Zoho Launches AI-Ready Catalyst to Simplify App Development and Deployment

Zoho Corporation has introduced new AI development tools for Catalyst, its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), as the company seeks to make it easier for developers to move AI-generated code into production.

The enhancements include Agent Skills, a non-interactive command-line interface (CLI) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. Catalyst can also now integrate with AI coding assistants such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.

Zoho is also making Catalyst completely free for students developing non-commercial applications. Students can access its full-stack hosting, functions, database and AI tools without a subscription or credit card.

The move comes as AI coding assistants make software development faster, while developers still face the challenge of testing, deploying and managing applications after the code has been generated.

“In a very short period of time, AI coding assistants have transformed how quickly applications can be created, but moving that code into production reliably remains a challenge,” said Kehinde Ogundare, Country Head, Zoho Nigeria.

Catalyst is designed to bring the development and deployment processes together on a single serverless platform, reducing the need to combine multiple cloud services.

Making AI coding more practical

Zoho said its new Agent Skills gives AI coding assistants information about Catalyst services, architecture and recommended development practices.

This allows the assistants to work with Catalyst without developers having to manually guide every step.

The non-interactive CLI also allows AI coding assistants to run multi-step Catalyst workflows without requiring human intervention at each stage.

MCP support takes this further by allowing developers to access Catalyst functions directly from development environments such as VS Code, Claude Code and Cursor.

For example, developers can create a database table or add a column without switching to the Catalyst console.

Zoho has also made its AI skills available as an open-source repository. The company is open-sourcing Catalyst’s SDK, CLI and Slyte, its lightweight JavaScript framework.

Human control remains

Despite the increased use of AI agents, Zoho said developers will retain control over production deployments.

Catalyst keeps development and production environments separate, with code manually promoted to production.

The company said this prevents AI agents from directly accessing production environments.

The platform also provides controls for collaborators and records application, platform and MCP tool-call activity. Changes can be tracked, attributed and reversed.

Applications running on Catalyst are hosted in Zoho’s data centres and use its security infrastructure, including DDoS protection, web application firewall, SOC compliance and regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.

Free access for students

Catalyst offers a monthly free tier, while users seeking deeper access can receive N192,500 in free credits over six months.

The platform operates on a pay-as-you-go model, with developers charged according to usage rather than through an additional licence fee.

Zoho said users can monitor usage, set budget alerts and establish spending limits. A subscription option is also available for teams seeking more predictable costs.

For students, however, Catalyst will remain completely free for deploying non-commercial applications.

“Making Catalyst free for students is about giving the next generation of developers the opportunity to move beyond learning how to code and experience what it takes to build and deploy complete applications,” Zoho said.

The company said the initiative is intended to help students gain practical experience in building and deploying applications while removing the cost barrier associated with cloud development.

Zoho has more than 150 million users worldwide and more than one million paying organisations.