MCP and skills

Let an AI agent read your stored meeting text and return source-backed answers. Choose a skill for a terminal agent or MCP for an AI app that launches local tools. A skill is an instruction file; MCP is the protocol the app uses to call tools. Neither connection logs in or downloads meetings. Import or pull at least one meeting before trying a transcript question.

Choose the connectionCopy Anchor Link

A terminal agent can run the broader CLI, including writes when instructed. The MCP server provides a narrower read-only tool set. These are different access choices.

The agent skillCopy Anchor Link

zm skill show prints the packaged instructions for an agent. zm skill install writes a version-stamped copy to the agent skills directories: ~/.claude/skills/zoom-cli/ for Claude Code and ~/.agents/skills/zoom-cli/ for Codex and Gemini CLI. --for claude or --for agents selects one; the default is both. Installation is explicit and does not run when a command starts.

The MCP serverCopy Anchor Link

zm serve --mcp uses MCP's stdio protocol and serves seven read-only tools: meeting list/show, transcripts, summaries, exports, text search and participant search. Tool discovery does not open a database. Each read uses the selected local account and closes its connection before the response; a caller cannot override the account. File exports and remote mutations are not exposed as tools.

MCP clients can launch zm with arguments ["serve", "--mcp"]. In the mcpServers format of Claude Desktop's configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zoom": { "command": "zm", "args": ["serve", "--mcp"] }
  }
}

A desktop app may not see your terminal's PATH, and a stdio server inherits only part of the environment (MCP debugging guide). If the server does not start, use the full path from which zm as the command. If you set ZM_CONFIG_DIR or MESSAGING_STORE, pass the same values in the entry's env, or the server reads a different profile or database.

Keep stdout for protocol messages; omit --json, --jsonl and --fields. --max-output-bytes bounds each tool result, with zero meaning unlimited. Select a profile and import or pull its data before reading tools; discovery is available without stored data.

Try the connectionCopy Anchor Link

After installing the skill, start a new agent session if it has not discovered the instructions. After adding MCP, restart the AI app and confirm that its Zoom tools are available. Ask:

List my stored meetings. Open the latest one and show its date, available transcript and one
passage supporting its main decision. Tell me if the data is incomplete.

Check the selected meeting against zm meetings list --json in your terminal. If discovery works but no data appears, verify the same profile and store path, then pull or import data. If the app cannot launch the command, use where zm on Windows or command -v zm on Linux/macOS to find it, and put that executable's full path in the entry. A remote web chat cannot run this local command unless it has a supported connection to your machine.

Optional toolsCopy Anchor Link

Optional flags add tools without changing the defaults: --meeting-context adds evidence, person context and task proposals; --unified-search adds meetings-only shared search; --semantic --model <id> adds one read-only vector query tool. Remote semantic models additionally require --base-url and --dims. The server fixes the model at startup and the profile on its first read; restart it to change either. Clients cannot override either selection. Embedding generation and task creation are never MCP tools.

For broader meeting context across projects, notes and documents, continue with search and evidence; connect Memo separately where needed.