Zammad

AGPL helpdesk with a documented REST API for tickets, users, organizations and the knowledge base.

AdaptableOperable Business appWeb app Deterministic RubyJavaScript API License: AGPL-3.0

Web-based ticketing across email, chat, phone and social channels, owned by the Zammad Foundation and developed by Zammad GmbH. Self-host free with Docker Compose, DEB/RPM or Helm; the same company sells hosting. The REST API at /api/v1 with token auth is the agent interface; community MCP wrappers exist.

Use it when

I need a proper ticket queue with SLAs for a small support team and want it on our own server
I want our agent to triage and answer tickets through a stable REST API

Gotchas

Needs Elasticsearch for search; the compose stack runs five services
AGPL: modifications to a hosted copy must be published
Hosted edition has no free plan; only self-host is free

Last activity Sep 2, 2026. Fit: adaptable 2, operable 3.

Editions

Community (self-hosted) · Free open source

Clonegit clone https://github.com/zammad/zammad
ImageContainer
DownloadDownload

Hosted · Free closed source

HostedOpen the hosted app

For agents: JSON · Markdown

Adaptable: what is yours to change

Make it yours

Config only19 things to editadmin-ui surface

zammad-docker-compose/.env.dist (VERSION, POSTGRES_*, ELASTICSEARCH_*, NGINX_PORT, ZAMMAD_FQDN, TZ, backup settings) is deployment configuration only. Business adaptation lives in the admin UI: Channels (email, chat, forms), Triggers and Schedulers, SLAs, Text Modules, Groups and Roles, and Object Manager for custom fields.

Env vars: VERSION IMAGE_REPO POSTGRES_HOST POSTGRES_DB POSTGRES_USER POSTGRES_PASS NGINX_PORT NGINX_EXPOSE_PORT ZAMMAD_RAILSSERVER_PORT ELASTICSEARCH_VERSION ELASTICSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS REDIS_URL MEMCACHE_SERVERS BACKUP_DIR BACKUP_TIME HOLD_DAYS TZ
Config files: zammad-docker-compose/.env.dist zammad-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
Prompt files: none
Accounts you need: SMTP/IMAP mailbox per channelZammad GmbH account (hosted edition only)

Source

github.com/zammad/zammad
AGPL-3.0 license
Last commit Sep 2, 2026
5,886 stars

Also: zammad/zammad-docker-compose

Operable: what an agent can drive

Interface

OfficialAPIpublished by the builderremote or local

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: docs.zammad.org/en/latest/api/intro.html

Reach

Partial coverage. 6 of 9 jobs reachable through the stated interface.

Job	Through the interface	Evidence
Create, update and search tickets	Reachable	docs.zammad.org API: /api/v1/tickets with search
Reply on a ticket (articles)	Reachable	Ticket articles endpoint in the API docs
Manage users and organizations	Reachable	/api/v1/users and /api/v1/organizations
Manage groups and roles	Reachable	Groups and roles endpoints listed in the API intro
Read and write knowledge base articles	Reachable	Knowledgebase listed among searchable endpoints in the API intro
Use macros, templates and text modules	Reachable	Macros, Templates and Text modules listed in the API intro
Run live chat sessions	Undetermined	Chat Sessions endpoint mentioned but not detailed on the intro page
Configure triggers and schedulers	Undetermined	Not covered on the API intro page
Pull reports	Undetermined	Not covered on the API intro page

Code stack

Languages: RubyJavaScript
Frameworks: Ruby on RailsVue.js
Package manager: bundler + pnpm
Database: PostgreSQLElasticsearchRedisMemcached
Hosting target: Docker ComposeDEB/RPMHelm
Built: Human-written (recorded, never ranked)

Evidence and confidence

Field	Where it was seen	Confidence
formFactor	README: web-based helpdesk; Docker, DEB/RPM, Helm	95%
executionModel	No model dependency in README or compose stack	70%
operability	docs.zammad.org/en/latest/api/intro.html: /api/v1 with token auth	95%
effort	zammad-docker-compose .env.dist and docker-compose.yml variable names	90%
editions	README: AGPLv3 source, cloud service at zammad.com/en/pricing with free trial	80%
active	GitHub pushedAt 2026-09-02	–
reach		75%

Open questions

Hosted plan prices
Does recent Zammad ship AI features (summaries, assistants) that would make executionModel hybrid?
API coverage for triggers, schedulers and reports

Sources

github.com/zammad/zammad sourcing:smb-ops-crm:github
docs.zammad.org/en/latest/api/intro.html sourcing:smb-ops-crm:github
github.com/zammad/zammad-docker-compose analysis