How to integrate Cats MCP with Claude Agent SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Cats to the Claude Agent SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Cats agent that can show me five random cat images, list popular cat breeds with photos, find unique cat facts for trivia through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your Claude Agent SDK agent real control over a Cats account through Composio's Cats MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Cats is an API with a huge library of cat images, breed data, and cat facts. It makes finding adorable cat photos and trivia effortless for your apps and users.

18 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Cats to the Claude Agent SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Cats agent that can show me five random cat images, list popular cat breeds with photos, find unique cat facts for trivia through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Cats with

OpenAI Agents SDKClaude CodeClaude CoworkCodexOpenClawHermesCLIGoogle ADKLangChainVercel AI SDKMastra AILlamaIndexCrewAI

TL;DR

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

What is Claude Agent SDK?

The Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic's official framework for building AI agents powered by Claude. It provides a streamlined interface for creating agents with MCP tool support and conversation management.

Key features include:

  • Native MCP Support: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
  • Permission Modes: Control tool execution permissions
  • Streaming Responses: Real-time response streaming for interactive applications
  • Context Manager: Clean async context management for sessions

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

The Cats MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Cats account. It provides structured and secure access to a wide collection of cat images, breed information, and fun feline facts, so your agent can fetch cat data, browse curated cat images, and pull breed details on your behalf.

  • Portals listing for cat resources: Instruct your agent to list and browse all available cat-related portals, making it easy to explore organized collections of cat images and data.
  • Metadata exploration with pagination: Have your agent efficiently page through vast cat collections, ensuring you can access just the right portal or dataset without missing a thing.
  • On-demand cat image discovery: Let your agent find and retrieve high-quality cat images from the API’s large, curated library—perfect for enrichment or just a dose of cuteness.
  • Access to detailed breed and fact data: Ask your agent to pull up detailed info on cat breeds and fun facts, making it a handy assistant for both research and entertainment.

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 Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Primary know-how of Claude Agents SDK
  • A Cats account
  • Some knowledge of Python
2

Getting API Keys for Claude/Anthropic and Composio

Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Go to the Anthropic Console and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.
3

Install dependencies

npm install @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk @composio/core dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the Claude Agents SDK.

What's happening:

  • @composio/core provides Composio integration for Anthropic
  • @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk is the core agent framework
  • dotenv/config loads environment variables
4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID identifies the user for session management
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY authenticates with Anthropic/Claude
5

Import dependencies

import 'dotenv/config';
import readline from 'node:readline';
import { Composio } from '@composio/core';
import { query, type Options } from "@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk";

dotenv.config();
What's happening:
  • We're importing all necessary libraries including the Claude Agent SDK and Composio
  • The dotenv.config() function loads environment variables from your .env file
  • This setup prepares the foundation for connecting Claude with Cats functionality
6

Create a Composio instance and Tool Router session

async function chat() {
  const { COMPOSIO_API_KEY, USER_ID } = process.env;
  if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY || !USER_ID) {
    throw new Error('COMPOSIO_API_KEY and USER_ID required in .env');
  }

  const composio = new Composio({ apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY });

  // Create Tool Router session for Cats
  const session = await composio.create(USER_ID, {
    toolkits: ['cats'],
  });
  const mcpUrl = session?.mcp.url;
What's happening:
  • The function checks for the required COMPOSIO_API_KEY environment variable
  • We're creating a Composio instance using our API key
  • The create method creates a Tool Router session for Cats
  • The returned url is the MCP server URL that your agent will use
7

Configure Claude Agent with MCP

const options: Options = {
  permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions',
  mcpServers: {
    composio: {
      type: 'http',
      url: mcpUrl,
      headers: { 'x-api-key': COMPOSIO_API_KEY }
    }
  },
  systemPrompt: 'You are a helpful assistant with access to Cats tools via Composio.',
  maxTurns: 10,
};
What's happening:
  • We're configuring the Claude Agent options with the MCP server URL
  • permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions' allows the agent to execute operations without asking for permission each time
  • The system prompt instructs the agent that it has access to Cats
  • maxTurns: 10 limits the conversation length to prevent excessive API usage
8

Create client and start chat loop

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

  console.log('\nChat started. Type "exit" to quit.\n');

  let isProcessing = false;

  async function ask(prompt: string) {
    isProcessing = true;
    rl.pause();

    process.stdout.write('Claude is thinking...');
    const stream = query({ prompt, options });

    let firstChunk = true;
    for await (const msg of stream) {
      const content = (msg as any).message?.content || (msg as any).content;
      if (Array.isArray(content)) {
        for (const block of content) {
          if (block.type === 'text' && block.text) {
            if (firstChunk) {
              process.stdout.write('\r\x1b[K');
              process.stdout.write('Claude: ');
              firstChunk = false;
            }
            process.stdout.write(block.text);
          }
        }
      }
    }
    process.stdout.write('\n\n');

    isProcessing = false;
    rl.resume();
    rl.prompt();
  }

  rl.on('line', async (line) => {
    if (isProcessing) return;

    const input = line.trim();
    if (input === 'exit') {
      rl.close();
      process.exit(0);
    }
    if (input) await ask(input);
    else rl.prompt();
  });

  await ask('What can you help me with?');
}
What's happening:
  • The readline interface is created to handle user input and output
  • The query function is used to send the user's input to the agent
  • The chat loop continues until the user types 'exit' or 'quit'
9

