Zulip MCP Server

Model Context Protocol server for Zulip API integration with LLMs

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Usage Examples & Tutorials

Practical examples and real-world use cases for the Zulip MCP Server across different teams and workflows.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

First Steps with Your LLM

Once configured, start with these basic interactions:

1. Test Your Connection

You: "Can you check if Zulip is connected and show me what streams are available?"

LLM Response: I'll test the Zulip connection and get an overview of your workspace.

[Uses get-started tool]

✅ Connected to Zulip successfully! 
Your workspace has 15 streams available including: general, development, announcements, customer-success, and random.

2. Find Team Members

You: "Can you find all users with 'john' in their name?"

LLM Response: I'll search for users with 'john' in their name.

[Uses search-users tool]

Found 3 users matching "john":
- John Smith (john.smith@company.com) - Active
- Johnny Doe (johnny.doe@company.com) - Active  
- John Admin (john@company.com) - Active, Admin role

3. Send Your First Message

You: "Send a hello message to the general stream introducing myself as the new AI assistant"

LLM Response: I'll send an introduction message to the general stream.

[Uses send-message tool]

Message sent successfully! I've introduced you as the new AI assistant to the team in the general stream.

Development Team Workflows

Deployment Notifications

Automated Build Status Updates

You: "Our CI/CD pipeline just completed successfully. Send an update to the #development stream with the topic 'Deployments' including:
- Version: v2.3.1
- Environment: Production
- Status: ✅ Success
- Features: Added user dashboard, fixed payment bugs
- Rollback plan: Available if needed"

LLM Response: I'll send a comprehensive deployment notification to the development stream.

[Uses send-message tool with formatted content]

Deployment notification sent! The team has been informed about the successful v2.3.1 production deployment with all the details you specified.

Code Review Requests

You: "I need to request code review for PR #234. Send a message to @john.smith and @sarah.dev asking them to review the authentication refactor PR. Include the GitHub link: https://github.com/company/app/pull/234"

LLM Response: I'll send a direct message to both John and Sarah requesting the code review.

[Uses send-message tool with type: "direct"]

Code review request sent! Both John Smith and Sarah have been notified about PR #234 and asked to review the authentication refactor.

Error Monitoring Alerts

You: "We're seeing 5xx errors spike on the API. Send an urgent message to the #development stream with topic 'Incidents' asking the on-call engineer to investigate. Include:
- Time: Started 10 minutes ago
- Affected endpoints: /api/payments, /api/users
- Error rate: 15% of requests
- Monitoring dashboard: [link]"

LLM Response: I'll send an urgent incident notification to alert the development team.

[Uses send-message tool with formatted alert]

Incident alert sent! The development team has been notified about the 5xx error spike and the on-call engineer should see this immediately.

Release Planning

You: "Create a release planning message for the #development stream. We're planning v2.4.0 for next Friday. Ask team leads to confirm their feature completion status for:
- User onboarding flow (Sarah's team)
- Payment processing updates (Mike's team)  
- Mobile API improvements (Lisa's team)
- Security audit fixes (Security team)"

LLM Response: I'll create a comprehensive release planning message to coordinate with all team leads.

[Uses send-message tool with structured planning format]

Release planning message sent! All team leads have been asked to confirm their feature completion status for the v2.4.0 release next Friday.

Customer Success Operations

Customer Health Check Summaries

Weekly Health Reports

You: "Generate a weekly customer health check summary for the #customer-success stream. Include these metrics:
- Total active customers: 1,247 (+23 this week)
- At-risk accounts: 8 (down from 12 last week)
- Expansion opportunities: 15 accounts showing usage growth
- Support ticket trends: 15% decrease in critical issues
- Key wins: 3 major renewals, 2 upsells completed"

LLM Response: I'll create a comprehensive weekly health check summary for the customer success team.

[Uses send-message tool with formatted metrics]

Weekly health check summary posted! The customer success team now has a clear overview of customer health metrics and key achievements.

Escalation Notifications

You: "Customer Acme Corp (Enterprise plan) is reporting critical issues with data sync. Create an escalation notice for #customer-success with topic 'Escalations':
- Customer: Acme Corp
- Plan: Enterprise ($50k ARR)
- Issue: Data sync failing for 2 hours
- Impact: Production workflows blocked
- Contact: jane.doe@acme.com
- Assigned CSM: @sarah.johnson
- Next action: Engineering escalation needed"

LLM Response: I'll create an immediate escalation notice for the customer success team.

[Uses send-message tool with urgent escalation format]

Escalation notice sent! The customer success team has been alerted about Acme Corp's critical data sync issue and Sarah Johnson has been notified as the assigned CSM.

