaptable: what is yours to change
Make it yours
Config only2 things to edit
The installer copies include/ost-sampleconfig.php to include/ost-config.php with DBHOST, DBNAME, DBUSER, SECRET_SALT, ADMIN_EMAIL, TABLE_PREFIX, TRUSTED_PROXIES, and optional SESSION_BACKEND/MEMCACHE_SERVERS. Help topics, departments, SLAs, forms, canned responses, and email accounts are all admin-panel settings. Plugins (include/plugins) extend auth, storage, and the API; language packs are downloaded from osticket.com.
- Env vars
- none
- Config files
include/ost-config.phpinclude/ost-sampleconfig.php- Prompt files
- none
- Accounts you need
- none for self-host; SupportSystem account for the hosted edition
Source
- github.com/osTicket/osTicket
- GPL-2.0 license
- Last commit Jun 17, 2026
- 3,903 stars
Operable: what an agent can drive
Interface
WrappedMCP serverthird partylocal
How an agent can drive an Operable Listing, in five levels: native (built for the agent as the primary interface), official (the Builder ships an agent interface), wrapped (a third party wraps the software's API), config (an agent can only drive it by editing files), gui (screen control only). An interface is official only when it is published by the same organization that ships the software. GUI-level Listings are allowed and sorted last.
- Docs
- github.com/nks-hub/nks-osticket-mcp
- Recommended wrapper
- github.com/nks-hub/nks-osticket-mcpPushed 2026-08-18 (most recent), 14 tools: tickets CRUD, search, stats, subtickets, attachments; MIT; 1 star. Requires the NKS osTicket API plugin on the osTicket side. Runner-up: https://github.com/markus-michalski/claude-mcp-osTicket (4 stars, MIT, pushed 2026-04-01).
Reach
Partial coverage. 5 of 10 jobs reachable through the stated interface.
| Job | Through the interface | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Create tickets | Reachable | official api/tickets.json and api/tickets.email with an API key; wrapper also creates |
| Search and read tickets | Reachable | wrapper description: search and tickets CRUD, through the NKS API plugin; not possible with the official API |
| Update status, assign, and close | Reachable | wrapper CRUD over the NKS plugin; official API states no modifications or deletions |
| Reply to the user or post internal notes | Undetermined | wrapper lists CRUD and attachments; reply posting not named |
| Ticket statistics | Reachable | wrapper description: stats |
| Knowledge base and FAQ | Not reachable | not in the official API or the wrapper description |
| Help topics, SLAs, ticket filters | Not reachable | admin panel configuration only |
| Agents, teams, departments admin | Not reachable | admin panel only |
| Email piping into tickets | Reachable | api/pipe.php and api/tickets.email accept MIME messages |
| Customer self-service portal | Not reachable | end-user web UI |
Code stack
- Languages
- PHPJavaScript
- Frameworks
- none
- Package manager
- –
- Database
- MySQL
- Hosting target
- self-host (Apache or IIS)
- Built
- Human-written (recorded, never ranked)
Evidence and confidence
| Field | Where it was seen | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| formFactor | README: HTTP server with IIS or Apache, PHP 8.2-8.4, MySQL | 95% |
| executionModel | no model dependencies | 90% |
| operability | docs.osticket.com API page: creation of tickets only; nks-hub/nks-osticket-mcp description lists 14 tools over the NKS API | 70% |
| effort | include/ost-sampleconfig.php defines DBHOST, DBNAME, SECRET_SALT, ADMIN_EMAIL, TRUSTED_PROXIES | 85% |
| editions | README: completely free, GPL2; commercial support link; SupportSystem hosted edition per sourcing | 60% |
| active | gh api: pushed 2026-06-17, 3903 stars | – |
| reach | 60% |
Open questions
- SupportSystem hosted pricing (osticket.com/pricing returned 404)
- Whether the NKS API plugin is open source and maintained
- Reply and note posting through the wrapper
Sources
- github.com/osTicket/osTicket sourcing:support-bookkeeping:curated
- docs.osticket.com/en/latest/Developer%20Documentation/API/Tickets.html sourcing:support-bookkeeping:curated
- github.com/nks-hub/nks-osticket-mcp sourcing:support-bookkeeping:registries