Canned Responses
Canned Responses are short reply templates inserted by agents from the Ticket Detail conversation composer. Each response is a markdown body with optional {{variable}} substitution and either global scope or a scope tied to a specific help topic.
Accessing the Page
Section titled “Accessing the Page”- Route:
/service-desk/admin/canned-responses - Menu path: Service Desk → Settings → Canned Responses
- Primary audience: Admins (
service-desk.admin). Agents consume the resulting templates from the conversation composer.
Fields
Section titled “Fields”| Field | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | Text | Shown in the conversation composer’s response menu |
| Body | Yes | Markdown | The text inserted into the reply; supports the variables below |
| Scope | Yes | Select | Global (available on every ticket) or Help topic (available only when the ticket’s topic matches) |
| Help topic | When scope = topic | Topic selector | The single topic this response is linked to |
| Active | No | Toggle | Inactive responses hide from the composer menu |
Substitution variables
Section titled “Substitution variables”The body supports double-brace variables that are resolved at insert time (before the agent posts the reply):
| Variable | Resolves to |
|---|---|
{{actor.name}} | Display name of the agent inserting the response |
{{actor.email}} | Email of the agent |
{{ticket.number}} | Tenant-scoped ticket number (e.g. SD-00042) |
{{ticket.subject}} | Ticket subject |
{{requester.name}} | Requester display name |
Unrecognized variables are left as literal {{...}} in the body — there is no silent blanking, so a typo is visible.
Filters
Section titled “Filters”| Filter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Free text | Matches name and body |
| Show inactive | Toggle | Includes deactivated entries |
Actions
Section titled “Actions”| Action | Permission | Description |
|---|---|---|
| New Response | service-desk.admin | Opens the create dialog |
| Edit | service-desk.admin | Edit fields; changes do not affect already-inserted replies |
| Delete | service-desk.admin | Permanent — does not affect already-posted replies |
How agents use them
Section titled “How agents use them”- From Ticket Detail → Conversation tab, the agent clicks the Canned response icon in the composer.
- The menu lists every active Global response plus the Topic-scoped responses whose topic matches the ticket’s help topic.
- Selecting one inserts the rendered body (variables substituted) into the composer. The agent may edit the inserted text before posting.
- Substitution is one-shot at insert time. Once posted, a thread entry is plain text — re-editing the source canned response does not retroactively update the reply.
- Topic-scoped responses are filtered server-side based on the ticket’s
help_topic_id. A ticket with no help topic only sees Global responses. - Deleting a canned response is safe — it has no foreign-key relationship to thread entries (the rendered text is stored verbatim).
Related Pages
Section titled “Related Pages”- Ticket Detail — where these responses are inserted.
- Help Topics — the scope target for topic-scoped responses.