Getting Started with Dispatch Tickets

Dispatch Tickets is an API-first ticketing service designed to be embedded into your product, not used as a standalone helpdesk. This guide will walk you through setting up your account, creating your first workspace, and submitting your first ticket via the API.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• A Dispatch Tickets account (sign up at dispatchtickets.com/early-access)
• Basic familiarity with REST APIs
• A tool for making HTTP requests (curl, Postman, or your programming language of choice)

Step 1: Get Your API Key

After signing up and logging in to the admin dashboard, navigate to Settings → API Keys to generate your first API key.

Your API key is used to authenticate all requests to the Dispatch Tickets API. Keep it secure and never expose it in client-side code.

# Store your API key as an environment variable
export DISPATCH_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Step 2: Create a Workspace

Workspaces are isolated containers for tickets. Each workspace can represent a product, brand, or customer segment. Most integrations start with a single workspace.

curl -X POST https://dispatch-tickets-api.onrender.com/v1/workspaces \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DISPATCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "My First Workspace",
    "slug": "my-first-workspace"
  }'

The response will include your workspace ID:

{
  "id": "ws_abc123...",
  "name": "My First Workspace",
  "slug": "my-first-workspace",
  "created_at": "2025-01-12T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Step 3: Create Your First Ticket

Now that you have a workspace, you can create tickets. Tickets are the core primitive of Dispatch Tickets—they represent any customer interaction that needs tracking.

curl -X POST https://dispatch-tickets-api.onrender.com/v1/workspaces/ws_abc123/tickets \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DISPATCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "subject": "Welcome to Dispatch Tickets!",
    "description": "This is my first ticket.",
    "requester_email": "[email protected]",
    "requester_name": "Test Customer",
    "priority": "normal",
    "status": "open"
  }'

Step 4: Add a Comment

Tickets support threaded comments for ongoing conversations. You can add internal notes or customer-facing replies.

curl -X POST https://dispatch-tickets-api.onrender.com/v1/workspaces/ws_abc123/tickets/tkt_xyz789/comments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DISPATCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "body": "Thanks for reaching out! We will look into this.",
    "author_email": "[email protected]",
    "author_name": "Support Team",
    "is_internal": false
  }'

Next Steps

You’ve successfully set up Dispatch Tickets and created your first ticket! Here’s what to explore next:

• Webhooks: Get notified when tickets are created or updated
• Custom Fields: Add any JSON data to your tickets
• Multi-Channel Support: Connect email, Slack, and more

Need Help?

If you run into any issues, check out our documentation or reach out to our team. We’re here to help you build great support experiences.