How to integrate Clockify MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Clockify to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Clockify agent that can list all your active workspaces, add a new client to marketing workspace, show all users on design team workspace through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Clockify account through Composio's Clockify MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Clockify is a free time tracking software for individuals and teams to monitor work hours across projects. Track, manage, and report time for better productivity and transparency.

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Clockify to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Clockify agent that can list all your active workspaces, add a new client to marketing workspace, show all users on design team workspace through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Clockify account through Composio's Clockify 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 Clockify
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Clockify as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Clockify 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 Clockify MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Clockify MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Clockify account. It provides structured and secure access to your team's time tracking data, so your agent can perform actions like managing clients, handling workspace users, setting up webhooks, and retrieving workspace details on your behalf.

  • Workspace user management: Let your agent list all users in a workspace, filter users by advanced criteria, or find team managers for more efficient team organization.
  • Client creation and deletion: Easily create new clients or remove existing ones from your workspace, streamlining project onboarding and cleanup.
  • Webhook automation: Enable your agent to create, delete, and manage webhooks for real-time notifications and integrations with other tools.
  • Workspace overview and navigation: Retrieve a list of all workspaces you belong to, empowering your agent to access and organize time tracking across multiple teams or projects.
  • Addon and webhook token management: Generate new webhook tokens and list all addon webhooks, ensuring secure and automated integrations with third-party services.

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 Clockify 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 Clockify.
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 Clockify
const session = await composio.create(userId as string, {
  toolkits: ['clockify'],
});
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 clockify.
  • The router checks the user's Clockify connection and prepares the MCP endpoint.
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that your agent will use to access Clockify.
  • This approach keeps things lightweight and lets the agent request Clockify 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 Clockify. Help users perform Clockify 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 Clockify 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 Clockify 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 Clockify.
  • 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 Clockify 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: ['clockify'],
  });
  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 Clockify. Help users perform Clockify 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 Clockify MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK to build a functional AI agent that can interact with Clockify.

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 Clockify action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add User to Group

Tool to add a user to a user group in a Clockify workspace.

Create Client

Tool to add a new client to a workspace.

Create New Project

Tool to create a new project in a Clockify workspace.

Create Shared Report

Tool to create a shared report in Clockify.

Create Task

Tool to add a new task to a project in Clockify.

Create Templates On Workspace

Tool to create templates on a Clockify workspace.

Create Time Entry

Tool to create a new time entry in a Clockify workspace.

Create User Group

Tool to create a new user group in a workspace.

Create User Time Entry

Tool to create a time entry for another user in a Clockify workspace.

Create Webhook

Tool to create a new webhook in a workspace.

Create Workspace

Tool to create a new workspace in Clockify.

Delete Client

Permanently deletes a client from a Clockify workspace.

Delete Project

Tool to delete a project from a workspace.

Delete Shared Report

Tool to delete a shared report from a workspace by ID.

Delete Tag

Tool to delete a tag from a Clockify workspace.

Delete Task

Tool to delete a task from a project in Clockify.

Delete Template

Tool to delete a template from a Clockify workspace.

Delete Time Entry

Tool to delete a time entry from a workspace by ID.

Delete User Group

Tool to delete a user group from a workspace.

Delete User Time Entries

Tool to delete multiple time entries for a user in a workspace.

Delete Webhook

Tool to delete a webhook from a workspace.

Duplicate Time Entry

Tool to duplicate an existing time entry in a Clockify workspace.

Filter Workspace Users

Tool to filter users in a workspace by advanced criteria.

Find User's Team Managers

Retrieves the list of team managers assigned to a specific user in a Clockify workspace.

Generate Detailed Report

Tool to generate a detailed time entry report with filtering and pagination.

Generate Expense Report

Tool to generate a detailed expense report for a Clockify workspace.

Generate New Webhook Token

Tool to generate a new webhook token.

Generate Summary Report

Tool to generate a summary report for time entries in a Clockify workspace.

Generate Weekly Report

Tool to generate a weekly time entry report for a workspace with grouped data.

Get All Addon Webhooks

Tool to list all webhooks for an addon in a workspace.

