Zoho adds AI tools to Catalyst cloud platform

Zoho Corporation has upgraded its Catalyst cloud development platform with new artificial intelligence tools aimed at helping developers move AI-generated code from development to production while reducing infrastructure and operational complexity.

The technology company said the enhancements include Agent Skills, a non-interactive command-line interface, Model Context Protocol support, and integrations with AI coding assistants such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.

The new capabilities allow developers to use their preferred AI coding assistants within existing development environments, while Catalyst provides the serverless infrastructure for building, testing, deploying and scaling applications.

The Country Head of Zoho Nigeria, Kehinde Ogundare, said the rapid adoption of AI coding assistants had increased the speed at which applications could be created, but deploying the resulting code reliably remained a challenge.

“Developers still spend significant time managing infrastructure and bringing together separate cloud services,” Ogundare said.

“With Catalyst, we are reducing that friction by providing an agent-ready, serverless full-stack platform that helps developers build, deploy and scale intelligent applications with greater control and less operational overhead.”

Zoho said its Catalyst Agent Skills provide AI coding assistants with context about the platform’s services, architecture, and recommended development patterns, helping them follow specified workflows when generating and deploying applications.

The non-interactive CLI allows AI coding assistants to execute multi-step Catalyst workflows without requiring developers to provide manual input at every stage.

The Catalyst MCP server also enables AI coding assistants to access Catalyst capabilities directly from development environments. Developers using platforms such as VS Code, Claude Code and Cursor can perform tasks including creating database tables and adding columns without switching to the Catalyst console, according to Zoho.

The company has open-sourced its AI skills repository, allowing developers to inspect and extend the tools. Zoho said it was also open-sourcing Catalyst’s software development kit, CLI, and Slyte JavaScript framework.

As AI agents become more involved in software development, Zoho said Catalyst would retain human oversight over production deployments.

Development and production environments remain separate, with code requiring manual promotion to production. The company said the arrangement prevents AI agents from directly accessing production environments.

Catalyst also provides collaborator controls, audit trails and logs covering application, platform and MCP tool activity, enabling developers to track actions performed by AI agents.

Applications built on Catalyst run in Zoho’s data centres and use the company’s security infrastructure, including distributed denial-of-service protection, SOC compliance, vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, and a web application firewall.

Zoho said Catalyst offers a monthly free tier, as well as NGN192,500 in free credits over six months for users seeking to explore the platform further.

The platform operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, with developers able to monitor usage and set budget alerts and spending limits. A subscription option is also available for teams seeking more predictable costs.

The company has also made Catalyst free for students developing non-commercial applications, without requiring a subscription or credit card.

Zoho said the student offering was designed to give emerging developers access to full-stack development and AI tools while allowing them to gain practical experience building and deploying applications.

The company said more than 150 million users worldwide and over one million paying organisations rely on its products to run their businesses. It added that it operates its own data centres and does not rely on advertising revenue.