Customer Feedback Collection

You: "Post a message in #customer-success asking for this week's customer feedback highlights. Request team members to share:
- Top feature requests from customer calls
- Common pain points mentioned
- Positive feedback and testimonials
- Competitive mentions or concerns
Format it as a collaborative thread for easy responses."

LLM Response: I'll create a collaborative feedback collection post for the team.

[Uses send-message tool with engaging format]

Feedback collection message posted! The customer success team can now easily share this week's customer insights in a structured thread format.

Project Management

Sprint Planning & Updates

Sprint Retrospective Summary

You: "Create a sprint retrospective summary for #development with topic 'Sprint 23 Retro':
- Sprint goal: ✅ User dashboard completion
- Stories completed: 24/26 (92% completion rate)
- Velocity: 87 story points (target: 85)
- What went well: Great collaboration, early testing
- Challenges: API rate limiting, design changes
- Action items: Implement rate limiting strategy, earlier design reviews
- Next sprint focus: Mobile app improvements"

LLM Response: I'll create a comprehensive sprint retrospective summary for the team.

[Uses send-message tool with structured retrospective format]

Sprint retrospective summary posted! The development team now has a clear record of Sprint 23 outcomes and action items for improvement.

Milestone Tracking

You: "Send an update to #general about our Q3 milestone progress:
- Overall progress: 75% complete (on track)
- Key achievements: User dashboard launched, API v2 stable
- Upcoming deliverables: Mobile app beta (next week), payment flow redesign (2 weeks)
- Blockers resolved: Database performance issues fixed
- Team spotlight: Congratulations to the backend team for exceptional performance!"

LLM Response: I'll create an engaging Q3 milestone update for the entire company.

[Uses send-message tool with milestone tracking format]

Q3 milestone update sent! The entire company is now informed about our progress and the backend team has been recognized for their excellent work.

Resource Planning

You: "Create a resource planning discussion for #project-management with topic 'Q4 Planning':
- Current team capacity: 85% utilization
- New hires starting: 2 frontend developers (Oct 1), 1 designer (Oct 15)
- Major projects: Mobile app launch, enterprise features, security compliance
- Resource needs assessment: Additional backend support for enterprise features
- Please share your team's capacity and resource needs for Q4 planning"

LLM Response: I'll create a comprehensive resource planning discussion to help coordinate Q4 efforts.

[Uses send-message tool with planning format]

Resource planning discussion started! Project managers can now share their team capacity and resource needs for effective Q4 planning.

Sales Team Automation

Deal Updates & Pipeline Management

Weekly Pipeline Review

You: "Create a weekly pipeline review for #sales with topic 'Pipeline Review - Week 42':
- Total pipeline value: $2.3M (up 15% from last week)
- Deals in closing stage: 8 opportunities ($340k value)
- New leads this week: 23 qualified leads
- Demo requests: 12 scheduled
- Key wins: Closed deal with TechCorp ($85k ARR)
- Focus areas: Follow up on Q3 proposals, prepare Q4 campaigns
Tag @sales.manager for review"

LLM Response: I'll create a comprehensive weekly pipeline review for the sales team.

[Uses send-message tool with pipeline metrics and mentions]

Weekly pipeline review posted! The sales team has a clear overview of this week's performance and the sales manager has been tagged for review.

Lead Qualification Alerts

You: "New enterprise lead came in through the website. Send alert to #sales with topic 'Hot Leads':
- Company: Global Industries Inc.
- Contact: Mark Johnson, CTO
- Company size: 5,000+ employees  
- Use case: API integration for customer data
- Budget indicated: $100k+ annually
- Timeline: Implementation needed by Q1
- Lead score: 95/100 (hot lead!)
- Next step: Demo call scheduled for tomorrow 2 PM
Assign to @senior.sales.rep for immediate follow-up"

LLM Response: I'll create an immediate hot lead alert for the sales team.

[Uses send-message tool with urgent lead notification]

Hot lead alert sent! The sales team has been notified about Global Industries Inc. and the senior sales rep has been assigned for immediate follow-up.

Customer Onboarding

You: "New customer TechStart just signed! Create onboarding announcement for #sales with topic 'New Customers':
- Customer: TechStart (Startup plan)
- Deal value: $24k annually
- Sales rep: @jenny.sales
- Implementation timeline: 30 days
- Key requirements: Slack integration, custom dashboards
- Success criteria: 80% team adoption in first month
- Onboarding kickoff: Scheduled for Monday 10 AM
- CSM assigned: @alex.success
Congratulate Jenny on closing this deal!"

LLM Response: I'll create a celebratory new customer announcement with all the onboarding details.