Get All My Workspaces

Tool to list all workspaces the user belongs to.

Get All Webhooks

Tool to list all webhooks in a workspace.

Get Client By ID

Retrieves detailed information about a specific client in a Clockify workspace.

Get Clients

Tool to list clients in a workspace.

Get Created Entities

Tool to retrieve created entities within a workspace (Experimental).

Get Currently Logged In User Info

Tool to retrieve info about the authenticated user.

Get Deleted Entities

Tool to retrieve information about entities deleted within a date range (Experimental API).

Get Holidays

Tool to retrieve all holidays for a workspace.

Get Holidays In Period

Tool to retrieve holidays in a specific period.

Get In Progress Time Entries

Tool to retrieve all currently running time entries in a workspace.

Get member's profile

Tool to get a member's profile in a workspace.

Get Project

Tool to retrieve detailed information about a specific project by ID.

Get Projects

Tool to list projects in a workspace with filtering and pagination.

Get Shared Report

Tool to retrieve a shared report by ID from Clockify.

Get Shared Reports

Tool to retrieve all shared reports in a workspace.

Get Tag By ID

Tool to retrieve detailed information about a specific tag by ID in a Clockify workspace.

Get Tags

Tool to find and list tags in a workspace.

Get Task

Retrieves detailed information about a specific task in a Clockify project.

Get Tasks

Tool to find all tasks on a specific project in a workspace.

Get Templates On Workspace

Tool to list all templates in a workspace.

Get Time Entries

Tool to retrieve historical time entries for a user in a workspace with filters.

Get Time Entry

Tool to retrieve a specific time entry by ID from a workspace.

Get Updated Entities

Tool to retrieve entities that have been updated in a workspace (Experimental).

Get User Groups

Tool to find all user groups in a workspace.

Get Webhook By ID

Retrieves detailed information about a specific webhook in a Clockify workspace.

Get Webhook Logs

Tool to retrieve webhook logs for a specific webhook.

Get Workspace Info

Retrieves detailed information about a specific Clockify workspace.

List Assignments

Tool to retrieve all scheduling assignments in a workspace.

Remove User From Group

Tool to remove a user from a group in Clockify.

Stop User Timer

Tool to stop a currently running timer for a user in a workspace.

Update Client

Tool to update an existing client in a Clockify workspace.

Update Project

Tool to update an existing project in a Clockify workspace.

Update Project Memberships

Tool to update project memberships in Clockify.

Update Project User Hourly Rate

Tool to update a project user's billable rate.

Update Shared Report

Tool to update an existing shared report in Clockify.

Update Tag

Tool to update a tag in a Clockify workspace.

Update Task

Tool to update an existing task on a project in Clockify.

Update Time Entries

Tool to bulk update multiple time entries in a Clockify workspace.

Update Time Entry

Tool to update an existing time entry in a Clockify workspace.

Update User Group

Tool to update an existing user group in a workspace.

Update User Hourly Rate

Tool to update a user's hourly rate in a Clockify workspace.

Update Webhook

Tool to update a webhook in a workspace.

Update Workspace Hourly Rate

Tool to update the workspace billable hourly rate.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Clockify MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Clockify MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Clockify MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Clockify MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex logo

Codex

Use Clockify MCP with Codex

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Clockify MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Clockify MCP with Hermes

CLI logo

CLI

Use Clockify MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Clockify MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Clockify MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Clockify MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Clockify MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Clockify MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Clockify MCP with CrewAI

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Clockify MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Clockify tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Clockify 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 Clockify tools.

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

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A lot of students tell us that the moment their connected tools start talking to each other inside Opennote feels almost magical. The agent just knows them, and it's immensely helped keep new users on the platform.

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Co-founder, Opennote

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As a solo builder, shipping fast is life or death. The only way I can outcompete incumbents is by outmanoeuvring them. Getting bogged down managing agent auth would have been a death sentence.

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Before Composio, adding tool integrations was slow and resource-intensive. Each one could take weeks of engineering time, and maintaining them meant constantly keeping up with API changes.

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