Build a Freshdesk support dashboard with Claude

This is an end-to-end example: connect a data source over MCP, generate a dashboard from live numbers, and close the review loop on one link. Total time, start to shared link, is under fifteen minutes. The same shape works for any of the other examples — only the connection step changes.

Here's the finished dashboard, published to a canvas — click any tile or number to leave a comment, exactly as your team would:

The three moving parts

1. The Freshdesk MCP server gives Claude read access to your helpdesk — tickets, conversations, agents, groups, SLA policies — through a controlled set of tools. The API key it uses inherits the role of the agent it belongs to, so you decide what it can touch.
2. Claude pulls the numbers and writes a single self-contained HTML dashboard. You iterate on it in the artifact panel until it's right.
3. Drafty turns that HTML into a stable link your team reviews. Comments pin to the exact element; Claude ships the fix to the same URL.

The generation step is fast now. The part this example is really about is the third one — getting the dashboard in front of people without losing their feedback to a screenshot circled in Preview.

Step 1 — Connect the Freshdesk MCP server

Freshdesk runs an MCP server at https://<your-freshdesk-domain>/mcp — your own helpdesk domain, e.g. acme.freshdesk.com. It authenticates with your Freshdesk API key, passed in the Authorization header. You connect once.

In Claude Code:

Replace <your-freshdesk-domain> with your helpdesk host and <api-key> with the API key from your Freshdesk profile (Profile settings → "Your API Key"). Then run /mcp inside Claude Code to confirm the server connected.

In Claude Desktop: open Settings → Developer → Edit Config and add the Freshdesk server under mcpServers, using mcp-remote to reach it:

Step 2 — Pull the numbers

Ask Claude in plain language. It uses the MCP server's read tools to fetch real ticket data:

Claude calls Freshdesk, returns the figures, and you sanity-check them against your Freshdesk reports before going further. This is the moment to catch a wrong assumption — a status you're not counting as "open," business-hours vs. calendar-hours SLA, a group filter you didn't expect — while it's cheap.

Step 3 — Build the dashboard

Once the numbers look right, ask for the artifact:

Claude renders it live in the artifact panel. Iterate in place — you're not regenerating from scratch:

• "Make SLA compliance the hero number and put backlog right under it."
• "Add a 7-day trend line for first-response time."
• "Sort the breaches table by how long each ticket has been open."

Step 4 — Publish to Drafty for review

A Claude artifact link is a preview, not a stable URL — iterate the artifact and the link you already sent now shows the old version. Ask Claude to publish it to a Drafty canvas instead, so the link you share always stays current:

Claude pushes the dashboard and hands back a drafty.im/canvas/… link that renders on any device. Send it — your team opens it in a browser, no login and no Claude account needed.

Step 5 — The review loop

This is the part that's not obvious until you've done it once.

A reviewer clicks the specific tile, chart, or number they want changed and leaves a pinned comment — "this SLA figure looks high, are we counting tickets that breached over the weekend?" The comment is anchored to that element, not floating in a Slack thread. Claude reads the comments through the CLI, reruns the relevant Freshdesk query if needed, and pushes a revised dashboard to the same URL. The reviewer refreshes and sees the change; the thread stays attached to the element.

The mechanic matters because of what it removes. A Slack message about a chart produces "the number on the left looks wrong." A pinned comment on the actual tile produces "this — measure SLA against business hours, not calendar hours." One of those produces a correct revision; the other produces a guess.

Keeping it fresh

An MCP-generated dashboard is a snapshot — it holds the numbers Claude pulled when it built it; it doesn't re-query Freshdesk when someone opens the link. For a weekly review or a stand-up snapshot, that's fine.

To make it a live canvas that always shows today's figures, copy this prompt — Claude sets up the refresh for you and schedules it to run on its own:

The link stays stable while the content updates underneath it — see keeping a canvas updated automatically.

What to watch for

• Read-only, always. A support dashboard needs read access and nothing more. Generate the API key from a view-only / reporting agent role so the MCP server can't change tickets.
• Check the figures before you share. The MCP returns exactly what you ask for — if your "open backlog" query counts a status you treat as resolved, or measures SLA against the wrong clock, the dashboard will confidently show the wrong number. Reconcile against your Freshdesk reports once.
• The link is the deliverable, not the artifact. Share the Drafty URL, not the Claude artifact preview — that's the one you can update in place.