One-on-one autopilot: the Zendesk → Slack cheat sheet

I wanted a manager to be able to show up to every 1:1 with a clean cheat sheet and zero prep. The idea first hit when my manager was juggling about 15 direct reports and weekly 1:1s. I did not build the tool at that company and they never used it, but the pain point stuck with me. Later I coded a small bot to make the prep disappear: show up with a shared summary of recent work and a few discussion flags. No homework. Just signal.

What it does (by system)

What happens in Google Calendar

• GitHub Actions checks Google Calendar every 5 minutes for upcoming meetings with "1on1" in the title.
• When it finds one starting soon, it grabs the attendee email that is not the organizer (the direct report) and the start time.
• If the meeting is within the lead window (about 30 minutes), it triggers the next step.

What happens in Zendesk

• Using that attendee email, the bot looks up the matching Zendesk user.
• It pulls a focused snapshot for the last 7 days (configurable): tickets handled and solved, positive CSAT count and ratio, reopens, SLA breaches, urgent or open items, on-hold items older than N days, and tickets older than N days.
• It collects links for anything that needs attention so you can jump straight in.

What happens in Slack

• The bot formats the Zendesk snapshot into a compact, readable post: headline stats first, flags with links next, and a short "prompts for the 1:1" block.
• It posts the summary to the designated Slack channel about 30 minutes before the meeting so both manager and rep see the same truth.

Using it in your 1:1

1. Put "1on1" in your recurring meeting title and invite the rep's email that matches their Zendesk user.
2. About 30 minutes before the meeting, a summary lands in Slack with links and a few prompts.
3. Use the time for patterns, coaching, and decisions instead of screensharing dashboards.

Sample Slack post

Setup and docs

For installation, configuration, and environment variables, see the README:
https://github.com/dc-larsen/zendesk-slackbot#readme