Support team YAML files cleanup

---

title: 'Support team YAML files'

description: 'Documentation on Support team YAML files'

date: 2026-01-13

date: 2026-02-18

---

This guide documents the Support team YAML files - a centralized data source containing team member information used by various Customer Support Operations automation and integrations. These files enable consistent agent data across systems and serve as the source of truth for team structure, skills, schedules, and assignments.

- APAC

- EMEA

### location

The city/state/providence in which the team member resides.

### tzdata_timezone

The team member’s timezone (in `Area/Location` format)

### country

The country in which the support team member resides.

### start_date

The date the team member started at GitLab (in ISO format).

  - `gitlab_handle`, which tells the agent sync to add a line to your signature including your GitLab.com handle

- `alias`, which is what display name to use in Zendesk. If left blank, your full name will be used as the default

- `salutations`, which is an array of salutations to use in a team member’s Zendesk user’s signature

- `article_publisher`, which determines if you will have Zendesk article publisher rights or not

#### Additional info about the US Government round robin

- `id`, which is the team member’s GitLab.com user ID

- `username`, which is the team member’s GitLab.com username

- `works_account_deletion`, which dictates whether the team member works Account Deletion issues

  - **NOTE** this is deprecated and no longer in use

- `notes_link`, which is a link the team member uses for notes

  - **NOTE** this is deprecated and no longer in use

### slack

- `name`, which is the product category name (e.g., "CI/CD", "Security", "Backup/Restore")

- `level`, which is the competency level (uses same 1-3 scale as `knowledge_areas`)

### hobbies

An array of the team member’s hobbies

### pronouns

The preferred pronouns of the team member.

       1. `Support EMEA` for those with a region containing `EMEA`

       1. `General` for anyone not meeting the above criteria

   - It compares the user's current Zendesk group memberships with the groups they should belong to (based on YAML data and default group logic). Groups missing from Zendesk are added; extra groups not in YAML are removed.

   - Notes if the user is changing their PTO status (i.e. coming back from or leaving for)

1. It then performs updates, using the following API endpoints:

   - [User modification](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/users/users/#update-user)

   - [Adding a group membership](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/groups/group_memberships/#create-membership)

   - [Removing a group membership](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/groups/group_memberships/#delete-membership)

1. The sync will also update all assigned tickets for team members with changes to their PTO status (so the field `Assignee OOO` reflects the change)

#### Zendesk US Government

   - [User modification](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/users/users/#update-user)

   - [Adding a group membership](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/groups/group_memberships/#create-membership)

   - [Removing a group membership](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/groups/group_memberships/#delete-membership)

Note: Due to the smaller team size in US Government, the sync automatically updates ticket assignees when agents return from or leave for PTO. This courtesy automation is not needed in Global due to the larger team size and existing coverage.

1. The sync will also update all assigned tickets for team members with changes to their PTO status (so the field `Assignee OOO` reflects the change)

### Requesting changes to the sync