[Uses send-message tool with onboarding information and congratulations]

New customer announcement sent! Jenny has been congratulated on the TechStart deal and the team has all the onboarding information they need.

Advanced Use Cases

Automated Workflows

Integration with External Systems

You: "Our monitoring system detected that API response times are above 500ms. Check recent messages in #development for any related discussions, then send an alert about potential performance issues."

LLM Response: I'll check recent development messages for context and then send a performance alert.

[Uses get-messages tool to search development stream]
[Then uses send-message tool to create alert with context]

I found related discussions about database queries in the development stream. I've sent a performance alert that references the ongoing database optimization work and suggests coordination between teams.

Multi-Stream Coordination

You: "We have a customer-reported security issue. Send coordinated messages to:
1. #security-team: Technical details and immediate investigation request
2. #customer-success: Customer communication strategy  
3. #leadership: Executive summary and timeline
4. #development: Engineering response coordination
Ensure each team gets relevant information for their role."

LLM Response: I'll send coordinated messages to all four teams with role-specific information about the security issue.

[Uses multiple send-message tool calls with different content for each team]

Coordinated security response initiated! All four teams have been notified with appropriate details for their roles in addressing this customer-reported security issue.

Data Collection & Analysis

Survey and Feedback Compilation

You: "Search the last 30 days of messages in #customer-success for mentions of 'feature request' and 'customer feedback'. Compile a summary of the most requested features."

LLM Response: I'll search through recent customer success messages to identify and compile feature requests.

[Uses get-messages tool with search parameters]
[Analyzes results and creates summary]

Based on 30 days of customer success messages, here are the top feature requests:
1. Advanced reporting (mentioned 8 times)
2. Mobile app improvements (mentioned 6 times)  
3. API rate limit increases (mentioned 5 times)
4. SSO integration (mentioned 4 times)
5. Custom dashboard widgets (mentioned 3 times)

Would you like me to send this summary to the product team?

Team Performance Insights

You: "Analyze message patterns in #development over the past week. Look for:
- Most active discussion topics
- Peak activity times
- Team collaboration patterns
- Any signs of blockers or concerns"

LLM Response: I'll analyze recent development team communication patterns to provide insights.

[Uses get-messages tool with various search parameters]
[Analyzes patterns and generates insights]

Development team analysis for the past week:
- Most active topics: Database optimization (25 messages), Code review process (18 messages)
- Peak activity: Tuesday-Thursday, 10 AM - 2 PM
- High collaboration: Backend and frontend teams working closely on API integration
- Potential concerns: 3 mentions of testing environment issues
- Positive indicators: Quick resolution times, proactive help between team members

This suggests a healthy, collaborative team with minor infrastructure concerns to address.

Custom Automation Scripts

Daily Standups

You: "It's Monday morning. Create a standup prompt for #development asking each team member to share:
- What they completed last week
- What they're working on this week  
- Any blockers or help needed
- One team win or learning to celebrate
Format it as an engaging thread that encourages participation."

LLM Response: I'll create an engaging Monday standup prompt to kick off the week positively.

[Uses send-message tool with structured standup format]

Monday standup prompt posted! The development team has an engaging format to share their updates, blockers, and celebrate wins from last week.

Weekly Retrospectives

You: "Friday afternoon retrospective time! Send a message to #general asking teams to reflect on the week:
- Biggest accomplishment this week
- Most valuable lesson learned
- One thing to improve next week
- Kudos for a teammate who helped you
Make it positive and encourage cross-team sharing."

LLM Response: I'll create a positive weekly retrospective prompt to encourage team reflection and recognition.

[Uses send-message tool with retrospective format]

Weekly retrospective prompt sent! Teams across the company can now reflect on their week and share accomplishments and lessons learned.

Best Practices & Tips

Message Formatting

Use Rich Formatting

**Bold headings** for important information
*Italics* for emphasis
`Code snippets` for technical terms
> Quoted text for references

### Structured Lists
- Bullet points for clarity
- **Key:** Value pairs for data
- Numbered lists for steps

[Links](https://example.com) for references
@**Name** for user mentions
#**stream-name** for stream references

Effective Use of Topics

Workflow Optimization

You: "I need to update multiple teams about our product launch. Send messages to #sales, #marketing, and #customer-success with launch details customized for each team's needs."

Use Context from Previous Messages

You: "Check what was discussed about the API rate limiting issue in #development yesterday, then send a follow-up with the resolution we implemented."

Combine Multiple Tools

You: "Find all users in the sales team, then send them a direct message about the new CRM integration training session scheduled for next week."

Ready to implement these workflows? Start with the basic examples and gradually build more complex automations tailored to your team’s specific needs. Check out our API Reference for detailed tool documentation or Troubleshooting Guide if you encounter any issues.