Alert your team in Slack when a VIP customer opens a Gorgias ticket using a Claude Code skill

mkdir -p .claude/skills/vip-alert/{templates,references}

.claude/skills/vip-alert/
├── SKILL.md                          # workflow guidelines + config
├── templates/
│   └── slack-alert.md                # Block Kit template for VIP alerts
└── references/
    └── gorgias-customers-api.md      # Gorgias tickets + customer API

---
name: vip-alert
description: Check recent Gorgias support tickets for high-value customers and post a Slack alert with ticket details and customer LTV when a VIP is detected.
disable-model-invocation: true
allowed-tools: Bash, Read
---
 
## Goal
 
Poll Gorgias for recently opened tickets, check each customer's order history to determine VIP status, and post a rich Slack alert when a VIP customer is detected.
 
## Configuration
 
Read these environment variables:
 
- `GORGIAS_DOMAIN` — your Gorgias subdomain (required)
- `GORGIAS_EMAIL` — Gorgias account email for API auth (required)
- `GORGIAS_API_KEY` — Gorgias API key (required)
- `SLACK_BOT_TOKEN` — Slack bot token with chat:write (required)
- `SLACK_CHANNEL_ID` — Slack channel ID starting with C (required)
- `VIP_LTV_THRESHOLD` — minimum lifetime spend for VIP status (optional, default: 500)
 
Default VIP criteria: customer has the `vip` tag, OR lifetime value >= threshold, OR 5+ orders. The user may request different criteria.
 
## Workflow
 
1. Validate that all required env vars are set. If any are missing, print which ones and exit.
2. Fetch recent open tickets from Gorgias (created in the last 90 minutes). See `references/gorgias-customers-api.md` for the endpoint.
3. For each ticket, fetch the customer's profile via `GET /customers/{id}` to get Shopify LTV and order count.
4. Determine VIP status: customer has `vip` tag, OR `shopify_total_spent >= VIP_LTV_THRESHOLD`, OR `shopify_orders_count >= 5`.
5. Track already-alerted ticket IDs in a local JSON file to avoid duplicate alerts.
6. Post a Slack alert for each VIP ticket using the template in `templates/slack-alert.md`.
7. Print a summary of alerts sent.
 
## Important notes
 
- Customer LTV data comes from Shopify integration metadata in the Gorgias customer record (`meta.shopify_total_spent`, `meta.shopify_orders_count`). If you don't use Shopify, adapt the VIP criteria to use tags only.
- `SLACK_CHANNEL_ID` must be the channel ID (starts with `C`), not the channel name.
- The Slack bot must be invited to the target channel.
- Rate limit: Gorgias allows roughly 2 requests per second. Each ticket requires a separate customer lookup, so add delays for large batches.
- Trim the alerted tickets file to the last 500 entries to prevent unbounded growth.
- Use the `requests` library for Gorgias and `slack_sdk` for Slack. Install with pip if needed.

# VIP Escalation Slack Template
 
Use this Block Kit structure for each VIP customer alert.
 
## Block Kit JSON
 
```json
{
  "channel": "<SLACK_CHANNEL_ID>",
  "text": "VIP ticket from <customer_name>: <subject>",
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "header",
      "text": {
        "type": "plain_text",
        "text": "VIP Customer — New Support Ticket"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "fields": [
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Customer*\n<customer_name>" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Email*\n<customer_email>" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Lifetime Value*\n$<ltv>" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Total Orders*\n<order_count>" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Subject*\n<subject>" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*Message*\n<message_preview_400_chars>"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "actions",
      "elements": [
        {
          "type": "button",
          "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "Open in Gorgias" },
          "url": "https://<GORGIAS_DOMAIN>.gorgias.com/app/ticket/<ticket_id>",
          "style": "primary"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```
 
## Notes
 
- Send via `slack_sdk` `chat.postMessage` with the `SLACK_BOT_TOKEN`.
- Truncate the message preview to 400 characters.
- Use `primary` button style for high visibility.

# Gorgias Tickets + Customers API Reference
 
## Authentication
 
All requests use HTTP Basic Auth:
- Username: `GORGIAS_EMAIL`
- Password: `GORGIAS_API_KEY`
- Base URL: `https://{GORGIAS_DOMAIN}.gorgias.com/api`
 
## List open tickets
 
**Request:**
 
```
GET /api/tickets?status=open&limit=50
```
 
**Response shape:**
 
```json
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 18501,
      "subject": "Missing item from my last order",
      "status": "open",
      "created_datetime": "2026-03-05T14:30:00+00:00",
      "requester": {
        "id": 678,
        "name": "Marcus Reynolds",
        "email": "marcus@example.com"
      },
      "messages": [
        {
          "id": 99001,
          "body_text": "Hi, I received my order but the blue jacket is missing...",
          "source": { "type": "email" }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```
 
- Filter by `created_datetime` to only process tickets from the last 90 minutes.
 
## Get customer details
 
**Request:**
 
```
GET /api/customers/{customer_id}
```
 
**Response shape:**
 
```json
{
  "id": 678,
  "name": "Marcus Reynolds",
  "email": "marcus@example.com",
  "meta": {
    "shopify_total_spent": "4820.00",
    "shopify_orders_count": "23"
  }
}
```
 
- `meta.shopify_total_spent` is a string — parse to float.
- `meta.shopify_orders_count` is a string — parse to int.
- These fields only exist if the Gorgias-Shopify integration is active.
- If the customer doesn't have Shopify data, these fields may be missing or null.
 
## VIP Determination Logic
 
A customer is VIP if ANY of:
1. Customer has a `vip` tag (check `requester.meta.tags` on the ticket)
2. `shopify_total_spent >= VIP_LTV_THRESHOLD` (default $500)
3. `shopify_orders_count >= 5`

/vip-alert

Checking recent tickets for VIP customers...
Found 12 recent ticket(s)
 
  #18501  "Missing item from last order"  LTV=$4,820  VIP=True
    -> Slack alert sent
  #18505  "Where is my tracking number?"  LTV=$45     VIP=False
  #18508  "Return request"                LTV=$0      VIP=True (tagged vip)
    -> Slack alert sent
 
Done. 2 alert(s) sent.

# Run every 30 minutes during business hours
*/30 8-18 * * 1-5 cd /path/to/your/project && claude -p "Run /vip-alert" --allowedTools 'Bash(*)' 'Read(*)'

name: VIP Escalation Alerts
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/30 * * * *'  # Every 30 minutes
  workflow_dispatch: {}
jobs:
  alert:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          prompt: "Run /vip-alert"
          allowed_tools: "Bash(*),Read(*)"
        env:
          ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          GORGIAS_DOMAIN: ${{ secrets.GORGIAS_DOMAIN }}
          GORGIAS_EMAIL: ${{ secrets.GORGIAS_EMAIL }}
          GORGIAS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GORGIAS_API_KEY }}
          SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN }}
          SLACK_CHANNEL_ID: ${{ secrets.SLACK_CHANNEL_ID }}