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A connected Zoho org gives your agents live tools for that org: look up the caller, read the Deals on their record, and create Tasks, Notes, and Calls. Tools run during a conversation or before and after it, and no contact sync is required.

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Available tools

These tools appear in your agent’s function menu once the org is connected. Every tool call runs as the authorizing Zoho user. See use integration tools in an agent for how to add and configure them.
Records the tools create are owned by the user who authorized the connection, so a dedicated integration user keeps the record owner and the timeline reading “Retell integration” rather than a teammate’s name.
Log Call Activity is the per-call, agent-driven version of activity logging: the agent decides when to log and what summary to write. Log activities automatically in the sync settings logs every conversation with a synced contact without the agent doing anything. Use one or the other, or both if you want automatic logs plus richer agent-written ones.

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How the tools address a record

Zoho record IDs are long numeric strings, and Retell rejects anything else before it reaches the API.
  • Get Contact and Update Contact take an id.
  • List Contact Deals, Create Task, Create Note, and Log Call Activity take a contact_id, which is required: each one links its record to that Contact, through the Who_Id field on Tasks and Calls.
  • Search Contact takes a phone_number and is how you get an ID in the first place. Point the rest at it with a dynamic variable from its output.
Search Contact hands the number to Zoho’s search, which matches it against every phone field on the module, and it retries with the number as the caller gave it plus its national and E.164 digit forms, so a number stored as (415) 555-0142 still matches a caller dialing in as +14155550142. It returns a single Contact, preferring one whose Phone, Mobile, Home Phone, or Other Phone digits equal the number you searched. List Contact Deals returns the Deals with a count and a has_more flag, so your agent can tell “no open deals” apart from “more than fit in one response.” Create and update tools return the record’s id and a success flag. Map the id to a dynamic variable when a later tool in the same conversation needs to point at the record you just made.

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What fields can the tools write?

Retell reads the module’s field definitions from your Zoho org when you configure a tool, so the input list is your schema, custom fields included. Read-only fields and fields Zoho won’t accept on that operation are filtered out, and fields marked mandatory in Zoho come through as required inputs you have to fill. Field types map the same way they do for contact sync: text, number, checkbox, date, date-time, and picklist fields are all configurable, while lookups, multi-select picklists, formula fields, subforms, and file uploads aren’t offered. Log Call Activity is the one exception to Zoho’s required fields. Zoho makes call start time and duration mandatory on a Call record, but Retell fills both in for you, so they stay optional inputs you configure only if you want to override them.

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Required permissions

Consent grants Retell the CRM scopes at connect time, but the authorizing user’s Zoho profile decides what each tool can actually do: Every tool also needs the profile to read the module’s field definitions, which is what populates the input list when you configure it. A missing permission doesn’t flag the connection, because Zoho answers with a permission error rather than rejecting the token; that one tool fails.

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FAQ

No. Tools work as soon as the connection is made, and each tool is bound to the specific connection you pick when configuring it. Contact sync, analysis mapping, and automatic activity logging are separate features you opt into.
Between 6 and 10 seconds, depending on the tool (as of August 2026): 6 for Get Contact, 8 for the tools that write a record, and 10 for Search Contact and List Contact Deals, which do more work on Zoho’s side. On a timeout or an error the agent carries on talking, so prompt it on what to say when a lookup doesn’t come back.
Not today (as of August 2026). The tools cover Contacts, Deals, Tasks, Notes, and Calls. Custom fields on those modules are supported and show up in the input list; custom modules and Leads aren’t.

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Next steps

Integration tools for prompt agents

Add Zoho tools to a single- or multi-prompt agent and test them with live requests.

Integration tools in conversation flow

Call Zoho tools from a function node and branch on the result.

Zoho contact sync

Import your Zoho Contacts, write analysis results back, and log calls on the contact’s timeline.

Dynamic variables

Map tool responses to variables your agent can use later in the conversation.