283 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
283 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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stage: Plan
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group: Certify
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
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---
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# Service Desk **(FREE)**
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> Moved to GitLab Free in 13.2.
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Service Desk is a module that allows your team to connect
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with any external party through email, without any external tools.
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An ongoing conversation in the same place as where your software
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is built ensures user feedback ends up where it's needed.
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With Service Desk, you can provide efficient email support to your customers. They can
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email you bug reports, feature requests, or general feedback. They all end up in your
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GitLab project as new issues. In turn, your team can respond directly from the project.
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As Service Desk is built right into GitLab itself, the complexity and inefficiencies
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of multiple tools and external integrations are eliminated. This significantly shortens
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the cycle time from feedback to software update.
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For an overview, check the video demonstration on [GitLab Service Desk](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2017/05/09/demo-service-desk/).
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## How it works
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GitLab Service Desk enables people to create issues in your
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GitLab instance without needing their own user account.
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It provides a unique email address for end users to create issues in a project.
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Follow-up notes can be sent either through the GitLab interface or by email. End
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users only see the thread through email.
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For example, let's assume you develop a game for iOS or Android.
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The codebase is hosted in your GitLab instance, built and deployed
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with GitLab CI/CD.
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Here's how Service Desk works for you:
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1. You provide a project-specific email address to your paying customers, who can email you directly
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from the application.
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1. Each email they send creates an issue in the appropriate project.
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1. Your team members navigate to the Service Desk issue tracker, where they can see new support
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requests and respond inside associated issues.
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1. Your team communicates back and forth with the customer to understand the request.
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1. Your team starts working on implementing code to solve your customer's problem.
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1. When your team finishes the implementation, whereupon the merge request is merged and the issue
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is closed automatically.
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1. The customer's requests are handled through email, without ever having access to your
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GitLab instance.
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1. Your team saved time by not having to leave GitLab (or setup any integrations) to follow up with
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your customer.
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## Configuring Service Desk
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Users with Maintainer and higher access in a project can configure Service Desk.
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Service Desk issues are [confidential](issues/confidential_issues.md), so they are
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only visible to project members. In GitLab 11.7 we updated the generated email
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address format. The older format is still supported, so existing aliases or
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contacts still work.
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If you have [templates](description_templates.md) in your repository, you can optionally select
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one from the selector menu to append it to all Service Desk issues.
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To enable Service Desk in your project:
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1. (GitLab self-managed only) [Set up incoming email](../../administration/incoming_email.md#set-it-up) for the GitLab instance.
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We recommend using [email sub-addressing](../../administration/incoming_email.md#email-sub-addressing),
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but you can also use [catch-all mailboxes](../../administration/incoming_email.md#catch-all-mailbox).
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1. In a project, in the left sidebar, go to **Settings > General** and expand the **Service Desk** section.
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1. Enable the **Activate Service Desk** toggle. This reveals a unique email address to email issues
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to the project.
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Service Desk is now enabled for this project! To access it in a project, in the left sidebar, select
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**Issues > Service Desk**.
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WARNING:
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Anyone in your project can use the Service Desk email address to create an issue in this project, **regardless
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of their access level** to your GitLab instance.
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To improve your project's security, we recommend the following:
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- Put the Service Desk email address behind an alias on your email system so you can change it later.
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- [Enable Akismet](../../integration/akismet.md) on your GitLab instance to add spam checking to this service.
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Unblocked email spam can result in many spam issues being created.
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The unique internal email address is visible to project members with Maintainer (or higher)
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[permission level](../permissions.md)
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in your GitLab instance. However, when using an email alias externally, an end user
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(issue creator) cannot see the internal email address displayed in the information note.
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### Using customized email templates
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/2460) in GitLab Premium 12.7.
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> - Moved to GitLab Free in 13.2.
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An email is sent to the author when:
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- A user submits a new issue using Service Desk.
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- A new note is created on a Service Desk issue.
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You can customize the body of these email messages with templates.
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Save your templates in the `.gitlab/service_desk_templates/`
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directory in your repository.
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With Service Desk, you can use templates for:
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- [Thank you emails](#thank-you-email)
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- [New note emails](#new-note-email)
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- [New Service Desk issues](#new-service-desk-issues)
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#### Thank you email
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When a user submits an issue through Service Desk, GitLab sends a **thank you email**.
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You must name the template file `thank_you.md`.
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You can use these placeholders to be automatically replaced in each email:
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- `%{ISSUE_ID}`: issue IID
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- `%{ISSUE_PATH}`: project path appended with the issue IID
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Because Service Desk issues are created as [confidential](issues/confidential_issues.md) (only project members can see them),
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the response email does not contain the issue link.
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#### New note email
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When a user-submitted issue receives a new comment, GitLab sends a **new note email**.
