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Comparing Snapshots

The Diff Engine lets you compare two snapshots to see exactly what changed in your Zendesk configuration. This is essential for:

  • Understanding what changed between deployments
  • Auditing configuration changes
  • Troubleshooting issues introduced by recent updates
  • Reviewing changes before applying them to production

How to Compare Snapshots

From the Dashboard

  1. Navigate to your connection's dashboard
  2. Click the Compare button (or the compare icon)
  3. Select two snapshots to compare:
  4. Snapshot 1 (the "before" state)
  5. Snapshot 2 (the "after" state)
  6. Click Compare to generate the diff

From the Diff Page

  1. Go to Connections > [Your Connection] > Diff
  2. Use the snapshot selectors to choose:
  3. Before (older) — the base snapshot
  4. After (newer) — the comparison snapshot
  5. Click Compare to generate the diff
  6. Use the swap button to reverse the comparison direction

Each snapshot in the selector shows:

  • Full date and time — e.g., "14 Feb 2026, 15:30"
  • Relative time — e.g., "5m ago", "2h ago", "3d ago"

Tip

Snapshots are listed with the most recent first. To see what changed since yesterday, select yesterday's snapshot as the base and today's as the comparison.

Understanding the Diff View

When you compare two snapshots, Configly shows you three categories of changes:

Added Objects

Objects that exist in Snapshot 2 but not in Snapshot 1.

What this means:

  • New triggers, macros, or fields were created in Zendesk
  • Configuration was added between the two snapshots

Example:

Added: 3 triggers
  - "Auto-assign to billing team"
  - "Tag VIP customers"
  - "Escalate urgent tickets"

Removed Objects

Objects that exist in Snapshot 1 but not in Snapshot 2.

What this means:

  • Triggers, macros, or fields were deleted in Zendesk
  • Configuration was removed between the two snapshots

Example:

Removed: 1 macro
  - "Old escalation macro" (ID: 12345)

Modified Objects

Objects that exist in both snapshots but have different field values.

What this means:

  • The object was edited in Zendesk
  • At least one field changed (conditions, actions, name, description, etc.)

Example:

Modified: 2 automations
  - "Close old tickets" - 3 changes
  - "Remind pending tickets" - 1 change

For each modified object, Configly shows a field-by-field comparison:

Field Before After
title "Close old tickets" "Close tickets after 30 days"
active true false
conditions.all[0].value 7 30

Diff Summary

At the top of the diff view, you'll see a summary:

Total Changes: 6
  Added: 3
  Removed: 1
  Modified: 2
  Unchanged: 45

This gives you a quick sense of how much changed between the two snapshots.

By Configuration Type

The summary also breaks down changes by type:

Config Type Added Removed Modified Unchanged
Triggers 3 0 1 12
Automations 0 0 2 8
Macros 0 1 0 15
Views 0 0 0 5
Ticket Fields 0 0 0 5

This helps you understand where changes occurred.

Change Details

Click on any modified object to see exactly what changed.

Field Changes

For each modified object, Configly compares every field and highlights differences:

Example: Modified Trigger

Name: "Auto-assign to support"

Changes:
  1. conditions.all[0].field
     Before: "status"
     After: "priority"

  2. conditions.all[0].value
     Before: "new"
     After: "high"

  3. actions[0].value
     Before: "Support Team (ID: 123)"
     After: "Priority Support (ID: 456)"

Ignored Fields

Configly ignores certain fields that always change but don't affect behavior:

  • updated_at - Timestamp of last update
  • created_at - Timestamp of creation
  • url - API endpoint URL

These are excluded from the diff to reduce noise and focus on meaningful changes.

Use Cases

Before/After Deployment

Scenario: You made changes in a staging Zendesk and want to apply them to production.

Workflow:

  1. Sync your staging Zendesk before making changes
  2. Make your changes in staging
  3. Sync again after changes
  4. Compare the two snapshots to see exactly what changed
  5. Manually apply the same changes to production (or use the diff as a deployment checklist)

Troubleshooting Issues

Scenario: Agents report that tickets aren't being auto-assigned correctly.

Workflow:

  1. Identify when the issue started (e.g., "it broke yesterday")
  2. Find the snapshot from before the issue started
  3. Compare it to the current snapshot
  4. Look for changes to triggers or automations related to assignment
  5. Review the modified objects to find the problematic change

Audit and Compliance

Scenario: You need to document all configuration changes for compliance.

Workflow:

  1. Sync daily (or weekly)
  2. Regularly compare the latest snapshot to the previous one
  3. Export or document the diff results
  4. Use this as a change log for audit purposes

Understanding a Zendesk Instance

Scenario: You inherited a Zendesk instance and want to understand its configuration.

Workflow:

  1. Sync the current configuration
  2. Compare recent snapshots to see what's actively changing
  3. Identify patterns (e.g., "triggers get updated every week")
  4. Use this to understand maintenance cadence and active areas

Advanced Comparison Tips

Comparing Non-Sequential Snapshots

You can compare any two snapshots, even if they're not consecutive:

  • Compare this month's snapshot to last month's
  • Compare production to staging
  • Compare before a major project to after completion

Comparing Specific Types

If you only want to see changes to triggers:

  1. Use a selective sync to create trigger-only snapshots
  2. Compare those snapshots
  3. The diff will only show trigger changes

Alternative: Use the dashboard to view triggers and filter/search for specific changes.

Performance Considerations

Large Snapshots

If you have hundreds of objects per type, the diff view may take a few seconds to render. This is normal - Configly is comparing every field of every object.

Unchanged Objects

By default, unchanged objects are not shown in the diff view. This keeps the output focused on what actually changed. If you want to see unchanged objects, look at the summary statistics.

What the Diff Engine Doesn't Do

It Doesn't Apply Changes

Configly is a read-only tool. The diff shows you what changed, but it doesn't:

  • Push changes back to Zendesk
  • Rollback configuration
  • Sync changes between Zendesk instances

You'll need to manually apply changes in Zendesk based on the diff results.

It Doesn't Track Who Made Changes

Zendesk doesn't include "last modified by" in its API responses for most configuration types, so Configly can't show who made each change. You'll need to check Zendesk's audit log for that information.

Filtering Results

The diff view includes filters to help you focus on what matters:

  • By change type — show only added, removed, or modified objects
  • By configuration type — show only changes to triggers, macros, fields, etc.

Next Steps