How to integrate Stack exchange MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Stack exchange to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Stack exchange agent that can find top-voted javascript questions this week, list all collectives on stack overflow, show recent comments on your math stackexchange post through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Stack exchange account through Composio's Stack exchange MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Stack exchange logoStack exchange
Oauth2

Stack Exchange is a network of expert Q&A communities covering coding, math, science, and more. It lets users ask questions, share answers, and collaborate with global experts.

121 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Stack exchange to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Stack exchange agent that can find top-voted javascript questions this week, list all collectives on stack overflow, show recent comments on your math stackexchange post through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Stack exchange with

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 Stack exchange
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Stack exchange as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Stack exchange 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 Stack exchange MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Stack exchange MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Stack Exchange account. It provides structured and secure access to your Stack Exchange activity, so your agent can perform actions like searching questions, exploring collectives, retrieving comments, and analyzing post revisions on your behalf.

  • Powerful question search and discovery: Instantly ask your agent to search for Stack Exchange questions by keyword or tag, helping you find relevant discussions and solutions faster.
  • Collectives and tags exploration: Have your agent retrieve lists of collectives and their associated tags, making it easy to discover expert communities and filter content by topic.
  • Comment management and flagging: Let your agent fetch comments from specific sites and check valid flag options, streamlining comment moderation and participation.
  • Revision history analysis: Direct your agent to retrieve and review the full edit history of posts, enabling transparent audits or understanding how answers evolve over time.
  • Site discovery and navigation: Use your agent to list all available Stack Exchange sites and their API parameters, ensuring you always target the right community for your needs.

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

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 Stack exchange action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Create Filter

Tool to create a custom filter for Stack Exchange API responses.

Find Similar Questions

Tool to find questions similar to a hypothetical one based on a title and optional tag combination.

Get Access Tokens

Tool to read the properties for a set of access tokens obtained via OAuth 2.

Get Answer Comments

Tool to retrieve comments on a set of answers from Stack Exchange.

Get Answer Flag Options

Tool to fetch valid flag options for a specific answer.

Get Answers By IDs

Tool to retrieve a set of answers by their IDs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Badge Recipients By IDs

Tool to retrieve recently awarded badges constrained to a specific set of badge IDs.

Get Badges By IDs

Tool to retrieve badges by their IDs on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Collective Answers

Tool to retrieve answers belonging to the specified collective(s) on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Collective Questions

Tool to retrieve questions associated with the specified collective.

Get Collectives

Tool to retrieve all collectives on a Stack Exchange site in alphabetical order.

Get Collectives By Slugs

Tool to retrieve Collective objects by their slugs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Collective Tags

Retrieve tags associated with specified Stack Overflow collectives.

Get Collective Users

Tool to retrieve users who are members of the specified Collectives on Stack Exchange.

Get Comment Flag Options

Tool to fetch valid flag options for a given comment.

Get Comments

Retrieves comments from a Stack Exchange site (e.

Get Comments By IDs

Tool to retrieve specific comments by their IDs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Events

Retrieves a stream of recent events that occurred on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Filters By IDs

Tool to retrieve the fields included by the given filters and the safeness of those filters.

Get Linked Questions

Tool to get questions which link to those questions identified in the ids parameter.

Get Me

Tool to retrieve the authenticated user's profile information from Stack Exchange.

Get My Achievements

Retrieves the authenticated user's recent network-wide achievements across all Stack Exchange sites.

Get My Associated Accounts

Tool to retrieve all Stack Exchange accounts associated with the authenticated user.

Get My Featured Questions

Tool to retrieve questions with active bounties offered by the authenticated user.

Get My Mentions

Tool to retrieve comments mentioning the authenticated user on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Merge History

Tool to retrieve account merge history for the authenticated user.

Get My Network Activity

Tool to retrieve a summary of the authenticated user's activity across the Stack Exchange network.

Get My No Answer Questions

Tool to retrieve questions owned by the authenticated user that have no answers.

