Zoho Cliq REST APIs v3 - A Complete Guide to What's Changed & Why

Zoho Cliq REST APIs v3 - A Complete Guide to What's Changed & Why



APIs are not just consumed by a developer with numerous automations and a series of open browser tabs. They are parsed by LLMs, fed into agent pipelines, and auto-completed by AI coding assistants that have zero tolerance for inconsistency.

A verb tucked into a URL, multiple pagination tokens across each module, inconsistent key naming, etc. These gaps create friction that compounds across every integration built on top of our APIs.

Hence, introducing our new REST API documentation with v3 REST APIs, which act as a comprehensive rule-book detailing proper response structures, error codes, query conventions, URL format and HTTP semantics.

💡
 Switching API Versions

To switch between the two API versions, navigate to the top-right corner of the documentation, where you will find a dropdown menu. We currently support v2 (legacy) and v3 (latest).

Version switcher dropdown showing V2 and V3 (Latest) options in the top-right corner of Zoho Cliq API Docs

Here's what we have upgraded, why it's essential, and what it means for anyone building with Cliq APIs today.

What's new in v3

Along with standardization, v3 APIs ship with a substantial set of new capabilities that address the inconsistencies left by v2.

Platform components management


  • Every platform component now has full CRUD API coverage (schedulers and widgets will be launched soon). Creating deluge or webhook bots, adding a script to handlers, and all of this can be automated.

No more endless search exploration

In v2, "search" meant fetching paginated lists, filtering, and manually applying conditional logic, thereby burning bandwidth. v3 includes dedicated search endpoints for both messages and chats, with rich filtering parameters.

Cliq UI via API

The gap between what the UI could do and what the API could do ends with v3. Like, when a user pins a message, stars a chat, or adjusts a notification preference, your integration hits a dead end.

  • Stars, pins, and chat folders are no longer UI-only gestures; they are proper first-class resources with full CRUD endpoints that fit naturally into the same model as everything else in v3.

New documentation template

Along with the APIs and their standardization, we have revamped the documentation theme that's as dynamic as our APIs.


AI tooling


  1. Interrogate implementation questions, debug edge cases, and more by clicking the AI tools dropdown, which populates the Open in Claude, Open in ChatGPT, Copy as Markdown, and View as Markdown options available on every documentation page.
  1. Launch a Claude or ChatGPT session with the full endpoint schema already loaded in context.

OpenAPI Specification, per resource and as a full bundle


  1. Every module overview page ships a module-specific OAS .yml file, and the complete openapi-all.zip bundle is always one click away.
  1. Feed it into OpenAPI Generator for typed client SDKs, drop it into an LLM for schema-accurate code generation, load it into SwaggerHub for an interactive explorer, or wire it into your CI pipeline for contract testing.

Updated Postman collection

  1. At the top of the documentation, access the Postman collection with the correct method, URL, headers, and body for every endpoint. An OAuth folder handles the full token lifecycle and automatically generates and populates both your access and refresh tokens without any manual setup.

  1. Multi-data center support is added into environment variables, two changes switch the entire collection across the US, EU, IN, AU, JP, and CA. Fork it, pull updates as the API evolves, and keep every customization intact.

Glossary as a single source of truth

All the unique 25+ identifiers (BOT_ID, CHAT_ID, CHANNEL_UNIQUE_NAME, etc.) are defined once, with retrieval guides (e.g., how to retrieve via API and UI, if possible), and they're linked from every endpoint that uses them, so there's no more cross-referencing tabs or guessing what a parameter expects.

