Zoho has launched new capabilities for Catalyst, its cloud application development platform, allowing developers and businesses in the MENA region to turn AI-generated code into production-ready applications more quickly and with greater control.
Catalyst 3.0 works with agentic AI coding assistants including Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. The platform provides the cloud infrastructure, deployment controls and operational tools needed to build and run applications without stitching together multiple services.
New features include Agentic AI skills that help coding assistants understand Catalyst and generate production-grade code. The skills are available through the Claude Code, Codex and Cursor marketplaces. Catalyst also now includes a non-interactive command-line interface and support for the Model Context Protocol, allowing developers to complete tasks from within a single coding assistant console.
Zoho said its orchestration layer routes requests through the CLI or MCP path, helping reduce incorrect tool selection and improve deployment reliability. The AI skills, Catalyst SDK, CLI and Slyte JavaScript framework are being open-sourced.
The platform includes separate development and production environments, access controls, audit records and security features such as DDoS protection and web application firewall support. Catalyst also supports local data residency in Saudi Arabia and the UAE through Zoho’s in-country data centre infrastructure.
Zoho said Catalyst offers a free student program across the region, including hosting, functions, database and AI tooling.
Source: Biz Bahrain
