Getting Started with zoho-crm SKILL.md

The zoho-crm skill is an Agent Skill built to help AI coding agents work with Zoho CRM's developer capabilities. This covers what it does and the full detail on installing, updating, pinning, and removing it.

What zoho-crm SKILL.md Does

The skill acts as an orchestration layer across Zoho CRM's developer tools, covering:

REST API. Selects the right API v8 operation and generates the cURL request, or invokes it through MCP.
Deluge Functions. Generates and validates server-side Deluge scripts.
Client Script. Creates ZDK-based scripts for CRM UI behaviour and automation.
Widgets. Builds embedded components using the CRM JS SDK, ZRC, and API integrations.
COQL. Builds and validates COQL queries, including endpoints and scopes.
Queries. Helps configure saved Queries and select the right data source.
Connections. Guides OAuth integrations and connection usage across CRM developer tools.

How It Works: A Five-Step Flow

Understand the goal. Identifies the Action, Entity, and Context from your request.
Select the right primitive. Determines whether to use REST API, Deluge Function, Client Script, Widget, COQL, Query, or Connection.
Load the relevant references. Uses the appropriate product references as the source of truth.
Generate the solution. Produces the required code, query, API request, or configuration guidance.
Validate the output. Checks the solution against CRM syntax, parameters, scopes, constraints, and known implementation gotchas.

Before You Install

A recent version of Node.js installed on your system.
An AI coding agent supported by the Skills CLI.

Installing the skill doesn't configure MCP. If you plan to use Zoho MCP or Zoho CRM MCP capabilities alongside this skill, configure that connection separately.

Installing with the Skills CLI (Recommended)

Two independent choices apply whenever you install: which agent receives the skill, and whether it's installed for the current project or globally.

Choosing an Agent

Specific agent: npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code, using the identifier your Skills CLI expects.
All supported agents: npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent '*'. This targets every supported agent and is different from selecting Universal agents.
Interactive selection: npx skills add zoho/crm-skills with no agent specified opens a selection prompt. Universal agents (using the shared .agents/skills directory) are included automatically; other supported agents can be chosen from the prompt.

Choosing a Scope

Project (default): npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code. Use this for a specific project or to share with a project team.
Global: npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code -g. Makes the skill available across every project for that agent.

Agent and scope are independent. -g only controls scope, not which agent gets the skill; you still need to select the agent separately.

Updating

Command	Effect
`npx skills update zoho-crm`	Update interactively
`npx skills update zoho-crm -g`	Update the global installation
`npx skills update zoho-crm -p`	Update the current project's installation

Pinning a Version

For a team or CI environment, restore the exact skill state from the project's lockfile rather than updating to the latest version: npx skills experimental_install, which restores project skills from skills-lock.json.

Removing

Command	Effect
`npx skills remove zoho-crm`	Remove from the current project
`npx skills remove --agent claude-code zoho-crm`	Remove from one particular agent
`npx skills remove zoho-crm --agent '*'`	Remove from all supported agents
`npx skills remove --global zoho-crm`	Remove from the global scope

Manual Installation (No Node.js Required)

A skill is just a folder containing a SKILL.md and its associated resources, so it can be installed without the CLI.

Clone the repository or download it as a ZIP: git clone https://github.com/zoho/crm-skills.git
Copy the skills/zoho-crm folder to your agent's skills directory, for example cp -r crm-skills/skills/zoho-crm ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm

Agent	Project path	Global path
Claude Code	.claude/skills/	~/.claude/skills/
Codex	.agents/skills/	~/.codex/skills/
Cursor	.agents/skills/	~/.cursor/skills/
GitHub Copilot	.agents/skills/	~/.copilot/skills/

Common mistake: cloning the repository directly into your skills folder and pulling in place does not work. The skill lives at skills/zoho-crm, not at the repository root, so a direct clone leaves SKILL.md nested one level too deep for your agent to find.

Updating a Manual Installation

Either re-clone the repository and overwrite your installed copy, or, if you keep a separate working clone, pull the latest changes there and re-copy the skill folder into your agent's skills directory.

Pinning a Manual Installation

Clone the repository, check out a specific commit with git checkout <commit-sha>, then copy the skill folder from that checkout, keeping the installed skill at that exact revision rather than tracking main.

Removing a Manual Installation

Delete the zoho-crm directory from the agent's skills directory, or from the global directory if it was installed there.

For the original announcement of this skill and the accompanying OpenAPI Specification repository, see New Zoho CRM Skill (SKILL.md) and Updated OAS Repository for AI Coding Tools.

Need help? 1 Cloud Consultants can help you install and configure the zoho-crm skill for your AI coding agent, and connect it to Zoho MCP where needed. Book a discovery call with 1 Cloud Consultants.