Zoom Meeting Bots

Connect your Zoom app once, then send a bot into any supported Zoom meeting with a single create_bot call.

To connect multiple Zoom apps and users and use mapped PMI or scheduled meetings, see Zoom OAuth Meeting Bots.

curl -X POST "https://api.meetstream.ai/api/v1/bots/create_bot" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <YOUR_API_KEY>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "meeting_link": "https://zoom.us/j/123456789?pwd=AbCdEf123",
    "bot_name": "Notetaker",
    "video_required": false
  }'

Zoom at a glance

How a Zoom bot joins

MeetStream bots join Zoom through the Zoom Meeting SDK. The SDK always runs as a Zoom Marketplace app, so every Zoom bot needs a Meeting SDK app’s credentials. MeetStream uses the Client ID and Client Secret you save in the dashboard to authorize the SDK, then joins the meeting with the display name from bot_name.

1

Create a Meeting SDK app in the Zoom App Marketplace

Create a General app, turn on Meeting SDK under Features > Embed, and copy the app’s Client ID and Client Secret. The full walkthrough is in Zoom Marketplace App Setup.

2

Save the credentials in MeetStream

Open Integrations in the sidebar, select the Zoom tab, click Configure credentials (or Update credentials), paste the Client ID and Client Secret, and save. The card shows Credentials active when they are stored.

3

Create a bot

Call POST /api/v1/bots/create_bot with a Zoom /j/ link. MeetStream detects Zoom from the link, so there is no platform field.

If no Zoom credentials are saved, create_bot returns HTTP 400 with Zoom bots require Zoom credentials in user profile (or, in a later check, Zoom bots require a connected Zoom app or Zoom credentials in the user profile). Save the credentials and retry.

Which meetings your app can join

Zoom decides which meetings a Meeting SDK app may join. Since March 2, 2026, Zoom requires Meeting SDK apps that join meetings outside the app’s own Zoom account to be reviewed by Zoom and to join with a ZAK or an OBF token (Zoom: Meeting SDK authorization, Zoom: OBF FAQ).

When Zoom refuses a join to a meeting outside your app’s account, the bot usually ends with Stopped and the message Unable to join external meeting. To get past it, submit your app for review (Zoom App Production Submission) and use a ZAK or OBF join.

Guest, signed-in and on-behalf-of joins

Send only one of the two URLs. MeetStream calls your URL at join time and uses the token it returns. If the call fails, the bot does not fall back to a guest join; it ends with Error: Failed to join meeting: ZAK token is required but could not be fetched (or the OBF equivalent). MeetStream’s hosted token endpoints are retired, and the old use_zoom_obf and zoom_oauth_connection_user_id fields are rejected with HTTP 400. The full contract (request headers, GET and POST behavior, response formats, test commands) is in Zoom Authenticated Bots (ZAK and OBF).

Supported meeting links

The API accepts http or https links on zoom.us, any subdomain of zoom.us (such as us05web.zoom.us or yourcompany.zoom.us) and zoomgov.com. The bot then reads the meeting ID from a /j/<meeting-id> path and the passcode from the pwd query parameter.

There is no separate passcode field. Keep the pwd value in the link exactly as Zoom generated it. If the passcode is missing or wrong, Zoom usually leaves the bot connecting, and after 60 seconds the bot ends with Error: Failed to connect to meeting. Some passcode errors surface as Stopped with Meeting failed instead.

Joining, the waiting room and admission

What to expect at each step:

1. bot.joining is sent by the API when the bot is accepted. For scheduled bots, statuses start at the scheduled time.
2. bot.in_waiting_room (InWaitingRoom, message Bot is waiting to be admitted) fires as soon as Zoom accepts the join request, even if the meeting has no waiting room. On Zoom it means “waiting to be let in”. If there is no waiting room, bot.inmeeting follows within seconds.
3. The admission timer starts at the same moment and runs for automatic_leave.waiting_room_timeout seconds (60 to 1200, default 600). For a scheduled bot, the timer is extended by the time left until the scheduled start, so it effectively counts from join_at.
4. One timer covers two situations: the bot sitting in the waiting room, and the bot waiting for a host who has not started the meeting yet. When the timer runs out in either case, the bot ends with NotAllowed and Failed: Not admitted to meeting (bot.notallowed, status_code: 500). The message is the same even when the real cause was that the host never started the meeting.
5. bot.inmeeting (InMeeting, Bot successfully joined the meeting) fires once Zoom lets the bot in. The recording permission step follows.

