Automate first responses to Gorgias tickets using Claude Cowork

Prerequisites

Overview

Claude Cowork lets you schedule a recurring task where Claude finds open tickets with no agent reply and drafts a contextual first response — no code required. Claude reads the ticket, applies your support guidelines, and posts either a draft internal note for agent review or a direct reply, depending on how you configure the task.

This is the fastest way to implement AI-assisted first responses without any engineering work.

Step 1: Draft your response guidelines

The quality of Claude's responses depends on the guidelines you give it. Before creating the Cowork task, write out your key policies in plain text:

Response guidelines:
- Be friendly and concise — under 120 words
- Always use the customer's first name
- For order status: direct to https://yourstore.com/tracking
- For returns: direct to https://yourstore.com/returns (30-day window, unused items)
- For refunds: 5-7 business days after item received
- For cancellations: possible within 1 hour of order placement
- Never promise a specific delivery date — say "3-5 business days"
- Sign off as "The [YourStore] Support Team"

You'll paste this directly into the Cowork task description.

Step 2: Create the Cowork task

Open Claude Desktop → Cowork tab → + New task.

Title: Draft first responses for open Gorgias tickets

Description:

You are a customer support assistant. Find open Gorgias support tickets that have
no agent reply yet and draft a helpful first response for each one.
 
Gorgias credentials:
- Domain: your-store
- Auth: HTTP Basic (username: you@company.com, password: YOUR_API_KEY)
 
Step 1 — Get open tickets:
GET https://your-store.gorgias.com/api/tickets?status=open&limit=20
 
Step 2 — Filter to tickets with no agent reply:
A ticket needs a first response if none of its messages have source.type = "helpdesk".
 
Step 3 — For each eligible ticket, read:
- ticket.subject
- ticket.messages[0].body_text (the customer's first message)
- ticket.requester.firstname (customer's first name)
 
Step 4 — Draft a response following these guidelines:
[PASTE YOUR RESPONSE GUIDELINES HERE]
 
Step 5 — Post the response as an INTERNAL NOTE (not a public reply):
POST https://your-store.gorgias.com/api/tickets/{id}/messages
Body:
{
  "body_text": "YOUR DRAFT",
  "channel": "email",
  "from_agent": true,
  "public": false
}
 
Step 6 — Print a summary listing each ticket, the customer question, and your draft.
 
Process up to 10 tickets per run. Skip any ticket where a response has already been posted.

Step 3: Set the schedule

Frequency: Every 30–60 minutes during business hours

Adjust based on your ticket volume and how quickly you want first responses drafted.

Step 4: Run manually and review

Click Run now and watch the output. Claude will:

1. Fetch open tickets
2. Identify those with no agent reply
3. Draft a response for each
4. Post it as an internal note in Gorgias

Go to Gorgias and open a processed ticket. The internal note appears in the conversation thread with a tag marking it as an agent note, invisible to the customer. Your agent reviews it and either sends it as-is, edits it, or discards it.

A typical run summary looks like:

Checked 20 open tickets. Found 4 with no agent reply.
 
#14301 "Where is my order?" (Sarah M.)
Draft: "Hi Sarah, thanks for reaching out! You can track your order in real time at
yourstore.com/tracking — you'll need your order number and the email used at checkout.
Tracking usually updates within 24 hours of shipping. Let us know if you need anything else!
— The YourStore Support Team"
→ Posted as internal note ✓
 
#14304 "How do I return my purchase?" (James K.)
Draft: "Hi James, happy to help with a return! You can start the process at
yourstore.com/returns. Items must be unused and in original packaging, and we accept
returns within 30 days of delivery. Refunds process within 5–7 business days once we
receive the item. Let us know if anything's unclear! — The YourStore Support Team"
→ Posted as internal note ✓
 
...

Step 5: Move to auto-send (optional)

Once you've reviewed 50–100 drafts and are satisfied with quality, change "public": false to "public": true in your Cowork task description. This sends the reply directly to the customer without agent review.

Step 6: Handle the drafts your agents see

Brief your agents on the new workflow:

• Internal notes labeled with a specific prefix (e.g., [AI Draft]) are pre-written responses
• The agent reviews, optionally edits, then clicks Send to post to the customer
• If the draft is off-base, the agent replies from scratch and notes the edge case

Feed those edge cases back into your task description's guidelines to improve future drafts.

When to use this approach

• You want AI-assisted drafts immediately without writing any code
• You have a moderate ticket volume (under 100/day) where hourly batching works
• Your team is comfortable reviewing AI drafts before sending

When to switch to another approach

• You need instant auto-responses (under 60 seconds) → use Gorgias native Macros + Rules
• You want auto-send reliability without depending on your laptop → use the Agent Skill with cron
• You have complex response logic requiring Shopify order lookups → use n8n