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Apply Changes

Apply Changes lets you push your tested What-If simulation changes directly to your live Zendesk instance. Instead of manually recreating changes in Zendesk, you can review, confirm, and apply them from Configly with a complete audit trail and one-click rollback.

How It Works

  1. Simulate -- enable What-If Mode and make your virtual edits
  2. Review -- use the impact analysis to understand the consequences of your changes
  3. Apply -- click Apply Changes in the What-If toolbar
  4. Select -- choose which changes to push (or select all)
  5. Explain -- enter a mandatory change reason describing why you're making these changes
  6. Confirm -- review drift warnings and the rate estimate, then confirm
  7. Done -- Configly pushes your changes to Zendesk and logs the results

The Apply Flow

Step 1: Select Changes

The Apply Changes dialog shows all your pending virtual edits as a checklist. Select the changes you want to push, or use "Select All" to push everything.

Each change shows:

  • Object type and name (e.g., "Trigger: Auto-assign to billing team")
  • What was changed (e.g., "Modified conditions, updated actions")

Step 2: Enter Change Reason

Every apply requires a change reason. This is mandatory and cannot be skipped. The reason is stored in the audit trail and helps your team understand why changes were made when reviewing Apply History.

Good change reasons are specific:

  • "Updating auto-assignment rules for new billing team structure"
  • "Disabling deprecated escalation triggers per Q1 cleanup"
  • "Adding priority field requirement to enterprise ticket form"

Step 3: Review and Confirm

Before applying, Configly shows you:

  • Drift warnings -- whether any objects changed in Zendesk since your simulation (see Drift Detection below)
  • Rate estimate -- how many API calls will be made and approximately how long it will take (e.g., "~4 API calls, ~2s")
  • Instance type -- a red "Production" or green "Sandbox" badge so you know exactly where changes are going

Step 4: Results

After applying, the dialog shows per-object results -- which changes succeeded and which (if any) failed, with error details.

Change Reasons and Audit Trail

Every apply operation is logged with:

  • Date and time of the apply
  • Who performed it
  • Change reason they provided
  • Which objects were changed
  • Status of each object (success or failure)
  • Pre-push snapshot of every affected object

This creates a complete audit trail that your team can review at any time from the Apply History page.

Drift Detection

Drift detection protects you from overwriting changes that someone else made in Zendesk while you were working in simulation mode.

Before applying, Configly fetches the current state of each object from Zendesk and compares it to the version your simulation was based on. Only fields you actually changed are checked.

Non-conflicting Drift

If someone changed a field you didn't touch, Configly shows a warning but still allows you to apply. For example:

  • You changed a trigger's conditions
  • Someone else changed the trigger's name in Zendesk
  • These changes don't conflict -- Configly warns you but lets you proceed

Conflicting Drift

If someone changed the same field you changed, Configly blocks the apply by default. For example:

  • You changed a trigger's conditions
  • Someone else also changed the trigger's conditions in Zendesk
  • This is a conflict -- you need to decide which version to keep

You can choose to force apply for non-conflicting drift, overriding the warning.

Selective Apply

You don't have to push all your changes at once. The Apply Changes dialog lets you select individual changes via checkboxes, so you can:

  • Apply a few changes now and save the rest for later
  • Test one change at a time on a sandbox instance
  • Skip changes you're not confident about yet

Rollback

Every apply operation creates a snapshot of each object's state before the changes were pushed. If something goes wrong, you can rollback:

  1. Go to Apply History
  2. Find the operation you want to undo
  3. Click Rollback
  4. Configly generates virtual changes that would restore the pre-push state
  5. Review the rollback changes in What-If Mode
  6. Apply the rollback when you're ready

Rollback doesn't happen automatically -- it generates virtual changes for you to review first, so you stay in control.

Apply History

The Apply History page shows every apply operation for a connection:

Column Description
Date When the apply was performed
User Who performed it
Change Reason Why the changes were made
Status Completed, partial, or failed
Objects How many objects were changed
Actions Rollback button

Click any row to expand it and see per-object results, including:

  • Object type and name
  • Whether the apply succeeded or failed for that object
  • Error details if it failed

Safety Features

Apply Changes is designed to be safe by default:

  • Mandatory change reasons -- you can't push changes without explaining why
  • Drift detection -- warns you when objects changed since your simulation
  • Pre-push snapshots -- every object's state is captured before changes are applied
  • Instance type badge -- clearly shows whether you're pushing to production or sandbox
  • Rate limit estimation -- shows how many API calls will be made before you confirm
  • Concurrent protection -- only one apply can run at a time per connection
  • Selective apply -- push only the changes you're confident about
  • One-click rollback -- undo any apply from the history page

Supported Object Types

Apply Changes supports all editable Zendesk object types. The following types can be pushed to Zendesk:

Objects & Rules

Triggers, Automations, Macros, Views, SLA Policies, Trigger Categories, Ticket Fields, Ticket Forms, Custom Statuses, Custom Objects, Custom Object Fields, Routing Attributes, Routing Attribute Values, Queues, Workspaces, Support Addresses

People

Groups, User Fields, Organisation Fields, Custom Roles

Channels

Webhooks, Targets, Sharing Agreements

Account

Brands, Schedules, OAuth Clients

Apps & Integrations

App Installations, Apps Owned, OAuth Global Clients, Resource Collections

Guide

Articles, Sections, Categories, Themes, User Segments, Permission Groups

AI

Dynamic Content

Read-only types

Some types cannot be updated via the Zendesk API: Tags, Locales, Account Settings, and Ticket Settings. These are display-only in Configly.

Connection Permissions

To use Apply Changes, your Zendesk connection needs write access. Your connection dashboard shows a scope badge indicating your current permission level:

  • Read + Write -- Apply Changes is available
  • Read Only -- you need to re-authorize your connection to enable Apply Changes

If your connection only has read access, Configly will prompt you to re-authorize when you try to apply changes.

GitHub Integration

When GitHub Sync is connected, every apply operation automatically commits the changed objects to your GitHub repository as human-readable YAML. The commit includes your change reason as the commit message and is attributed to you (your name and email). No extra action is required -- GitHub stays in sync transparently.

The Apply History page shows a GitHub column with commit SHA links so you can view the exact YAML diff for each apply.

Next Steps