Helpdesk Pro
A helpdesk and request tracker for Grav 2.0, with a staff desk in Admin Next, a client portal, and a knowledge base built from Grav pages.
Helpdesk Pro is a helpdesk and request tracker that runs inside your Grav site. Staff work tickets in a desk inside Admin Next, clients follow their requests in a portal on your site (usually at /help), and your help articles are ordinary Grav pages that the portal searches before anyone writes in. Everything is stored in one SQLite file that you control.
Important
Premium products require the free License Manager plugin. Install it and add your product license before installing Helpdesk Pro.
Requirements
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
Grav >= 2.0.0 |
Helpdesk Pro is not compatible with Grav 1.7 |
PHP >= 8.3 |
With the pdo_sqlite, sqlite3, mbstring and dom extensions |
API plugin >= 1.0.0 |
Powers the desk in Admin Next and the REST API |
Login plugin >= 3.9.0 |
Client and staff accounts |
Email plugin >= 5.2.0 |
All outgoing mail. Receiving email needs 5.3.0 or later |
Form plugin >= 9.0.0 |
The request form's captcha |
| Admin Next | Where staff work. Staff need api.access |
The database is SQLite only, and it is bundled: there is no database server to set up and no MySQL or PostgreSQL option.
Optional plugins add more:
| Plugin | Adds |
|---|---|
sync |
Live updates in the desk and the portal, without a reload |
sync-mercure (1.2.2 or later) or sync-ably |
Instant push delivery for live updates instead of polling |
yetisearch-pro |
Shared semantic search settings, when you use semantic search in both |
Helpdesk Pro works without any of them. Without sync, screens refresh when you come back to them instead of updating live.
What's in the box
- A staff desk in Admin Next: My work, All tickets with filter chips, boards, triage, replies and internal notes, saved replies and macros, saved views, bulk edit and keyboard shortcuts.
- A client portal where clients sign in with an emailed link (no password needed), follow their requests, reply, mark a request solved and reopen it. Guests can send requests too, behind a captcha, rate limits and a spam score.
- A knowledge base made of Grav pages, with search, topic cards, "Was this helpful?", and suggestions while people type their request.
- Email in and out: branded client email that threads properly, replies by email from clients and staff, new tickets by email through a provider webhook or an IMAP mailbox.
- Notifications in a bell, with email as the fallback for what nobody read, a daily digest, and team channels for Slack, Discord, a signed webhook or a team inbox.
- Automation: when/if/then rules, a built-in auto-close, and SLA targets with business hours, warnings and breaches.
- Customer ratings, custom fields, organizations that share requests between colleagues, and reports with CSV export.
- Privacy tools: a subject access summary per person, merging, legal holds and two erasure modes.
- A REST API and MCP tools, so scripts and AI clients can do what the desk does, and events for add-ons.
Where to start
- Installation gets the plugin running, protects the database and sets up cron.
- Getting started walks through the help center page, your first project and your first ticket, and explains the words Helpdesk Pro uses.
- The staff desk is the tour of where staff spend their day.
When you are ready to take email, read Outbound email and then Inbound email. If something is not happening (no email, no digests, rules not firing), start with Troubleshooting and Jobs and cron.
Installation
Install Helpdesk Pro, protect its database, set up cron and give staff the permissions they need.
Getting Started
Create the help center page, set up your first project, send and answer your first ticket, and learn the words Helpdesk Pro uses.
Projects and Permissions
Project settings and members, every helpdesk-pro permission, and the rules that decide who may read and change a ticket.
The Staff Desk
Where staff work tickets in Admin Next - screens, filters, the ticket screen, replies and notes, boards and keyboard shortcuts.
Triage and Merging
Accept, mark as duplicate or decline new requests in the Triage queue, and merge two tickets about the same thing.
Saved Replies and Views
Saved replies with placeholders, macros that also change the ticket, saved views of the ticket list, and bulk edit.
Statuses and Labels
The six fixed status categories, managing your own statuses inside them, the automatic status changes, and labels.
Help Center and Portal
Set up the help center page, what clients see on the portal, its routes, styling it to your theme, template overrides and Twig functions.
Request Form and Guests
The new request form, filling it from a link, guest requests, and the captcha, rate limits, blocklist and spam score that guard it.
Sign-in Links
How clients sign in to the portal with an emailed link and no password, how those links are protected, and how earlier requests join an account.
Knowledge Base
Write help articles as Grav pages, control who reads them, and follow a visitor from search to article to request.
Search
The one search index for tickets and articles, who finds what, how it stays current, synonyms, similar tickets and optional semantic search.
Attachments
Who can see a file, how files are served and stored, upload limits and allowed types, the optional private bucket, and cleanup.
Outbound Email
What clients and staff are emailed, branding every email with your name, logo, colours and light or dark look, threading headers, unsubscribe and templates.
Inbound Email
Receive replies and new tickets by email through a provider webhook, your own mail server or an IMAP mailbox, with reply addresses and the inbound log.
Notifications
The staff bell, who is notified of what, notification levels and email modes, when the email fallback goes out, and the daily digest.
Notification Channels
Post ticket events to Slack, Discord, a signed webhook or a team inbox, with what each message carries, retries, pausing and secrets.
Rules and Automations
When/if/then rules, the time trigger, the guards that stop rules looping, the built-in auto-close, and the dry run.
SLA
SLA policies with first response and resolution targets, business hours with timezones and holidays, the clock, warnings and breaches.
Customer Ratings
Ask clients "How did we do?" when a request is solved, keep mail scanners from answering for them, and read the answers in the desk.
Custom Fields
Extra questions on tickets, per project, filled in by clients or kept by staff only, with list columns, filters and rules.
Organizations
Group clients by company, let them join by email domain, decide which organization a ticket belongs to, and share requests between colleagues.
Reports
The desk's Reports screen and its cards, how each number is counted, CSV export, and the Helpdesk report on Admin Next's Reports page.
People and Privacy
The People screen, blocking, merging, legal holds, erasing a person, and what Helpdesk Pro keeps about guests, clients and staff.
Live Updates
Replies, notes and the bell without a reload through the Sync plugin, presence on a ticket, and what a client's live channel may carry.
Jobs and Cron
The job queue, the inline drain, the catch-up for sites without cron, the scheduler line and its PATH, retries, and the recurring jobs.
Configuration
Every Helpdesk Pro setting, tab by tab, with its default and what it does.
CLI Reference
Every bin/plugin helpdesk-pro command, its options, and when to run it.
REST API
Helpdesk Pro's routes under /api/v1/helpdesk-pro, who may call them, the ticket and timeline JSON, and the collision guard.
MCP
Work tickets from an AI client through grav-mcp, with every Helpdesk Pro tool, its permission, and how replies differ from notes.
Extending
For developers - the Grav events, domain events, services and registries add-ons use to build on Helpdesk Pro.
Troubleshooting
Start from the status report, then fix the common problems - jobs not running, email not arriving, live updates, rules and erasure.