Multiple language code examples

  1. cURL, Deluge, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, and Python are available copy-ready on every endpoint. Default is cURL. Use the dropdown to switch between different code examples. Pick your language, copy, and run.
  2. Fun-fact: We've also got you covered with bonus support for C#, C# HTTPClient, Go, and JavaScript XHR 🥳

Endpoint-specific errors


  1. Every endpoint includes a section called "Possible Error Codes." By clicking this section, you can view error codes along with their HTTP status codes and plain-language descriptions. 
  2. The codes in the table match exactly the strings the API uses. The information is presented in an expandable and collapsible format to enhance the user interface and user experience.
  3. The relevant error handling can be done with your custom scripts without parsing or guessing any more

Multiple request body examples, per endpoint


  1. Some endpoints support multiple ways to use them. For those, the documentation ships multiple request body examples, each mapped to a distinct business use case, with its own response example.
  2. Switch between them from the dropdown, understand the intent, and take it straight into your script. No reverse-engineering the schema, no guessing what a field is actually for, every example is a real, working scenario you can adapt and use

Technical Upgrades

Removal of verbs in URL


  1. v2 APIs used verb patterns as placeholders in endpoint URLs (e.g., /resource/create or /resource/delete), and these endpoints are spread across every module.
  2. v3 APIs remove these verb placeholders, so every state transition that previously had a unique endpoint now uses a PUT or PATCH on the resource itself, with the new state included in the request body.

Unified response envelope

v2 responses had no consistent shape: some were bare, some wrapped, some ad hoc per endpoint, and all were different. v3 uses one envelope everywhere.
  1. {  
  2.   "type": "bot",  
  3.   "data": { ... }
  4. }

  5. For list responses, the same envelope extends naturally:
  6. {  
  7.   "type": "bot",
  8.   "next_token": "NTB8MTc1Nj...",
  9.   "sync_token": "NTB8MTc3Nz...",
  10.   "deleted": ["53719000001620003"],
  11.   "data": [ ... ]
  12. }
Type uses dot notation for sub-resources: channel. member, chat.read_status, so the resource type is unambiguous regardless of nesting depth. deleted lists IDs removed since the last sync, enabling cache-consistent incremental sync without polling. You write response-parsing logic once. It works across the entire API.

Uniform pagination

Paginating through v2 APIs was genuinely frustrating. Each module used its own token, and you had to account for every variation, and there was no single pattern you could rely on across the board.

The API surface was fragmented across six different tokens: next_token, sync_token, next_set_token, start_token, next_search_token, and page_number, which meant writing and maintaining module-specific pagination code was simply the norm.



v3 fixes this by replacing all of them with exactly two tokens, used identically across every resource:
  1. next_token: A cursor for forward pagination that works the same way regardless of which resource you are querying.
  2. sync_token: Designed for incremental sync, it returns only the records that have changed since your last request, making it significantly more efficient for keeping local state up to date.
Write your pagination logic once, and it works everywhere.

PATCH as a First-class method

In the v2 API, POST and PUT methods were used for almost everything, including partial updates. However, v3 enforces a more proper usage of HTTP methods. PATCH, in particular, is now utilized correctly and consistently.

This means that when updating two fields on a bot, you no longer need to resend the entire configuration. Instead, you only send what has changed, and the rest remains untouched. 

Example:
  1. PATCH /api/v3/bots/{BOT_ID} 
  2. {  
  3.   "name": "CRM Bot",  
  4.   "scope": "organization"
  5. }

Further additions

  1. URL Nesting: URL nesting is only used when it adds real value. If a parent ID can be understood from the authentication token, it is removed from the URL path. This keeps the URLs clean and avoids redundancy.

  2. Plural resource names: Every resource name in every URL, at every nesting level is plural. Hence predictability at URL level means tooling don't need to special case anything, one common rule is applied everywhere.

  3. Hyphens for multi-word segments: All multi-word segments use hyphens not camelCase, not underscores and no concatenation.
    Example: /api/v3/chats/{CHAT_ID}/pin-messages

  4. Consistent Key Formatting: All request and response keys follow a consistent snake_case format. The mix of camelCase and snake_case from v2 modules has been eliminated. This ensures that generated clients and serialization logic function correctly from the outset.

  5. Field Selection and Sorting: Field selection and sorting are standardized across all list endpoints. You can limit the data returned using "?fields=id, name" and control the order with "?order_by=+created_time", maintaining the same syntax throughout.

