Auto-Triaging Support Tickets With an MCP Server

At 15 users, support is cute. At 500, it eats your Saturday. An MCP server lets Claude read and categorize tickets so you only touch the ones that actually need you.

• Expose your helpdesk (Plain, Intercom, Linear) as an MCP server
• Give Claude tools: read_ticket, tag_ticket, assign_priority, draft_reply
• Classify into: bug, billing, feature-request, churn-risk, spam
• Auto-draft replies for the top 5 FAQs — you approve with one click
• Escalate anything tagged 'churn-risk' or 'legal' straight to a human

The magic isn't full automation — it's triage. Claude sorts, ranks, and drafts; you approve. That cuts your inbox time by 60-80% without silent mistakes.

// Minimal MCP tool definition
export const triageTicket = {
  name: "triage_ticket",
  description: "Classify and tag an incoming support ticket",
  inputSchema: {
    type: "object",
    properties: {
      ticketId: { type: "string" },
      subject: { type: "string" },
      body: { type: "string" },
    },
    required: ["ticketId", "subject", "body"],
  },
  handler: async ({ ticketId, subject, body }) => {
    // Claude categorizes, we apply labels
    const category = await classifyWithClaude({ subject, body });
    await helpdesk.tag(ticketId, category);
    return { ticketId, category };
  },
};

You've done this right when your first-response time drops to under 10 minutes, you still reply to the 20% that matter, and nothing embarrassing gets sent in your name.