How to integrate Dovetail MCP with LlamaIndex

This guide walks you through connecting Dovetail to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Dovetail agent that can summarize all data points for project x, create a new insight from interview notes, list every contact added this month through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your LlamaIndex agent real control over a Dovetail account through Composio's Dovetail MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Dovetail is a research analysis platform for transcript review and insight generation. It helps teams code interviews, analyze feedback, and create actionable research summaries.

51 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Dovetail to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Dovetail agent that can summarize all data points for project x, create a new insight from interview notes, list every contact added this month through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your LlamaIndex agent real control over a Dovetail account through Composio's Dovetail 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:
  • Set your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install LlamaIndex and Composio packages
  • Create a Composio Tool Router session for Dovetail
  • Connect LlamaIndex to the Dovetail MCP server
  • Build a Dovetail-powered agent using LlamaIndex
  • Interact with Dovetail through natural language

What is LlamaIndex?

LlamaIndex is a data framework for building LLM applications. It provides tools for connecting LLMs to external data sources and services through agents and tools.

Key features include:

  • ReAct Agent: Reasoning and acting pattern for tool-using agents
  • MCP Tools: Native support for Model Context Protocol
  • Context Management: Maintain conversation context across interactions
  • Async Support: Built for async/await patterns

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

The Dovetail MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Dovetail account. It provides structured and secure access to your research workspace, so your agent can perform actions like creating insights, managing contacts, organizing channels, and retrieving research notes on your behalf.

  • Automated insight creation: Let your agent synthesize findings and store new insights in your Dovetail projects, streamlining your research analysis workflow.
  • Channel and topic management: Easily create, organize, or delete channels and topics to keep your research data structured and accessible.
  • Contact management and retrieval: Automatically add new research contacts or list all contacts in your workspace for better respondent tracking.
  • Research note access: Ask your agent to fetch detailed information about specific notes, giving you instant access to key research materials.
  • Data point recording and classification: Capture and categorize new data points within channels, ensuring every piece of feedback or observation is logged and ready for analysis.

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 step10 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.8/Node 16 or higher installed
  • A Composio account with the API key
  • An OpenAI API key
  • A Dovetail account and project
  • Basic familiarity with async Python/Typescript
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI, Composio, and Dovetail

OpenAI API key (OPENAI_API_KEY)
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard
  • Create an API key if you don't have one
  • Assign it to OPENAI_API_KEY in .env
Composio API key and user ID
  • Log into the Composio dashboard
  • Copy your API key from Settings
    • Use this as COMPOSIO_API_KEY
  • Pick a stable user identifier (email or ID)
    • Use this as COMPOSIO_USER_ID
3

Installing dependencies

npm install @composio/llamaindex @llamaindex/openai @llamaindex/tools @llamaindex/workflow dotenv

Create a new Typescript project and install the necessary dependencies:

  • @composio/llamaindex: Composio's LlamaIndex integration
  • @llamaindex/openai: OpenAI LLM integration
  • @llamaindex/tools: MCP client for LlamaIndex
  • @llamaindex/workflow: Workflow framework for LlamaIndex
  • dotenv: Environment variable management
4

Set environment variables

bash
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-composio-api-key
COMPOSIO_USER_ID=your-user-id

Create a .env file in your project root:

These credentials will be used to:

  • Authenticate with OpenAI's GPT-5 model
  • Connect to Composio's Tool Router
  • Identify your Composio user session for Dovetail access
5

Import modules

import "dotenv/config";
import readline from "node:readline/promises";
import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from "node:process";

import { Composio } from "@composio/core";

import { mcp } from "@llamaindex/tools";
import { agent as createAgent } from "@llamaindex/workflow";
import { openai } from "@llamaindex/openai";

dotenv.config();

Create a new file called dovetail_llamaindex_agent.ts and import the required modules:

Key imports:

  • dotenv.config loads .env at runtime
  • readline gives us a simple CLI chat loop
  • Composio is the main Composio SDK client
  • mcp connects to an MCP endpoint
  • createAgent builds a LlamaIndex agent
  • openai configures the LLM backend
6

Load environment variables and initialize Composio

const OPENAI_API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_API_KEY = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_USER_ID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!OPENAI_API_KEY) throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set");
if (!COMPOSIO_USER_ID) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set");

What's happening:

This ensures missing credentials cause early, clear errors before the agent attempts to initialise.

