Episode 2 - Connect your Zoho MCP server to AI client | Zoho Creator Academy

Episode 2 - Connect your Zoho MCP server to a GenAI client

Recap 

In the previous episode, we created a server in Zoho MCP, connected Zoho Creator and Monday applications to the server, configured the required tools, authorized the application connection to Zoho MCP, and obtained the server URL required to integrate GenAI client.

In this episode 

You will establish a connection between Zoho MCP server and the Claude AI client using the server URL and configure tool permissions in Claude.
Notes
Note:  Invoking Zoho Creator tools through Zoho MCP consumes Developer API calls from your Creator account. You can monitor your Developer API calls usage and limit from the Billing section. Additionally, GenAI clients like Claude consumes tokens for processing prompts and responses as billed by the AI provider.   

Prerequisites 

  1. Account owner role in Claude AI
  2. Server URL from Zoho MCP server

Steps  to connect GenAI assistant

  1. Open the Claude application and sign in with your account. On the landing page, click Customize from the side bar.


  2. Click Connectors on the customization page to view and manage integrations with external applications and services.

  3. Click the + icon in the Connectors pane. The following options are displayed:
    1. Browse connectors – View and use predefined connectors that are available in the connector library.
    2. Add custom connector – Create a custom connector for services that are not available in the connector library.
  4. Click Add custom connector to create a connector for the MCP server.

  5. Paste the server URL copied from the Zoho MCP server into the Remote MCP server URL field, and specify a Name for the custom connector. Once added, the custom connector will be displayed in the list of available connectors.

  6. Click Connect to initiate a connection with the Zoho MCP server and retrieve the tools exposed by the server.

  7. Click Allow to authorize Claude to access your Zoho MCP account and the connected applications configured in the MCP server.

    Notes
    Note:  
    Make sure you are signed in to the browser with the same account that was used to configure the MCP server.  The authentication request will fail if it is initiated using a different account.   
  8. Select the checkbox at the bottom of the page and click Accept to authorize MCP to access the listed tools (data and permissions) of the connected Zoho applications. Upon successful authorization, the custom connector becomes active and displays all tools exposed through the connected Zoho MCP server.

  9. Configure the tool permissions based on your requirements. You can set permissions for all tools in bulk or configure them individually. The available options are:
    1. Always allow – Allows Claude to invoke the tool without requesting approval.
    2. Needs approval – Prompts for approval each time Claude attempts to use the tool.
    3. Blocked – Prevents Claude from accessing the tool.
            For this tutorial, select Always allow to enable Claude to invoke the configured tools without additional approval prompts.
                                      


You now have an AI assistant that can use natural language prompts to invoke tools and interact with Zoho Creator and Monday.com through the Zoho MCP server.

Interactive tutorial 



What's next
Previous
What's next
Continue to Episode 3 to interact with the Zoho Creator application through Claude using natural language prompts.
Previous
Before starting this episode, ensure that you have created an MCP server, added the Zoho Creator and Monday.com applications, and configured the required tools as described in Episode 1.