Zapier Onboard
Walks a new Zapier MCP user through auth, connection diagnosis, and picking starter actions
Test report
- Verdict
- Works with setup
- Score
- Tested
- Jul 21, 2026
- Environment
- Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
- Upstream re-checked
- Aug 10, 2026 · 4b69531
Located SKILL.md at plugins/zapier/skills/zapier-onboard/SKILL.md (gh API tree; raw curl 200); frontmatter parsed with yaml.safe_load yielding exactly name+description, no scripts or assets in any of the four skill dirs and no curl|sh / base64 / exfil patterns anywhere in plugins/ or zapier-power/. Spot-checked the three sibling skills the body hands off to (zapier-demo, zapier-explore, zapier-status SKILL.md) plus .mcp.json and .claude-plugin/plugin.json — all HTTP 200 — and ran the install block twice under a throwaway HOME=$(mktemp -d), landing SKILL.md at ~/.claude/skills/zapier-onboard/SKILL.md. Trigger phrasings judged: SHOULD fire — "What is Zapier MCP and how do I get started?", "My Zapier connection broke, I get a 401 when it tries to send a Slack message", "Set me up with Zapier so I can reach Gmail from here" (all 3 correct, the description names these verbatim); should NOT fire — "Write a Zap trigger for my custom app with the Zapier CLI platform" (developer platform, not MCP onboarding) and "I already have Slack and Gmail Zapier tools working, add more for my sales workflow" (that is the sibling zapier-explore) — I would load neither, so 5/5, though the second negative is genuinely close to this skill's Healthy branch. OUTPUT: I could not execute Step 1 or Step 2 — no mcp__zapier* tools exist in my session, so "check if any Zapier MCP tools are available" and "call mcp_auth" are unrunnable, and the Healthy / Auth-broken / verify steps are unreachable without a live authenticated server and a Zapier account. I did write two artifacts for the one branch that is executable offline (/private/tmp/.../scratchpad/zo_baseline.md vs zo_skill.md, "PM, connected, zero actions configured, what do I add?"): baseline gave 4 fuzzy apps ("Jira or Linear", "Notion or Confluence") and zero Zapier action names, while the skill run pinned the exact 5-app PM kit and named the literal dashboard labels — "Find Issues via JQL", "Create Detailed Event", "Find Database Item" — plus the /zapier-demo handoff. That delta is real but narrow, and the skill's "1-2 searches AND 1-2 writes per app" is arguably worse than my baseline's read-only-first advice, so output stays at 5 and outputMeasured is false since the skill's actual job (diagnose + authenticate) never ran.
Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works
- Installs cleanly 5/5
- Triggers reliably 5/5
- Output vs. baseline 5/10
- Docs & honesty 4/5
What Zapier Onboard does
Guides first-time setup of the hosted Zapier MCP server: checks whether Zapier tools are visible, attempts in-chat authentication, and routes to one of four branches (healthy, fresh install, auth broken, not connected). Triggers on "what is Zapier MCP", "get me set up with Zapier", or Zapier connection/401 troubleshooting. In the fresh-install branch it supplies per-role app starter kits and named Zapier search/write actions to enable at mcp.zapier.com.
How to install Zapier Onboard
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zapier/zapier-mcp.git /tmp/zapier-onboard-src
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R /tmp/zapier-onboard-src/plugins/zapier/skills/zapier-onboard ~/.claude/skills/zapier-onboard
# REQUIRED to actually use it: the hosted Zapier MCP server must be connected.
# claude mcp add --transport http zapier https://mcp.zapier.com/api/v1/connect
# then authenticate (/mcp) and configure actions at https://mcp.zapier.com
# Plugin alternative (also installs sibling skills zapier-demo / zapier-explore / zapier-status
# and the .mcp.json server entry): add the marketplace zapier/marketplace or
# anthropics/claude-plugins-official in Claude Code, then install the "zapier" plugin.
# A free Zapier account plus OAuth-connected app accounts (Slack, Gmail, Jira, ...) are needed.
Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/
(per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.
Commands — how to trigger Zapier Onboard
-
/zapier-onboardWalks a new Zapier MCP user through auth, connection diagnosis, and picking starter actions
It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:
-
What is Zapier MCP and how do I start -
Help me authenticate and set up Zapier -
Troubleshoot my Zapier connection issue
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Zapier Onboard skill free?
- Yes. The skill itself is free from zapier/zapier-mcp. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
- Does Zapier Onboard work with Claude Code?
- We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 21, 2026. Verdict: Works with setup. Located SKILL.md at plugins/zapier/skills/zapier-onboard/SKILL.md (gh API tree; raw curl 200); frontmatter parsed with yaml.safe_load yielding exactly name+description, no scripts or assets in any of the four skill dirs and no curl|sh / base64 / exfil patterns anywhere in plugins/ or zapier-power/. Spot-checked the three sibling skills the body hands off to (zapier-demo, zapier-explore, zapier-status SKILL.md) plus .mcp.json and .claude-plugin/plugin.json — all HTTP 200 — and ran the install block twice under a throwaway HOME=$(mktemp -d), landing SKILL.md at ~/.claude/skills/zapier-onboard/SKILL.md. Trigger phrasings judged: SHOULD fire — "What is Zapier MCP and how do I get started?", "My Zapier connection broke, I get a 401 when it tries to send a Slack message", "Set me up with Zapier so I can reach Gmail from here" (all 3 correct, the description names these verbatim); should NOT fire — "Write a Zap trigger for my custom app with the Zapier CLI platform" (developer platform, not MCP onboarding) and "I already have Slack and Gmail Zapier tools working, add more for my sales workflow" (that is the sibling zapier-explore) — I would load neither, so 5/5, though the second negative is genuinely close to this skill's Healthy branch. OUTPUT: I could not execute Step 1 or Step 2 — no mcp__zapier* tools exist in my session, so "check if any Zapier MCP tools are available" and "call mcp_auth" are unrunnable, and the Healthy / Auth-broken / verify steps are unreachable without a live authenticated server and a Zapier account. I did write two artifacts for the one branch that is executable offline (/private/tmp/.../scratchpad/zo_baseline.md vs zo_skill.md, "PM, connected, zero actions configured, what do I add?"): baseline gave 4 fuzzy apps ("Jira or Linear", "Notion or Confluence") and zero Zapier action names, while the skill run pinned the exact 5-app PM kit and named the literal dashboard labels — "Find Issues via JQL", "Create Detailed Event", "Find Database Item" — plus the /zapier-demo handoff. That delta is real but narrow, and the skill's "1-2 searches AND 1-2 writes per app" is arguably worse than my baseline's read-only-first advice, so output stays at 5 and outputMeasured is false since the skill's actual job (diagnose + authenticate) never ran.
- What is the Zapier Onboard SkillProof Score?
- 7.6/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 5/10, docs & honesty 4/5.
- How do I install Zapier Onboard?
- Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- Can I use Zapier Onboard with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?
- The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.