7

Create a Tool Router session and build the agent function

async function buildAgent() {

  console.log(`Initializing Composio client...${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);
  console.log(`COMPOSIO_USER_ID: ${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);

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

  const session = await composio.create(
    COMPOSIO_USER_ID!,
    {
      toolkits: ["dovetail"],
    },
  );

  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log(`Composio Tool Router MCP URL: ${mcpUrl}`);

  const server = mcp({
    url: mcpUrl,
    clientName: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    requestInit: {
      headers: {
        "x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY!,
      },
    },
    // verbose: true,
  });

  const tools = await server.tools();

  const llm = openai({ apiKey: OPENAI_API_KEY, model: "gpt-5" });

  const agent = createAgent({
    name: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
        description : "An agent that uses Composio Tool Router MCP tools to perform actions.",
    systemPrompt:
      "You are a helpful assistant connected to Composio Tool Router."+
"Use the available tools to answer user queries and perform Dovetail actions." ,
    llm,
    tools,
  });

  return agent;
}

What's happening here:

  • We create a Composio client using your API key and configure it with the LlamaIndex provider
  • We then create a tool router MCP session for your user, specifying the toolkits we want to use (in this case, dovetail)
  • The session returns an MCP HTTP endpoint URL that acts as a gateway to all your configured tools
  • LlamaIndex will connect to this endpoint to dynamically discover and use the available Dovetail tools.
  • The MCP tools are mapped to LlamaIndex-compatible tools and plug them into the Agent.
8

Create an interactive chat loop

async function chatLoop(agent: ReturnType<typeof createAgent>) {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({ input, output });

  console.log("Type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop.");

  while (true) {
    let userInput: string;

    try {
      userInput = (await rl.question("\nYou: ")).trim();
    } catch {
      console.log("\nAgent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    if (!userInput) {
      continue;
    }

    const lower = userInput.toLowerCase();
    if (lower === "quit" || lower === "exit") {
      console.log("Agent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    try {
      process.stdout.write("Agent: ");

      const stream = agent.runStream(userInput);
      let finalResult: any = null;

      for await (const event of stream) {
        // The event.data contains the streamed content
        const data: any = event.data;

        // Check for streaming delta content
        if (data?.delta) {
          process.stdout.write(data.delta);
        }

        // Store final result for fallback
        if (data?.result || data?.message) {
          finalResult = data;
        }
      }

      // If no streaming happened, show the final result
      if (finalResult) {
        const answer =
          finalResult.result ??
          finalResult.message?.content ??
          finalResult.message ??
          "";
        if (answer && typeof answer === "string" && !answer.includes("[object")) {
          process.stdout.write(answer);
        }
      }

      console.log(); // New line after streaming completes
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error("\nAgent error:", err?.message ?? err);
    }
  }

  rl.close();
}

What's happening:

  • We're creating a direct terminal interface to chat with Dovetail
  • The LLM's responses are streamed to the CLI for faster interaction.
  • The agent uses context to maintain conversation history
  • The agent processes the request, selects appropriate Dovetail tools, and returns a result
  • We extract the answer from the result data structure and display it to the user
  • You can type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop the chat loop gracefully
  • Agent responses and any errors are streamed in a clear, readable format
9

Define the main entry point

async function main() {
  try {
    const agent = await buildAgent();
    await chatLoop(agent);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Failed to start agent:", err);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

What's happening here:

  • We're orchestrating the entire application flow
  • The agent gets built with proper error handling
  • Then we kick off the interactive chat loop so you can start talking to Dovetail
10

Run the agent

npx ts-node llamaindex-agent.ts

When prompted, authenticate and authorise your agent with Dovetail, then start asking questions.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Dovetail and LlamaIndex:

import "dotenv/config";
import readline from "node:readline/promises";
import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from "node:process";

import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import { LlamaindexProvider } from "@composio/llamaindex";

import { mcp } from "@llamaindex/tools";
import { agent as createAgent } from "@llamaindex/workflow";
import { openai } from "@llamaindex/openai";

dotenv.config();

const OPENAI_API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_API_KEY = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_USER_ID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!OPENAI_API_KEY) {
    throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set in the environment");
  }
if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY) {
    throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment");
  }
if (!COMPOSIO_USER_ID) {
    throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment");
  }

async function buildAgent() {

  console.log(`Initializing Composio client...${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);
  console.log(`COMPOSIO_USER_ID: ${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);

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

  const session = await composio.create(
    COMPOSIO_USER_ID!,
    {
      toolkits: ["dovetail"],
    },
  );

  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log(`Composio Tool Router MCP URL: ${mcpUrl}`);

  const server = mcp({
    url: mcpUrl,
    clientName: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    requestInit: {
      headers: {
        "x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY!,
      },
    },
    // verbose: true,
  });

  const tools = await server.tools();

  const llm = openai({ apiKey: OPENAI_API_KEY, model: "gpt-5" });

  const agent = createAgent({
    name: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    description:
      "An agent that uses Composio Tool Router MCP tools to perform actions.",
    systemPrompt:
      "You are a helpful assistant connected to Composio Tool Router."+
"Use the available tools to answer user queries and perform Dovetail actions." ,
    llm,
    tools,
  });

  return agent;
}

async function chatLoop(agent: ReturnType<typeof createAgent>) {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({ input, output });

  console.log("Type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop.");

  while (true) {
    let userInput: string;

    try {
      userInput = (await rl.question("\nYou: ")).trim();
    } catch {
      console.log("\nAgent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    if (!userInput) {
      continue;
    }

    const lower = userInput.toLowerCase();
    if (lower === "quit" || lower === "exit") {
      console.log("Agent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    try {
      process.stdout.write("Agent: ");

      const stream = agent.runStream(userInput);
      let finalResult: any = null;

      for await (const event of stream) {
        // The event.data contains the streamed content
        const data: any = event.data;