Run the application

try {
  await chat();
} catch (error) {
  console.error(error);
  process.exit(1);
}
What's happening:
  • The chat function is the entry point for the application
  • The try-catch block is used to handle any errors that occur

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Cats and Claude Agent SDK:

import 'dotenv/config';
import readline from 'node:readline';
import { Composio } from '@composio/core';
import { query, type Options } from "@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk";

async function chat() {
  const { COMPOSIO_API_KEY, USER_ID } = process.env;
  if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY || !USER_ID) {
    throw new Error('COMPOSIO_API_KEY and USER_ID required in .env');
  }

  const composio = new Composio({ apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY });
  const session = await composio.create(USER_ID, {
    toolkits: ['cats']
  });
  const mcp_url = session?.mcp.url;

  const options: Options = {
    permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions',
    mcpServers: {
      composio: {
        type: 'http',
        url: mcp_url,
        headers: { 'x-api-key': COMPOSIO_API_KEY }
      }
    },
    systemPrompt: 'You are a helpful assistant with access to Cats tools via Composio.',
    maxTurns: 10,
  };

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

  console.log('\nChat started. Type "exit" to quit.\n');

  let isProcessing = false;

  async function ask(prompt: string) {
    isProcessing = true;
    rl.pause();

    process.stdout.write('Claude is thinking...');
    const stream = query({ prompt, options });

    let firstChunk = true;
    for await (const msg of stream) {
      const content = (msg as any).message?.content || (msg as any).content;
      if (Array.isArray(content)) {
        for (const block of content) {
          if (block.type === 'text' && block.text) {
            if (firstChunk) {
              process.stdout.write('\r\x1b[K');
              process.stdout.write('Claude: ');
              firstChunk = false;
            }
            process.stdout.write(block.text);
          }
        }
      }
    }
    process.stdout.write('\n\n');

    isProcessing = false;
    rl.resume();
    rl.prompt();
  }

  rl.on('line', async (line) => {
    if (isProcessing) return;

    const input = line.trim();
    if (input === 'exit') {
      rl.close();
      process.exit(0);
    }
    if (input) await ask(input);
    else rl.prompt();
  });

  await ask('What can you help me with?');
}

try {
  await chat();
} catch (error) {
  console.error(error);
  process.exit(1);
}

Conclusion

You've successfully built a Claude Agent SDK agent that can interact with Cats through Composio's Tool Router.

Key features:

  • Native MCP support through Claude's agent framework
  • Streaming responses for real-time interaction
  • Permission bypass for smooth automated workflows
You can extend this by adding more toolkits, implementing custom business logic, or building a web interface around the agent.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Create Favourite

Tool to save an image as a favourite to your account.

Create Vote

Tool to vote on a cat image.

Delete Favourite

Tool to delete a favourite from your account by its ID.

Delete Image

Delete an uploaded image from your account by its ID.

Delete Vote

Tool to delete a vote from your account by its ID.

Get Cat Breed by ID

Tool to get detailed information about a specific cat breed by its ID.

Get Favourite by ID

Tool to retrieve a specific favourite by its unique ID.

Get Cat Image by ID

Tool to retrieve a specific cat image by its unique ID.

Get Image Analysis

Get machine learning analysis results for an uploaded image.

Get Image Breeds

Tool to retrieve breed information associated with a specific cat image.

Get Cat Breeds

Retrieves a paginated list of cat breeds from The Cat API.

Get Vote by ID

Retrieves a specific vote by its unique ID from The Cat API.

List Image Categories

Retrieves a list of all active image categories from The Cat API.

List Favourites

Tool to get all favourites belonging to your account.

List Uploaded Images

Tool to get all images uploaded to your account via /images/upload.

List Votes

Tool to retrieve all votes you have created.

Search Cat Breeds

Search for cat breeds by name.

Search Cat Images

Search for random cat images with optional filters.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Cats MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Cats MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Cats MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Cats MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex logo

Codex

Use Cats MCP with Codex

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Cats MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Cats MCP with Hermes

CLI logo

CLI

Use Cats MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Cats MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Cats MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Cats MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Cats MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Cats MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Cats MCP with CrewAI

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. Claude Agent 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 Cats tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Cats 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 Cats data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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