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You must name the template file `new_note.md`.
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You can use these placeholders to be automatically replaced in each email:
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- `%{ISSUE_ID}`: issue IID
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- `%{ISSUE_PATH}`: project path appended with the issue IID
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- `%{NOTE_TEXT}`: note text
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#### New Service Desk issues
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You can select one [issue description template](description_templates.md#creating-issue-templates)
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**per project** to be appended to every new Service Desk issue's description.
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Issue description templates should reside in your repository's `.gitlab/issue_templates/` directory.
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To use a custom issue template with Service Desk, in your project:
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1. [Create a description template](description_templates.md#creating-issue-templates)
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1. Go to **Settings > General > Service Desk**.
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1. From the dropdown **Template to append to all Service Desk issues**, select your template.
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### Using custom email display name
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/7529) in GitLab 12.8.
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You can customize the email display name. Emails sent from Service Desk have
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this name in the `From` header. The default display name is `GitLab Support Bot`.
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To edit the custom email display name:
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1. In a project, go to **Settings > General > Service Desk**.
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1. Enter a new name in **Email display name**.
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1. Select **Save Changes**.
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### Using custom email address
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/2201) in GitLab Premium 13.0.
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> - [Feature flag removed](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/284656) in GitLab 13.8.
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If the `service_desk_email` is configured, then you can create Service Desk
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issues by sending emails to the Service Desk email address. The default
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address has the following format:
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`project_contact+%{key}@example.com`.
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The `%{key}` part is used to find the project where the issue should be created. The
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`%{key}` part combines the path to the project and configurable project name suffix:
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`<project_full_path>-<project_name_suffix>`.
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You can set the project name suffix in your project's Service Desk settings.
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It can contain only lowercase letters (`a-z`), numbers (`0-9`), or underscores (`_`).
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NOTE:
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The `service_desk_email` and `incoming_email` configurations should
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always use separate mailboxes. This is important, because emails picked from
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`service_desk_email` mailbox are processed by a different worker and it would
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not recognize `incoming_email` emails.
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To configure a custom email address for Service Desk, add the following snippets to your configuration file:
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- Example for installations from source:
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```yaml
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service_desk_email:
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enabled: true
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address: "project_contact+%{key}@example.com"
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user: "project_support@example.com"
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password: "[REDACTED]"
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host: "imap.gmail.com"
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port: 993
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ssl: true
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start_tls: false
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log_path: "log/mailroom.log"
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mailbox: "inbox"
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idle_timeout: 60
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expunge_deleted: true
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```
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- Example for Omnibus GitLab installations:
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```ruby
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_enabled'] = true
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_address'] = "project_contact+%{key}@gmail.com"
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_email'] = "project_support@gmail.com"
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_password'] = "[REDACTED]"
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_mailbox_name'] = "inbox"
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_idle_timeout'] = 60
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_log_file'] = "/var/log/gitlab/mailroom/mail_room_json.log"
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_host'] = "imap.gmail.com"
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_port'] = 993
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_ssl'] = true
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gitlab_rails['service_desk_email_start_tls'] = false
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```
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In this case, suppose the `mygroup/myproject` project Service Desk settings has the project name
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suffix set to `support`, and a user sends an email to `project_contact+mygroup-myproject-support@example.com`.
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As a result, a new Service Desk issue is created from this email in the `mygroup/myproject` project.
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The configuration options are the same as for configuring
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[incoming email](../../administration/incoming_email.md#set-it-up).
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## Using Service Desk
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You can use Service Desk to [create an issue](#as-an-end-user-issue-creator) or [respond to one](#as-a-responder-to-the-issue).
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In these issues, you can also see our friendly neighborhood [Support Bot](#support-bot-user).
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### As an end user (issue creator)
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To create a Service Desk issue, an end user does not need to know anything about
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the GitLab instance. They just send an email to the address they are given, and
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receive an email back confirming receipt:
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This also gives the end user an option to unsubscribe.
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If they don't choose to unsubscribe, then any new comments added to the issue
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are sent as emails:
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Any responses they send via email are displayed in the issue itself.
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### As a responder to the issue
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For responders to the issue, everything works just like other GitLab issues.
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GitLab displays a familiar-looking issue tracker where responders can see
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issues created through customer support requests, and filter or interact with them.
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Messages from the end user are shown as coming from the special
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[Support Bot user](../../subscriptions/self_managed/index.md#billable-users).
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You can read and write comments as you normally do in GitLab:
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Note that:
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- The project's visibility (private, internal, public) does not affect Service Desk.
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- The path to the project, including its group or namespace, are shown in emails.
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### Support Bot user
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Behind the scenes, Service Desk works by the special Support Bot user creating issues. This user
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does not count toward the license limit count.
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