How to integrate Ashby MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Ashby to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Ashby agent that can list all candidates for open roles, post a new job opening for engineering, summarize candidates in interview stage through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Ashby account through Composio's Ashby MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Api Key

Ashby is an applicant tracking system that handles job postings, candidate management, and hiring analytics.

125 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Ashby to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Ashby agent that can list all candidates for open roles, post a new job opening for engineering, summarize candidates in interview stage through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Ashby account through Composio's Ashby MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Ashby
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Ashby as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Ashby operations

What is OpenAI Agents SDK?

The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight framework for building AI agents that can use tools and maintain conversation state. It provides a simple interface for creating agents with hosted MCP tool support.

Key features include:

  • Hosted MCP Tools: Connect to external services through hosted MCP endpoints
  • SQLite Sessions: Persist conversation history across interactions
  • Simple API: Clean interface with Agent, Runner, and tool configuration
  • Streaming Support: Real-time response streaming for interactive applications

What is the Ashby MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Ashby MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Ashby account. It provides structured and secure access to your recruiting data, so your agent can perform actions like managing job postings, tracking candidate progress, scheduling interviews, and generating hiring reports on your behalf.

  • Automated job posting management: Easily create, update, or close job listings across your organization with direct agent assistance.
  • Candidate pipeline tracking: Have your agent fetch, organize, and update candidate progress through every stage of the hiring process.
  • Interview scheduling and coordination: Let your agent schedule interviews, send calendar invites, and manage interviewer assignments to streamline the process.
  • Data-driven hiring analytics: Generate reports and insights about your hiring funnel, candidate sources, and time-to-hire with a simple agent request.
  • Centralized communication with applicants: Enable your agent to send status updates, feedback, or reminders to candidates, keeping everyone in the loop automatically.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

Composio's Composio SDK helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Composio SDK

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Composio SDK works

The Composio SDK follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step09 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Composio API Key and OpenAI API Key
  • Primary know-how of OpenAI Agents SDK
  • A live Ashby project
  • Some knowledge of Python or Typescript
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models, or you can connect to another model provider.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
3

Install dependencies

npm install @composio/openai-agents @openai/agents dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the OpenAI Agents SDK.

4

Set up environment variables

bash
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...your-api-key
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-api-key
USER_ID=composio_user@gmail.com

Create a .env file and add your OpenAI and Composio API keys.

5

Import dependencies

import 'dotenv/config';
import { Composio } from '@composio/core';
import { OpenAIAgentsProvider } from '@composio/openai-agents';
import { Agent, hostedMcpTool, run, OpenAIConversationsSession } from '@openai/agents';
import * as readline from 'readline';
What's happening:
  • You're importing all necessary libraries.
  • The Composio and OpenAIAgentsProvider classes are imported to connect your OpenAI agent to Composio tools like Ashby.
6

Set up the Composio instance

dotenv.config();

const composioApiKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const userId = process.env.USER_ID;

if (!composioApiKey) {
  throw new Error('COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set. Create a .env file with COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_key');
}
if (!userId) {
  throw new Error('USER_ID is not set');
}

// Initialize Composio
const composio = new Composio({
  apiKey: composioApiKey,
  provider: new OpenAIAgentsProvider(),
});
What's happening:
  • dotenv.config() loads your .env file so COMPOSIO_API_KEY and USER_ID are available as environment variables.
  • Creating a Composio instance using the API Key and OpenAIAgentsProvider class.
7

Create a Tool Router session

// Create Tool Router session for Ashby
const session = await composio.create(userId as string, {
  toolkits: ['ashby'],
});
const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;

What is happening:

  • You give the Tool Router the user id and the toolkits you want available. Here, it is only ashby.
  • The router checks the user's Ashby connection and prepares the MCP endpoint.
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that your agent will use to access Ashby.
  • This approach keeps things lightweight and lets the agent request Ashby tools only when needed during the conversation.
8

Configure the agent

// Configure agent with MCP tool
const agent = new Agent({
  name: 'Assistant',
  model: 'gpt-5',
  instructions:
    'You are a helpful assistant that can access Ashby. Help users perform Ashby operations through natural language.',
  tools: [
    hostedMcpTool({
      serverLabel: 'tool_router',
      serverUrl: mcpUrl,
      headers: { 'x-api-key': composioApiKey },
      requireApproval: 'never',
    }),
  ],
});
What's happening:
  • We're creating an Agent instance with a name, model (gpt-5), and clear instructions about its purpose.
  • The agent's instructions tell it that it can access Ashby and help with queries, inserts, updates, authentication, and fetching database information.
  • The tools array includes a hostedMcpTool that connects to the MCP server URL we created earlier.
  • The headers object includes the Composio API key for secure authentication with the MCP server.
  • requireApproval: 'never' means the agent can execute Ashby operations without asking for permission each time, making interactions smoother.
9