Get My Posts

Tool to retrieve posts (questions and answers) owned by the authenticated user from a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Privileges

Tool to retrieve privileges for the authenticated user on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Questions

Tool to retrieve questions owned by the authenticated user on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Reputation

Tool to retrieve reputation changes for the authenticated user on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Reputation History

Tool to retrieve the authenticated user's public reputation history on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Suggested Edits

Tool to retrieve suggested edits submitted by the authenticated user on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Tag Preferences

Tool to retrieve tag preferences for the authenticated user on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Tags

Tool to retrieve tags the authenticated user is active in on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Timeline

Tool to retrieve a timeline of actions the authenticated user has taken on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Top Answers In Tags

Tool to retrieve the top 30 answers the authenticated user has posted in response to questions with specific tags.

Get My Top Answer Tags

Tool to retrieve the authenticated user's top 30 tags by answer score on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Top Questions In Tags

Tool to retrieve the top 30 questions the authenticated user has posted in response to questions with the given tags.

Get My Top Question Tags

Tool to retrieve the authenticated user's top 30 tags by question score on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Top Tags

Tool to retrieve the authenticated user's top 30 tags by combined question and answer score on a Stack Exchange site.

Get My Unaccepted Questions

Tool to retrieve questions owned by the authenticated user that have no accepted answer.

Get My Unanswered Questions

Tool to retrieve questions owned by the authenticated user that are not considered answered.

Get Post Comments

Tool to retrieve comments on posts identified by IDs, regardless of post type (question or answer).

Get Posts By IDs

Tool to retrieve a set of posts by their IDs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Post Suggested Edits

Tool to retrieve suggested edits on posts from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Question Answers

Tool to retrieve all answers for a set of questions identified by their IDs.

Get Question Close Options

Tool to fetch flag options that make up close reasons for a specific question.

Get Question Comments

Tool to retrieve comments on a set of questions from Stack Exchange.

Get Question Flag Options

Tool to fetch valid flag options, including close reasons, for a specific question.

Get Questions

Tool to retrieve a list of questions from a Stack Exchange site without requiring tags or keywords.

Get Questions By Answer IDs

Tool to retrieve questions that specific answers belong to on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Questions By IDs

Tool to retrieve a set of questions by their IDs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Question Timeline

Tool to retrieve timeline events for specified questions on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Related Tags

Tool to retrieve tags most related to the specified tags on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Revisions By IDs

Tool to retrieve revisions for specific posts by their IDs.

Search Questions

Tool to search the site for questions meeting certain criteria.

Get Site Info

Tool to retrieve comprehensive statistics and information about a Stack Exchange site.

Get Sites

Retrieves a comprehensive list of all Stack Exchange network sites with detailed information including site names, URLs, styling, and api_site_parameter values needed for other API calls.

Get Suggested Edits By IDs

Tool to retrieve suggested edits by their IDs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get Tag FAQ

Tool to retrieve frequently asked questions for a set of tags on Stack Exchange.

Get Tag Info

Tool to retrieve tag objects representing specified tags on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Tag Synonyms

Tool to retrieve all synonyms that point to the specified tags on a Stack Exchange site.

Get Tag Top Answerers

Tool to retrieve the top 30 answerers active in a single tag, of either all-time or the last 30 days.

Get Tag Top Askers

Tool to retrieve the top askers active in a single tag.

Get Tag Wikis

Tool to retrieve wiki content for specified tags on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Answers

Tool to retrieve answers posted by specific users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Associated Accounts

Tool to retrieve all Stack Exchange accounts associated with specified users by their account IDs.

Get User Badges

Tool to retrieve badges earned by specified users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Comments

Tool to retrieve comments posted by specified users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Comments To User

Tool to retrieve comments that specific users have posted in reply to a single user.

Get User Favorites

Tool to retrieve the questions that users have favorited/bookmarked.

Get User Featured Questions

Tool to retrieve questions with active bounties offered by specified users.

Get User Full Reputation History

Tool to retrieve a user's full reputation history on a Stack Exchange site, including private events.

