Zoho Corporation has unveiled major enhancements to Catalyst by Zoho, its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), introducing agentic development capabilities designed to help software developers move AI-generated code from prototype to production with greater speed and control.
The latest additions include Agent Skills, a non-interactive command-line interface (CLI) and support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), alongside integrations with agentic AI coding assistants such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.
In a move aimed at expanding access to next-generation software development tools, Zoho also announced that Catalyst will be completely free for students developing non-commercial applications, offering access to full-stack hosting, functions, databases and AI tooling without a subscription or credit card requirement.
The announcement comes as AI coding assistants increasingly transform the speed at which software applications can be built, while deployment, infrastructure management and production reliability remain significant challenges for developers.
Catalyst is designed to bridge that gap by providing a structured, serverless full-stack environment through which developers and AI coding assistants can build, test and deploy applications.
Zoho said the enhanced Catalyst platform allows developers to use their preferred AI coding assistants while relying on the company’s underlying infrastructure and platform controls.
The approach is intended to reduce the need for developers to combine multiple cloud providers and services to move an application from code generation to deployment.
The platform is targeted at system integrators and software companies building customised solutions, as well as independent developers seeking to move from prototype to production without directly managing complex infrastructure.
“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.
“Developers still spend significant time managing infrastructure and bringing together separate cloud services. With Catalyst, we are reducing that friction by providing an agent-ready, serverless full-stack platform that helps developers build, deploy and scale intelligent applications with greater control and less operational overhead,” he added.
One of the major highlights of the announcement is Catalyst Agent Skills, which provides AI coding assistants with contextual information about Catalyst services, architecture and recommended development patterns.
Rather than requiring an AI model to independently determine how to interact with the platform, the tool guides the assistant towards relevant capabilities and workflows, with the aim of producing more accurate and verified outputs.
Zoho said its non-interactive CLI would enable AI coding assistants to execute multi-step workflows on Catalyst without requiring human input at every stage.
The feature is expected to reduce manual intervention and accelerate the transition from software development to deployment.
The company’s Catalyst MCP server also provides coding assistants with direct access to Catalyst capabilities from existing developer environments.
This means tasks such as creating database tables or adding columns can be performed from environments including VS Code, Claude Code and Cursor without developers having to switch to the Catalyst console.
Zoho said orchestration built into Agent Skills routes requests through the appropriate CLI or MCP pathway, reducing the risk of incorrect tool selection and improving the reliability of applications developed with AI assistance.
In an effort to strengthen developer confidence and transparency, Zoho has made its AI skills available through an open-source repository, allowing developers to inspect and further develop the capabilities.
The company is also open-sourcing Catalyst’s software development kit (SDK), CLI and its lightweight JavaScript framework, Slyte.
The move positions Zoho within a growing technology industry push towards greater openness around the tools and frameworks used to build AI-enabled applications.
Despite the growing role of AI agents in application development, Zoho said Catalyst retains human oversight within the deployment process.
Development and production environments remain separate, with code required to be promoted manually into production. The arrangement means AI agents cannot directly access production environments.
The platform also provides scoped collaborator controls to define who—or what—can participate in development and the actions they are permitted to perform.
Full audit trails covering applications, platforms and MCP tool calls allow developers to track the actions of AI agents and determine when those actions occurred.
Changes made after applications are launched are versioned, attributable and reversible, according to Zoho.
Applications built on Catalyst run within Zoho’s data centres and inherit the company’s security infrastructure, including distributed denial-of-service protection, SOC compliance, regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, as well as web application firewall capabilities.
Free access for students
Zoho said the decision to make Catalyst free for students was aimed at lowering barriers for the next generation of software developers.
The company said students would be able to build and deploy non-commercial applications using full-stack and AI development capabilities without providing credit card details or paying subscription fees.
“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.
“By removing the cost barrier and giving students access to full-stack development and AI capabilities, we want to enable them to experiment, build practical skills and turn their ideas into working applications,” the company said.
For developers more broadly, Catalyst offers a monthly free tier and N192,500 in free credits over six months for users seeking to explore the platform more extensively.
The service operates largely on a pay-as-you-go model, with features priced according to usage rather than through additional licence fees. Developers can monitor consumption through the Catalyst console and set budget alerts and spending ceilings to manage costs.
A structured subscription option is also available for teams seeking more predictable expenditure.
The enhanced platform is available for immediate use, as Zoho seeks to position Catalyst as infrastructure for an emerging generation of developers increasingly using AI agents to write software but still requiring reliable systems to deploy, secure and scale their applications.