Start chat loop and handle conversation

// Keep conversation state across turns
const conversationSession = new OpenAIConversationsSession();

// Simple CLI
const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout,
  prompt: 'You: ',
});

console.log('\nComposio Tool Router session created.');
console.log('\nChat started. Type your requests below.');
console.log("Commands: 'exit', 'quit', or 'q' to end\n");

try {
  const first = await run(agent, 'What can you help me with?', { session: conversationSession });
  console.log(`Assistant: ${first.finalOutput}\n`);
} catch (e) {
  console.error('Error:', e instanceof Error ? e.message : e, '\n');
}

rl.prompt();

rl.on('line', async (userInput) => {
  const text = userInput.trim();

  if (['exit', 'quit', 'q'].includes(text.toLowerCase())) {
    console.log('Goodbye!');
    rl.close();
    process.exit(0);
  }

  if (!text) {
    rl.prompt();
    return;
  }

  try {
    const result = await run(agent, text, { session: conversationSession });
    console.log(`\nAssistant: ${result.finalOutput}\n`);
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('Error:', e instanceof Error ? e.message : e, '\n');
  }

  rl.prompt();
});

rl.on('close', () => {
  console.log('\n👋 Session ended.');
  process.exit(0);
});
What's happening:
  • The program prints a session URL that you visit to authorize Ashby.
  • After authorization, the chat begins.
  • Each message you type is processed by the agent using run().
  • The responses are printed to the console.
  • Typing exit, quit, or q cleanly ends the chat.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Ashby and OpenAI Agents SDK:

import 'dotenv/config';
import { Composio } from '@composio/core';
import { OpenAIAgentsProvider } from '@composio/openai-agents';
import { Agent, hostedMcpTool, run, OpenAIConversationsSession } from '@openai/agents';
import * as readline from 'readline';

const composioApiKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const userId = process.env.USER_ID;

if (!composioApiKey) {
  throw new Error('COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set. Create a .env file with COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_key');
}
if (!userId) {
  throw new Error('USER_ID is not set');
}

// Initialize Composio
const composio = new Composio({
  apiKey: composioApiKey,
  provider: new OpenAIAgentsProvider(),
});

async function main() {
  // Create Tool Router session
  const session = await composio.create(userId as string, {
    toolkits: ['ashby'],
  });
  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;

  // Configure agent with MCP tool
  const agent = new Agent({
    name: 'Assistant',
    model: 'gpt-5',
    instructions:
      'You are a helpful assistant that can access Ashby. Help users perform Ashby operations through natural language.',
    tools: [
      hostedMcpTool({
        serverLabel: 'tool_router',
        serverUrl: mcpUrl,
        headers: { 'x-api-key': composioApiKey },
        requireApproval: 'never',
      }),
    ],
  });

  // Keep conversation state across turns
  const conversationSession = new OpenAIConversationsSession();

  // Simple CLI
  const rl = readline.createInterface({
    input: process.stdin,
    output: process.stdout,
    prompt: 'You: ',
  });

  console.log('\nComposio Tool Router session created.');
  console.log('\nChat started. Type your requests below.');
  console.log("Commands: 'exit', 'quit', or 'q' to end\n");

  try {
    const first = await run(agent, 'What can you help me with?', { session: conversationSession });
    console.log(`Assistant: ${first.finalOutput}\n`);
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('Error:', e instanceof Error ? e.message : e, '\n');
  }

  rl.prompt();

  rl.on('line', async (userInput) => {
    const text = userInput.trim();

    if (['exit', 'quit', 'q'].includes(text.toLowerCase())) {
      console.log('Goodbye!');
      rl.close();
      process.exit(0);
    }

    if (!text) {
      rl.prompt();
      return;
    }

    try {
      const result = await run(agent, text, { session: conversationSession });
      console.log(`\nAssistant: ${result.finalOutput}\n`);
    } catch (e) {
      console.error('Error:', e instanceof Error ? e.message : e, '\n');
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on('close', () => {
    console.log('\nSession ended.');
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main().catch((err) => {
  console.error('Fatal error:', err);
  process.exit(1);
});

Conclusion

This was a starter code for integrating Ashby MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK to build a functional AI agent that can interact with Ashby.