        // Check for streaming delta content
        if (data?.delta) {
          process.stdout.write(data.delta);
        }

        // Store final result for fallback
        if (data?.result || data?.message) {
          finalResult = data;
        }
      }

      // If no streaming happened, show the final result
      if (finalResult) {
        const answer =
          finalResult.result ??
          finalResult.message?.content ??
          finalResult.message ??
          "";
        if (answer && typeof answer === "string" && !answer.includes("[object")) {
          process.stdout.write(answer);
        }
      }

      console.log(); // New line after streaming completes
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error("\nAgent error:", err?.message ?? err);
    }
  }

  rl.close();
}

async function main() {
  try {
    const agent = await buildAgent();
    await chatLoop(agent);
  } catch (err: any) {
    console.error("Failed to start agent:", err?.message ?? err);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

Conclusion

You've successfully connected Dovetail to LlamaIndex through Composio's Tool Router MCP layer. Key takeaways:
  • Tool Router dynamically exposes Dovetail tools through an MCP endpoint
  • LlamaIndex's ReActAgent handles reasoning and orchestration; Composio handles integrations
  • The agent becomes more capable without increasing prompt size
  • Async Python provides clean, efficient execution of agent workflows
You can easily extend this to other toolkits like Gmail, Notion, Stripe, GitHub, and more by adding them to the toolkits parameter.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Create Channel

Creates a new channel in Dovetail to organize and collect feedback data.

Create Contact

Tool to create a new contact in Dovetail.

Create Data

Tool to create a data item in a Dovetail project with text content, title, and/or structured fields.

Create Data Point

Tool to create a data point within a channel.

Create Doc

Tool to create a doc in a Dovetail project with text content, title and/or custom fields.

Create Insight

Creates a new insight in Dovetail to store synthesized research findings, observations, or conclusions.

Create Note

Tool to create a note in a Dovetail project with text content, title and/or custom fields.

Create Project

Tool to create a new project in your Dovetail workspace.

Create Topic

Tool to create a new topic in a Dovetail channel.

Delete Channel

Tool to delete an existing channel.

Delete Data

Tool to delete an existing data item.

Delete Doc

Tool to delete an existing doc.

Delete Insight

Tool to delete an existing insight.

Delete Note

Tool to delete an existing note.

Delete Topic

Tool to delete an existing topic.

Export Data

Tool to export data in HTML or Markdown format.

Export Doc

Tool to export a doc in HTML or Markdown format.

Export Insight

Tool to export an insight in HTML or Markdown format.

Export Note

Tool to export a note from Dovetail in HTML or Markdown format.

Get Contact

Tool to retrieve details of a specific contact.

Get Data

Tool to retrieve details of a specific data item by ID.

Get Doc

Tool to retrieve details of a specific doc by ID.

Get File

Tool to retrieve details of a specific file by its ID.

Get Folder

Tool to retrieve details of a specific folder.

Get Insight

Tool to retrieve details of a specific insight by ID.

Get Note

Tool to retrieve details of a specific note.

Get Project

Tool to retrieve details of a specific project.

Get Token Info

Retrieves information about the current API token, including its unique identifier and the associated workspace subdomain.

Import Data File

Tool to import a public URL of a file as new data in Dovetail.

Import Doc File

Tool to import a public file URL as a new doc in Dovetail.

Import Insight from File

Tool to import a file from a public URL as a new insight in Dovetail.

Import Note File

Tool to import a file from a public URL as a new note in Dovetail.

List Contacts

Retrieves a paginated list of contacts from a Dovetail workspace.

List Data

Tool to list data items in Dovetail.

List Docs

Tool to list docs in a Dovetail workspace with optional filtering, sorting, and pagination.

List Folders

Tool to get a list of folders associated with a workspace.

List Highlights

List highlights from your Dovetail workspace with optional filtering and pagination.

List Insights

Tool to get a list of insights associated with a workspace.

List Notes

List notes in Dovetail workspace with optional pagination and sorting.

List Projects

Tool to list all projects in Dovetail.

List Tags

List all tags in the authenticated Dovetail workspace.

List User Docs

Tool to get a list of docs associated with a user in Dovetail.

List User Insights

List personal insights for a user in Dovetail.

Magic Search

Tool to perform a magic search across workspace data.

Update Channel

Tool to update an existing channel's title or context.

Update Contact

Tool to update an existing contact in Dovetail.

Update Data

Tool to update a data item in Dovetail.

Update Doc

Tool to update a doc in Dovetail.

Update Insight

Updates an existing insight in Dovetail, allowing you to modify the title and custom fields.

Update Note

Tool to update an existing note in Dovetail.

Update Topic

Tool to update an existing topic.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. LlamaIndex 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 Dovetail tools.

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

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