# Vendor facets — Zoho Desk. Helpdesk whose Help Center combines a knowledge base, a user community
# and ticket submission, multi-brand, mapped onto the provider's own domain. Headline: one 2-point
# pointer check (support_channel, ~45% catalog pass rate, not saturated). An llms.txt exists on Zoho's
# own Zoho Desk portal (help.zoho.com/portal/llms.txt, per-KB llms.txt too), but two customer portals
# answered 403 for the same path, so customer availability is unconfirmed and the row is conditional.
vendor: zoho-desk
name: Zoho Desk
website: https://www.zoho.com/desk/
areas:
- support
registry_keys: []
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  Zoho Desk gives a provider a declared support channel, 2 points in developer ergonomics, through its
  Help Center knowledge base or community. Zoho's own Help Center serves a generated llms.txt, which would
  be worth 4 points on a provider's domain, but the same path returned 403 on two customer portals, so
  treat it as unconfirmed for customers until Zoho documents it. Getting-started and authentication pages
  count only when the provider writes and declares them.
features:
- id: help-center
  name: Help Center knowledge base
  description: Knowledge-base articles with ratings, served in a Help Center alongside ticket submission.
  source: https://www.zoho.com/desk/help-center.html
  tier: paid
- id: community
  name: Help Center community
  description: >-
    Forum where customers ask and answer questions, suggest ideas and report problems with the provider's
    team.
  source: https://www.zoho.com/desk/help-center.html
  tier: paid
- id: domain-mapping
  name: Help Center domain mapping and multi-brand
  description: Maps the Help Center onto the provider's own domain, with a separate Help Center per brand.
  source: https://www.zoho.com/desk/help-center.html
  tier: paid
- id: help-center-llms-txt
  name: Generated llms.txt (observed on Zoho's own portal only)
  description: >-
    help.zoho.com/portal/llms.txt (a Zoho Desk Help Center, CNAME helpcenter.cs.zohohost.in) returns text/markdown
    indexing each knowledge base with its own llms.txt; help.kerisys.com/portal/llms.txt and userhelpcenter.support/portal/llms.txt
    returned a Zoho Desk 403 error page on 2026-09-25.
  source: https://help.zoho.com/portal/llms.txt
  tier: unknown
maps:
- feature: help-center
  check: support_channel
  layer: composite
  credit: 1.0
  provider_must: >-
    Declare the Help Center or community in apis.yml common[] as HelpCenter, Support or Community. Binary:
    both together still earn 2 points.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.45
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.69
- feature: help-center-llms-txt
  check: llms_txt_published
  layer: composite
  credit: 1.0
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if Zoho Desk serves the generated llms.txt on the provider's portal. Observed only on Zoho's
    own portal; two customer portals returned 403 for the same path. No Zoho documentation of the feature
    was found.
  provider_must: Confirm the file serves on its own mapped domain and declare it as an LLMsTxt pointer.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.351
  facet: discoverability
  points: 4
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.65
- feature: help-center
  check: getting_started_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider writes a getting-started guide for its API as a knowledge-base article and declares
    it as GettingStarted.
  provider_must: Write the guide and declare its URL as GettingStarted.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.206
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 5
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.636
- feature: help-center
  check: authentication_documented
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the provider documents its API authentication in a knowledge-base article and declares it
    as Authentication.
  provider_must: Write the page and declare its URL as Authentication.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.368
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 5
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.94
  saturated: true
  saturated_note: >-
    94% of providers with a contract, docs and a reference already earn this; the vendor cannot move it
    for most of its buyers.
earns_nothing:
- feature: community
  check: support_channel
  why: A second route to the same binary 2-point check the knowledge base already earns.
- feature: domain-mapping
  why: No check reads the host of a support pointer.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - status_page_present
  - change_log_present
  - contract_present
  - api_reference_present
  - sdk_count_1
  note: >-
    The Help Center produces no status page, changelog, contract, reference or SDK for the provider's
    API.
surface:
  discoverability:
    reachable: 4.0
    total: 54
  developer_ergonomics:
    reachable: 12.0
    total: 42
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 0
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- https://help.zoho.com/portal/llms.txt
- https://www.zoho.com/desk/help-center.html
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 0
    in_baseline: 0
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5216
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 0 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 3995
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.9
    p90: 1.0
    max: 1.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.9
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.0
    p90: 0.0
    max: 0.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.0
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    developer_ergonomics: 4.8
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 217
    emerging -> thin: 66
    developing -> strong: 34
    strong -> exemplar: 8
    minimal -> emerging: 1
  agent_readiness_band_moves: {}
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written