Key features:

  • Hosted MCP tool integration through Composio's Tool Router
  • SQLite session persistence for conversation history
  • Simple async chat loop for interactive testing
You can extend this by adding more toolkits, implementing custom business logic, or building a web interface around the agent.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Ashby action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add Candidate to Project

Add a candidate to a project in Ashby.

Add Candidate Tag

Add a tag to a candidate in Ashby.

Add Hiring Team Member

Add an Ashby user to a hiring team at the application, job, or opening level.

Add User to Interviewer Pool

Add a user to an interviewer pool.

Add Opening Job

Adds a job to an opening (job requisition) in Ashby ATS.

Add Opening Location

Tool to add a location to an opening (job requisition).

Anonymize Candidate

Anonymize a candidate by removing personally identifiable information.

Approve Offer

Approve an offer or a specific approval step within an offer's approval process.

Archive Department

Archive a department by its unique identifier.

Archive Interviewer Pool

Archive an interviewer pool in Ashby.

Archive Location

Archives a location or location hierarchy in Ashby.

Change Application Source

Change the source attribution of an application.

Change Application Stage

Move an application to a different interview stage in the hiring pipeline.

Create Application

Create a new job application by associating a candidate with a job opening in Ashby ATS.

Create Candidate

Create a new candidate in the system.

Create Candidate Note

Create a note on a candidate profile.

Create Candidate Tag

Create a new candidate tag in Ashby for categorizing and organizing candidates.

Create Custom Field

Create a new custom field in Ashby.

Create Department

Create a new department.

Create Interviewer Pool

Create a new interviewer pool.

Create Job

Create a new job opening in Ashby ATS.

Create Location

Create a new location or location hierarchy.

Create Offer

Create a new offer for a candidate in Ashby ATS.

Create Opening

Create a new opening (job requisition) in Ashby ATS.

Create Referral

Create a referral in Ashby ATS by submitting a referral form with candidate information.

Create Survey Request

Generate a survey request and receive a survey URL to send to a candidate.

Create Survey Submission

Create a new survey submission for a candidate's application.

Get API Key Info

Retrieve information about the current API key, including associated organization, user details, and permissions.

Get Application Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific application by its ID.

Get Candidate Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific candidate by their ID.

Get Custom Field Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific custom field by its ID.

Get Department Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific department by its ID.

Get Feedback Form Definition

Retrieve detailed information about a specific feedback form definition by its ID.

Get File Info

Retrieve the URL of a file associated with a candidate.

Get Interviewer Pool Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific interviewer pool by its ID.

Get Interviewer User Settings

Get interviewer settings for a specific user by their ID.

Get Interview Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific interview type by its ID.

Get Interview Stage Info

Tool to fetch interview stage details by ID.

Get Job Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific job by its ID.

Get Job Interview Plan Info

Retrieve the interview plan information for a specific job.

Get Job Posting Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific job posting by its ID.

Get Location Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific location by its ID.

Get Offer Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific offer by its ID.

Get Opening Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific opening (job requisition) by its ID.

Get Referral Form

Fetches the default referral form or creates a default referral form if none exists.

Get Survey Form Definition

Retrieve detailed information about a specific survey form definition by its ID.

Get User Info

Retrieve detailed information about a specific user by their ID.

List Application Criteria Evaluations

Retrieve AI-generated criteria evaluations for an application.

List Application Feedback

Retrieve all feedback submissions for an application.

List Application Hiring Team Roles

Retrieve all available hiring team roles for applications in the organization.

List Application History

Retrieve the complete history of stage transitions for an application.

List Applications

Retrieve a list of applications with optional pagination and sync-token filtering for incremental updates.

List Approvals

Retrieve a list of approvals (offer approvals, job approvals, etc.

List Archive Reasons

Retrieve a list of all archive reasons.

List Brands

Retrieve a list of all brands for the organization.

List Candidate Client Info

Retrieve all client info records for a specific candidate with pagination support.

List Candidate Notes

Retrieve all notes for a specific candidate in Ashby.

List Candidate Projects

Retrieve all projects associated with a candidate.

List Candidates

Retrieve a list of candidates.

List Candidate Tags

Retrieve a list of all candidate tags in your Ashby account.

List Close Reasons

Lists all close reasons for jobs or openings.

List Communication Templates

Retrieve a list of all communication templates.

