Kaizen 258 - Getting Started with zoho-crm SKILL.md

Kaizen 258 - Getting Started with zoho-crm SKILL.md



Howdy tech wizards, 

Welcome to a fresh week of Kaizen. 

This week, we are taking a look at the zoho-crm SKILL.md, an Agent Skill designed to help AI coding agents work with Zoho CRM’s developer capabilities.

What is zoho-crm SKILL.md?

The zoho-crm skill acts as an orchestration layer across Zoho CRM’s developer tools as follows:
  1. REST API:  Selects the right API v8 operation and generates the cURL request or invokes it through MCP.
  2. Deluge Functions:  Generates and validates server-side Deluge scripts.
  3. Client Script:  Creates ZDK-based scripts for CRM UI behavior and automation.
  4. Widgets:  Builds embedded components using the CRM JS SDK, ZRC, and API integrations.
  5. COQL:  Builds and validates COQL queries, including endpoints and scopes.
  6. Queries:  Helps configure saved Queries and select the appropriate data source.
  7. Connections:  Guides OAuth integrations and connection usage across CRM developer tools.
The skill follows a five-step flow to turn your requirement into a solution:

  1. Understand the goal: Identifies the Action, Entity, and Context from your request.
  2. Select the Right Primitive: Determines whether to use REST API, Deluge Function, Client Script, Widget, COQL, Query, or Connection.
  3. Load the Relevant References: Uses the appropriate product references as the source of truth.
  4. Generate the Solution: Produces the required code, query, API request, or configuration guidance.
  5. Validate the Output: Checks the solution against CRM syntax, parameters, scopes, constraints, and known implementation gotchas.

Getting Started with zoho-crm SKILL.md

There are two ways to get started with the skill:
  1. Skills CLI (npx skills): The quickest and recommended approach.
  2. Manual Alternative: Clone or download the repository and copy the zoho-crm skill folder to your agent’s skills directory.
Let us start with the recommended approach.

Prerequisites

Before installing the skill:
  1. Ensure that a recent version of Node.js is installed on your system.
  2. Ensure that your AI coding agent is supported by the Skills CLI.
  3. If you plan to use the Zoho MCP or Zoho CRM MCP capabilities, configure the required MCP connection separately. Installing the skill does not configure MCP access.

Using the Skills CLI

Installation

With the Skills CLI, you have two independent choices when installing a skill:
  1. Agent: Determines which AI coding agent receives the skill.
  2. Scope: Determines whether the skill is installed for the current project or globally.

Choosing an Agent

You can control the agents where the skill is installed in three ways:
Specific Agent
Use the --agent or -a option to install the skill for a specific agent:

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code

The value passed to --agent must be the identifier supported by the Skills CLI. Check out the supported agents section to get the identifier of your required agent. 
All Supported Agents
If you want to install the skill for all supported agents, use *:

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent '*'

--agent '*' targets all supported agents. It is different from selecting Universal agents.
Interactive Selection
If you don’t specify an agent, the CLI opens an interactive agent-selection prompt:

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills

When no agent is specified, the CLI opens the agent selection prompt. Universal agents are always included, while additional supported agents can be selected from the prompt.

The Universal agents use the shared .agents/skills directory and are included automatically. The Additional agents section lets you select other supported agents for the installation.


Idea
Tip

If you need precise control over which agents receive the skill, use the --agent or -a option instead.

Choosing a Scope

You can control where the skill is installed using two scopes:
Project
By default, the skill is installed for the current project:

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code

Use this when the skill is intended for a specific project or needs to be shared with the project team.
Global 
Use -g or --global to install the skill in your user-level skills directory:

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code -g

A global installation makes the skill available across projects for that agent.

Notes
Note 

-g controls only the scope. It does not mean install for all agents. The agent still needs to be selected separately.

Combining Agent and Scope

Since Agent and Scope are independent choices, you can combine them as needed:

Scope
Specific Agent

All Supported Agents

Current Project

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code
npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent '*'

Global
npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent claude-code -g

npx skills add zoho/crm-skills --agent '*' -g


The --agent option controls which agent or agents receive the skill, while -g controls where the skill is installed.

Upgrade Versions

Once installed, you can update the skill using the Skills CLI.

Skills CLI

Description
npx skills update zoho-crm

To update a zoho-crm skill in interative mode.  

npx skills update zoho-crm -g

To update the zoho-crm skill at the golbal level.

npx skills update zoho-crm -p

To update the zoho-crm skill at the current project level.

Pin version

If you’re pinning versions for a team or CI environment, use the project’s lockfile to restore the exact skill state instead of relying on an update to the latest version.

The Skills CLI can restore project skills from skills-lock.json using:

npx skills experimental_install

Remove 

You can remove the zoho-crm skill when it is no longer required.

Skills CLI

Description

npx skills remove zoho-crm

To remove the skill installed from the current project. 

npx skills remove --agent claude-code zoho-crm

To remove the skill from one particular agent. 

npx skills remove zoho-crm --agent '*'

To remove a skill from all supported agents.

npx skills remove --global zoho-crm

To remove the skill from global scope. 


Here, the --agent option controls the target agent, while --global controls whether the removal applies to the global scope.

Manual Alternative

If Node.js isn’t available, a skill is still just a folder containing a SKILL.md and its associated resources. 

Install

Clone the repository with Git or download it as a ZIP file, then copy the skills/zoho-crm folder to the appropriate skills directory for your AI coding agent.


cp -r crm-skills/skills/zoho-crm ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm

The destination depends on both the agent and the scope you choose. For example,

Agent
Project

Global
Claude Code

.claude/skills/

~/.claude/skills/

Codex
.agents/skills/

~/.codex/skills/

Cursor
.agents/skills/

~/.cursor/skills/

GitHub Copilot

.agents/skills/

~/.copilot/skills/

Upgrade versions 

If you cloned the repository separately, update the skill by pulling the latest repository contents and replacing the existing zoho-crm directory.
Option A: Re-clone and overwrite
This approach keeps the repository checkout separate from the installed skill:

git clone https://github.com/zoho/crm-skills.git /tmp/skill-update

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm

cp -r /tmp/skill-update/skills/zoho-crm ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm
Option B: Pull if you maintain a separate working copy
If you keep a clone of the crm-skills repository separately, pull the latest changes there, then re-copy the skill folder:

cd /path/to/crm-skills

git pull origin main

cp -r skills/zoho-crm ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm

Notes
Note

Cloning the repository directly into your skills folder and pulling in place does not work as 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 it.
Pin version
For a manual installation, you can pin the skill to a specific Git commit instead of tracking the latest changes on main:

git clone https://github.com/zoho/crm-skills.git /tmp/crm-skills

cd /tmp/crm-skills

git checkout <commit-sha>

cp -r skills/zoho-crm ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm

This keeps the installed skill at the selected repository revision.

Remove 

To remove a manually installed skill, delete the zoho-crm directory from the agent’s skills directory. If you installed the skill globally, remove it from the global directory instead (for example, ~/.claude/skills/zoho-crm).

Try it Out

Here is a short video of zoho-crm skill writing a Deluge script to compress the attachments of a contact and email it to the record's owner. 



We hope you find this kaizen helpful.

Next week, we will take the zoho-crm SKILL.md beyond setup and into action, with a real life CRM scenario solved using the skill. 

Have questions or suggestions? Drop them in the comments or write to us at support@zohocrm.com.

On to Better Building!

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