Get User Inbox

Tool to retrieve a user's inbox from Stack Exchange.

Get User Mentions

Tool to retrieve comments that mention specific users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Merge History

Tool to retrieve account merge history for specified user account IDs across the Stack Exchange network.

Get User No Answer Questions

Tool to retrieve questions asked by specified users that have zero undeleted answers.

Get User Notifications

Tool to retrieve notifications for a specific Stack Exchange user by ID.

Get User Posts

Tool to retrieve posts (questions and answers) posted by specific users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Privileges

Tool to retrieve privileges a specific user has on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Questions

Tool to retrieve questions asked by specific users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Reputation

Tool to retrieve reputation changes for users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Reputation History

Tool to retrieve public reputation history for specified Stack Exchange users.

Get Users By IDs

Tool to retrieve user profiles by their IDs from a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Suggested Edits

Tool to retrieve suggested edits submitted by specified users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Tags

Tool to retrieve tags that specified users are active in on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Timeline

Tool to retrieve a timeline of actions taken by specified users on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Top Answers In Tags

Tool to retrieve the top 30 answers a specific user has posted in response to questions with given tags.

Get User Top Answer Tags

Tool to retrieve a single user's top tags by answer score on Stack Exchange.

Get User Top Questions In Tags

Tool to retrieve the top 30 questions a user has asked with the given tags.

Get User Top Question Tags

Tool to retrieve a single user's top tags by question score on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Top Tags

Tool to retrieve a single user's top tags by combined question and answer score on a Stack Exchange site.

Get User Unaccepted Questions

Tool to retrieve questions asked by specified users that have at least one answer but no accepted answer.

Get User Unanswered Questions

Tool to retrieve questions asked by specific users that the site considers unanswered.

Get User Unread Inbox

Tool to retrieve unread items in a specific user's Stack Exchange inbox.

Get User Unread Notifications

Tool to retrieve unread notifications for a specific user on Stack Exchange.

List Answers

Tool to retrieve all undeleted answers from a Stack Exchange site.

List Badge Recipients

Tool to retrieve recently awarded badges from a Stack Exchange site.

List Badges

Tool to retrieve all badges available in a Stack Exchange site.

List Elected Moderators

Tool to retrieve users who have moderator powers and were actually elected on a Stack Exchange site.

List Errors

Tool to retrieve the various error codes that can be produced by the Stack Exchange API.

List Featured Questions

Tool to retrieve all questions with active bounties in the system.

List Moderator Only Tags

Tool to retrieve tags that only moderators can use on a Stack Exchange site.

List Moderators

Tool to retrieve users who can exercise moderation powers on a Stack Exchange site.

List Named Badges

Tool to retrieve all explicitly named badges from a Stack Exchange site.

List No Answer Questions

Tool to retrieve questions that have received no answers from a Stack Exchange site.

List Posts

Tool to retrieve all posts (questions and answers) from a Stack Exchange site.

List Privileges

Tool to retrieve all earnable privileges on a Stack Exchange site.

List Required Tags

Tool to retrieve tags found on a site that fulfill required tag constraints on questions.

List Suggested Edits

Tool to retrieve all suggested edits in a Stack Exchange site.

List Tag Badges

Returns badges awarded for participation in specific tags on Stack Exchange sites.

List Tags

Tool to retrieve tags found on a Stack Exchange site.

List Tag Synonyms

Tool to retrieve all tag synonyms found on a Stack Exchange site.

List Unanswered Questions

Tool to retrieve questions the site considers to be unanswered.

List Unanswered Questions My Tags

Tool to retrieve unanswered questions within the authenticated user's favorite or frequented tags.

List Users

Tool to retrieve all users on a Stack Exchange site.

Render Answer

Tool to render a preview of an answer given its body and the question it's on.

Advanced Search

Tool to search a Stack Exchange site for questions matching advanced criteria.

Search Excerpts

Tool to search a Stack Exchange site for items matching given criteria with excerpt snippets.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

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