Depending on how Zoom reports a meeting that has not started, the attempt can also end at once (without waiting) with Stopped and Meeting not yet started, or Meeting does not exist or host has not started it yet.

If Zoom shows a meeting reminder or disclaimer (for example a recording notice), the bot accepts it automatically.

Zoom settings that affect admission

The host manages these settings in the Zoom web portal.

If your Zoom account hosts the meetings, support can connect your Zoom app so that bots join with fewer prompts. Contact support to set this up.

Recording permission

Zoom only lets a Meeting SDK participant capture meeting audio and video with the host’s permission to record locally (Zoom’s record to computer permission). Zoom’s Meeting SDK review requirements expect participant apps to request that permission from the host. About one second after it is admitted, the bot checks whether it can record:

• It can already record: recording starts and bot.recording fires. No permission events are sent.
• It cannot record yet: the bot asks the host for permission once, through Zoom’s standard request, and starts a timer of automatic_leave.recording_permission_denied_timeout seconds (60 to 300, default 60, Zoom only).

Things to know:

• The bot asks once. It does not re-request after a denial or a timeout; it leaves.
• If the host revokes recording permission later in the meeting, the bot stops recording and leaves the same way, with Failed: Recording permission denied by host.
• The terminal event after a permission denial is a clean bot.stopped (bot_event: "bot.stopped"), not bot.denied. bot.denied is reserved for Zoom refusing the join itself.
• If recording still cannot start after permission is granted (one retry after 2 seconds), the bot ends with Error: Failed to start recording.
• While a Zoom bot records, its status (from get bot status and the dashboard) stays RecordingPermissionAllowed or InMeeting. Recording appears in the status timeline and as the bot.recording webhook.

To receive the permission events on a workspace endpoint, tick them under Zoom recording permission when you create or edit the endpoint in Webhooks.

Zoom settings that affect recording permission

Outcomes: every way a Zoom bot ends

Every terminal status is preceded by Leaving (bot.leaving, Bot is leaving the meeting). On the wire, terminal webhooks carry event: "bot.stopped" plus a specific bot_event; status_code is 500 for NotAllowed, Denied and Error, and 200 for Stopped and Kicked. The full cross-platform list is in Bot status and error codes.

Before the bot is admitted

Other messages that start with Error: (for example SDK start-up errors) mean the bot could not start its Zoom session. Retry once, then contact support with the bot ID.

After the bot is in the meeting

Errors when you create the bot (HTTP 400)

These come back from create_bot before any bot is started. The general error format is on the Errors page.

Automatic leave on Zoom

Set these under automatic_leave on create_bot. Zoom applies some of them differently from Google Meet and Teams. This table shows the behavior on Zoom. The field reference is in Automatic Leave Configuration.

Media, chat and interaction

Transcription on Zoom

Post-call transcription works on Zoom with every post-call provider (deepgram, assemblyai, jigsawstack, sarvam, meetstream). See Post-call transcription.

For live transcription, set live_transcription_required.webhook_url and one streaming provider under recording_config.transcript.provider:

Use one of these four providers for live transcripts on Zoom. The bot feeds the provider each participant’s speech separately, so live transcripts carry the Zoom participant’s name and ID for every utterance. Only one streaming provider runs per bot. Provider details are in Transcription providers.

Meeting scope on Zoom

• The bot joins regular Zoom meetings from /j/ invite links and stays in the main meeting room.
• For transcripts, use a live or post-call provider (Transcription on Zoom).
• Contact support before you send bots to ZoomGov meetings.

Watch your Zoom bots

In the dashboard, All Bots lists every bot with its platform and status. Filter by Zoom and a status to find failed joins, and open a bot to see its status timeline and messages.

To follow a bot live from your terminal, use meetstream listen. The Debugging guide walks through reading statuses and webhooks.

Zoom FAQ

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