  6. Granular OAuth Scopes: OAuth scopes are now more detailed and documented for each endpoint. This allows integrations to request only the permissions they need (READ, CREATE, UPDATE, DELETE), with each endpoint clearly stating the required scope.

And that's a Wrap 🚀 !

v3 is live, but it's not done yet. More modules, endpoints, relevant MCP tools and features are on the way, and they will all meet the same high standards you see here
Thank you for building on Cliq, for pushing us to improve, and for trusting us with your integrations.

Try it out now, and if you have any feedback, suggestions or need help integrating our APIs into your internal workflows, please reach out to support@zohocliq.com, and we'd be happy to help :)

💌 With love,
Team Zoho Cliq

      • Sticky Posts

      • Add Claude in Zoho Cliq

        Let’s add a real AI assistant powered by Claude to your workspace this week, that your team can chat with, ask questions, and act on conversations to run AI actions on. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, step by step, with all the code
      • Zoho Cliq REST APIs v3 : A complete guide to what's changed and why 

        APIs are not just consumed by a developer with numerous automations and a series of open browser tabs. They are parsed by LLMs, fed into agent pipelines, and auto-completed by AI coding assistants that have zero tolerance for inconsistency. A verb tucked
      • Cliq Bots - Post message to a bot using the command line!

        If you had read our post on how to post a message to a channel in a simple one-line command, then this sure is a piece of cake for you guys! For those of you, who are reading this for the first time, don't worry! Just read on. This post is all about how
      • Automating Real-Time Zoho Bookings Alerts in Zoho Cliq

        Enable your teams to respond in seconds by bridging the gap between booking confirmation and team notification. No sticky notes, no calendar nudges and no follow-up frenzies. For businesses that rely on scheduled appointments, real-time visibility is
      • Automate attendance tracking with Zoho Cliq Developer Platform

        I wish remote work were permanently mandated so we could join work calls from a movie theatre or even while skydiving! But wait, it's time to wake up! The alarm has snoozed twice, and your team has already logged on for the day. Keeping tabs on attendance

        • Recent Topics

        • How do you create invoices before sending them through Zoho Invoice?

          Hi everyone, I'm curious how other businesses handle their invoicing workflow before sending invoices through Zoho Invoice. Do you: Create invoices directly inside Zoho? Prepare them first in another invoice tool or template? Use Excel or Word before
        • ZML Error/Bug

          Hi, I would like to request for your help regarding this kind of behavior. Requested_Start_Time & End_Time - date-time fields https://......#Page:PH_Calendar_Page?reqDate=08-04-2026 https://......#Page:PH_Calendar_Page?reqDate=07-31-2026 https://....#Page:PH_Calendar_Page?reqDate=08-03-2026
        • Item with name in different languate

          Hello, is there a way to have an item with its name in different languages? For example: I sell an item in different markets and I'd like to have a Proposal and the Invoice with the Item Name in a specific language. Rino Bertolotto Zoho Specialist, STESA srl
        • Email notification for followers

          Is there a way to enable email notification for followers of a support ticket? ie: Ticket #123 is owned by Agent#1, Agent#2 adds themselves as a follower. Whenever ticket #123 receives an email from the customer, Agent#1 receives an email. Agent#2 would
        • Migration of emails from Yandex to Zoho

          I am trying to migrate an yandex mail account to zoho mail account. I am confused with all the related articles/informations in the net. Could someone please outline the process to do it, just thinking about me as a novice with limited knowledge or experience. A couple of questions from the knowledge gained. 1. I believe we have to delete the yandex current MX from the website records and add Zoho MX. What happens to the emails as we remove the mail exchange record. Yandex stops updating emails and
        • Auto-fill from logged-in user's profile for Name Fields in Subforms

          Hi, The Name field is great, but I see you can't tick the Initial Value option of "Auto-fill from logged-in user's profile" when it is on a Subform, why not? Thanks Dan
        • Calling a function within another function

          Hello there, I have just found out that you can simply call up functions in other functions, regardless of the department. You can't create functions with the same name twice, even though you are in a different department. If you try it, you don't get
        • 【続々公開】Zoholics Japan 2026 セッション情報を更新しました!

          ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは! Zoholics Japan 2026のセッション情報を続々と公開しています! 今年は3つのトラックで、Zohoの最新情報やAI活用、製品アップデート、 活用事例など、多彩なセッションをお届けします。 現在公開中のセッション(一部) ・Zoho CRM 製品アップデート ・Zoho CRM Plus 製品アップデート ・Zoho Community セッション ・Zoho Desk セッション ・中堅・成長企業の人事DX ~AI時代に何から始めるべきか?~ ・Zoho
        • Zoho CRM Community Digest - July 2026 | Part 1

          Hello everyone, July is here! The first two weeks brought six CRM updates ranging from privacy-ready webforms to a significantly more powerful Layout Rules engine, two community wins worth a look (a dashboard workaround for spotting leads with no activities,
        • New Ways to Personalize, Organize, and Share Your Notes

          We're excited to introduce a new set of enhancements in Zoho Notebook that make your note-taking experience cleaner, more flexible, and easier to share. With this update, you can create notes that automatically adapt to your device theme, browse your
        • Zoho Commerce B2B

          Hello, I have signed up for a Zoho Commerce B2B product demo but it's not clear to me how the B2B experience would look for my customers, in a couple of ways. 1) Some of my customers are on terms and some pay upfront with credit card. How do I hide/show
        • Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure

          Greetings all, One of the most highly anticipated feature launches—Spam Detection in webforms—has finally arrived! Webforms are a vital tool for record generation, but they're also vulnerable to submissions from unauthenticated or malicious sources, which
        • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

          Moderation Update: During the initial release of Rich Text fields, it was supported only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions. We have gradually extended Rich Text fields to all the paid editions of Zoho CRM. Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce
        • Add Large Lists to Choice-Based Field Rules

          Hi, The new Large List is good, but you can't then use the Choice-Based Field Rules with it to limit the Group Choices or Choices? Thanks Dan
        • Email-Data Synchronization with Zoho Analytics

          Hello, Enterprise Support Community! We're excited to announce the availability of Email Data Synchronization with Zoho Analytics! This highly requested enhancement allows you to sync email data from Zoho CRM into Zoho Analytics, making it easier to analyze
        • Zoho - shopify sales order - invoicing

          we have integrated zoho with shopify. so now , when an order comes through shopify-it raises a sales order in zoho. And at this time- the inventory goes down in shopify, according to the sale. Then we manually convert the sales order to an invoice, and
        • Enable Replenishments Option not Available

          I'm looking to turn on the replenishment option in Zoho Inventory and I'm not finding settings for it in Zoho Books or Zoho Inventory. This is the tutorial I was following from Zoho. Is there a step I'm missing to have Replenishments be available in Zoho
        • Kiosk Page Refresh

          We have a Kiosk running from a button in contacts to update values and also add related lists, which works great, but when the kiosk is finished the page does not refresh to show the changes. Is there a way to force the contact to refresh/update when
        • [Solution] Analyze, Act and Automate with Drill Actions

          Insights create value only when they lead to action. Traditional dashboards excel at helping you understand what is happening, but acting on those insights often requires manual intervention leaving the dashboard, opening another application, finding
        • Building extensions #6: Handling modal boxes to enhance user experience

          In our previous post, we explored creating custom graphical user interfaces using widgets. In this post, we'll learn about enhancing user experience through modal boxes. What is a modal box, and where is it used? A modal box is essentially a widget interface
        • Improve User Onboarding in Zoho Projects with Zoho DAP

          Rolling out new processes or onboarding new users in the tool comes with a familiar challenge: the employees need guidance at the moment they are doing the work. Traditional training sessions and knowledge sharing often require users to leave the application.
        • Zoho Social API for generating draft posts from a third-party app ?

          Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I have a question regarding Zoho Social. I am developing an application that generates social media posts, and I would like to be able to incorporate a feature that allows saving these posts as drafts in Zoho Social.
        • Your CRO data is now on your AI Assistant: PageSense is live on Zoho MCP

          Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho PageSense is now live on Zoho MCP servers. Here is what that means for you. Every answer about your website lives behind tons of data across different modules. Which test is winning. Where visitors bail.
        • Feature Enhancement Request – Bulk Download of Signed Documents in Zoho Sign

          Hi Team, We would like to request a Bulk Download feature for signed documents in Zoho Sign. Currently, Zoho Sign allows users to send documents in bulk using an Excel sheet, but there is no option to download the completed signed documents in bulk. Users
        • delete a user on Zoho Desk

          Kindly I Need help to delete a user on Zoho Desk but I deactivated but not deactivated with licenses so what can I Do?
        • Unable to open Attendance Regularization request, reason?

          Unable to open Attendance Regularization request.
        • What's New in Zoho Inventory | June 2026

          Hello users, June 2026 introduces a range of exciting enhancements to Zoho Inventory. With the full rollout of the Zoho Inventory Windows application, the launch of Terminal Payments, and new tracking combinations in Advanced Inventory Tracking, you can
        • Tax/Vat Number Field As Standard - Customer & Vendor

          Hello, when are you'll going to have the customer & vendor tax/vat number as a standard field under the relevant profile pages? I find it strange that after 6 years of using Zoho Inventory that I still have to use a custom field for a tax/vat number,
        • Zoho CRM - Feature Request - Conditional Lead Conversion

          Hi CRM team, My feature request is to allow admins to create some conversion logic in the Lead Conversion settings. It is a common case where we want to convert a Lead to a Commercial or Residential Deal layout. Layout rules are not ideal because the
        • Zoho CRM Approval Process based on Field Update

          Hello, In current structure, Zoho CRM send records to approval based on record creation and edit.  I think, it should be to set approval process trigger based on any field update in record. When the user update any field, the record can assign to approval
        • Free webinar: Automate signature workflows with Zoho Sign and Zoho WorkDrive

          Hi there! Are you still storing and managing physical paperwork before and after signing? This traditional method is bulky, costly, and impractical at scale. Attend our free webinar to learn how you can connect Zoho Sign, our digital signature app, with
        • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

          When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.
        • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

          Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,
        • Leave request problem on mobile phones

          Hello, When any employee attempts to submit a leave request on an Android or iOS phone, the error shown in the attachment appears. How can we solve this problem?
        • [Webinar] Digitizing forms and form-based workflows

          Live webinar on August 13, 2026 | Time: 2 PM IST | 2 PM EDT Hi, Struggling with paper forms, manual data entry, disconnected approvals, and form data that never reaches the apps that need it? Join our live webinar to learn how Zoho Writer's fillable templates
        • Multi-currency and Products

          One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There
        • Price Book in foreign currency

          We have many customers who buy in foreign currency (USD), where our base currency is our local currency (AUD). It would be normal (it is in Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory etc.) to assign a currency to a price book, but I cannot find this option in Zoho CRM
        • Assign Price Book to Accounts (again!)

          I can see this topic has been bumping about for over 10 years and unfortunately Zoho hasn't seen the need (or use case) in CRM to be able to assign an account to a price book to automate quoting (amongst other things). Strange given they DO assign price
        • Remove "Subject" as a required field on quotations

          Not sure why, but Zoho has made 'Subject' a system defined required field. I'm not entirely sure why subject would be required as a key field (i.e. you cannot deactivate it or change it from required). It doesn't make much sense on many product quotations,
        • Approve records efficiently: Useful enhancements to My Jobs module and Approval process in Zoho CRM

          Dear Customers, As you might know, approval process is a process automation tool that allows you to automate approvals in your organization and My Jobs is where you approve requests from a single point of view. Here's how you'd go about it: You’d add
        • Next Page