List Custom Fields

Retrieve a list of all custom field definitions configured in Ashby.

List Departments

Retrieve a list of all departments in the organization.

List Feedback Form Definitions

Retrieve all feedback form definitions from your Ashby organization.

List Hiring Team Roles

Retrieve a list of possible hiring team roles in the organization.

List Interviewer Pools

Retrieve a list of all interviewer pools.

List Interview Events

Retrieves all interview events for a specific interview schedule.

List Interview Plans

Retrieve a list of interview plans.

List Interview Types

List all interview types defined in Ashby.

List Interview Schedules

Retrieve a list of interview schedules.

List Interview Stage Groups

Retrieve a list of interview stage groups.

List Interview Stages

Retrieve all interview stages for an interview plan in order.

List Job Boards

Retrieve a list of job boards.

List Job Postings

Retrieve a list of job postings.

List Jobs

Retrieve a list of all jobs from Ashby ATS (Applicant Tracking System).

List Job Templates

Retrieve a list of all job templates from Ashby ATS.

List Locations

Retrieve a list of all locations.

List Offers

Retrieve a list of job offers with their latest versions.

List Openings

Retrieve a list of openings (job requisitions).

List Projects

Retrieve a list of all projects.

List Sources

Retrieve a list of all candidate sources.

List Source Tracking Links

Retrieve all source tracking links configured in Ashby.

List Survey Form Definitions

Retrieve a list of all survey form definitions from Ashby.

List Survey Submissions

Lists all survey submissions of a given survey type from Ashby.

List Users

Retrieve a list of all users in the organization.

Move Department

Tool to move a department to another parent in the organizational hierarchy.

Move Location

Tool to move a location to a different parent in the location hierarchy.

Remove Hiring Team Member

Remove an Ashby user from a hiring team at the application, job, or opening level.

Remove User from Interviewer Pool

Remove a user from an interviewer pool.

Remove Opening Job

Remove a job from an opening (job requisition) in Ashby ATS.

Remove Opening Location

Tool to remove a location from an opening (job requisition).

Restore Department

Restore an archived department by its unique identifier.

Restore Interviewer Pool

Restore an archived interviewer pool in Ashby.

Restore Location

Restores an archived location or location hierarchy in Ashby.

Search Candidates

Search for candidates by email or name.

Search Jobs

Search for jobs by title in Ashby ATS (Applicant Tracking System).

Search Opening

Search for openings by identifier.

Search Projects

Search for projects by title in Ashby.

Search Users

Search for an Ashby user by email address.

Set Custom Field Value

Set the value of a custom field for a given object (candidate, application, job, etc.

Set Custom Field Values

Set the values of multiple custom fields for a given object in a single call.

Set Job Status

Set the status of a job in Ashby ATS (Applicant Tracking System).

Set Opening Archived

Sets the archived state of an opening.

Set Opening State

Set the workflow state of an opening (job requisition).

Start Offer

Create a new offer version instance for an in-progress offer process.

Start Offer Process

Start an offer process for a candidate's application in Ashby ATS.

Submit Application Feedback

Submit structured feedback for an application using a feedback form.

Transfer Application

Transfer an application to a different job position in Ashby ATS.

Update Application

Update an application's properties in Ashby.

Update Application History

Update the complete history of an application's stage transitions.

Update Candidate

Update an existing candidate's profile information in Ashby ATS.

Update Job Compensation

Update a job's compensation tiers in Ashby ATS.

Update Department

Update an existing department's information such as its name.

Update Interviewer Pool

Update an existing interviewer pool's title or training requirements.

Update Job

Update an existing job's properties in Ashby ATS.

Update Job Posting

Update an existing job posting's details including title, description, and visibility status.

Update Location Address

Update the address of a location or location hierarchy.

Update Location External Name

Update a location's external (candidate-facing) name.

Update Location Name

Update a location's name.

Update Location Remote Status

Tool to update a location's remote status.

Update Location Workplace Type

Tool to update a location's workplace type (OnSite, Remote, or Hybrid).

Update Opening

Update properties of an existing opening (job requisition).

Update Selectable Values Custom Field

Update the selectable values for a ValueSelect or MultiValueSelect custom field.

Update User Interviewer Settings

Update interviewer settings for a user, including daily and weekly interview limits.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Ashby MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Ashby tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Ashby and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. OpenAI Agents SDK fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Ashby tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Ashby scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Ashby data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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Ashby MCP Integration with OpenAI Agents SDK | Composio