How to integrate Workday MCP with LlamaIndex

This guide walks you through connecting Workday to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Workday agent that can request vacation days for next week, check your current absence balance, find all open job postings i manage through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your LlamaIndex agent real control over a Workday account through Composio's Workday MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Workday logoWorkday
Oauth2

Workday is a cloud-based ERP platform for HR, finance, and workforce analytics. It streamlines employee management, payroll, and business operations in a single system.

84 Tools13 Triggers

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Workday to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Workday agent that can request vacation days for next week, check your current absence balance, find all open job postings i manage through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your LlamaIndex agent real control over a Workday account through Composio's Workday MCP server.

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

Also integrate Workday with

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 Workday
  • Connect LlamaIndex to the Workday MCP server
  • Build a Workday-powered agent using LlamaIndex
  • Interact with Workday 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 Workday MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Workday MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Workday account. It provides structured and secure access to your HR, payroll, and recruiting data, so your agent can perform actions like managing time off, retrieving employee details, tracking job postings, and analyzing interview feedback on your behalf.

  • Automated time off management: Easily create new time off requests or check absence balances for yourself or others, making leave management effortless.
  • Employee data and profile retrieval: Have your agent fetch profile details for the current user or any specified worker to simplify onboarding and HR processes.
  • Comprehensive job posting insights: Instantly retrieve information about job postings, including descriptions and screening questionnaires, to aid recruiters and hiring managers.
  • Interview feedback analysis: Let your agent pull and summarize interview feedback entries to streamline debriefs and improve hiring decisions.
  • Access to holiday and leave events: Quickly get holiday schedules and leave status values for better workforce planning and scheduling.

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 Workday account and project
  • Basic familiarity with async Python/Typescript
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI, Composio, and Workday

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 Workday 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 workday_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: ["workday"],
    },
  );

  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 Workday 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, workday)
  • 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 Workday 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 Workday
  • 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 Workday 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 Workday
10

Run the agent

npx ts-node llamaindex-agent.ts

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

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Workday 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: ["workday"],
    },
  );

  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 Workday 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 Workday to LlamaIndex through Composio's Tool Router MCP layer. Key takeaways:
  • Tool Router dynamically exposes Workday 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 & TRIGGERS

Supported Tools and Triggers

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

Create Business Title Change

Creates a business title change instance for a worker with the specified data.

Create Job Change

Tool to create a job change instance for a worker in Workday.

Create Payroll Inputs

Tool to create payroll inputs in Workday.

Create Time Off Request

Creates a time off request for the specified worker and initiates the business process.

Get Absence Balance

Retrieves balance information for a specific worker's absence plan.

Get Assignment Change Group Cost Centers

Retrieves cost center instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Assignment Change Group Jobs

Retrieves job instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Assignment Types

Retrieves assignment type values for job changes in Workday.

Get Business Title Change

Retrieves a business title change instance by ID.

Get Business Title Change For Worker

Tool to retrieve a business title change instance for a specific worker.

Get Candidate Availability Template

Tool to retrieve the candidate availability template version for a specific job posting.

Get Collection of Jobs

Tool to retrieve a paginated collection of jobs from Workday Staffing system.

Get Collection of Payroll

Tool to retrieve a collection of payroll inputs from Workday.

Get Company Insider Types

Retrieves company insider types from Workday Staffing API.

Get Contingent Worker Types

Tool to retrieve contingent worker types from Workday staffing API.

Get Country Info

Retrieves detailed information about a specific country from Workday.

Get Currencies

Retrieves currency instances for job changes in Workday.

Get Current User

Retrieves the current authenticated worker's profile information from Workday.

Get Grants

Retrieves grant instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Headcount Options

Retrieves headcount option instances that can be used as values for other endpoint parameters.

Get History Instance for Worker

Tool to retrieve a specific history instance for a worker.

Get History Items for Worker

Tool to retrieve a collection of history items for a specific worker.

Get Holiday Events

Returns the holiday events for the specified workers and time period.

Get Interview

Tool to retrieve detailed information about a specific interview from Workday Recruiting.

Get Interview Feedback

Retrieves interview feedback for the specified interview ID from Workday Recruiting API.

Get Job By ID

Tool to retrieve detailed information about a single job instance by its ID.

Get Job Change Frequencies

Retrieves frequency instances for job changes in Workday.

Get Job Change Location Info

Tool to retrieve location information for a specific job change in Workday.

Get Job Change Position

Retrieves position details for a specific job change in Workday Staffing API.

Get Job Change Reason Instance

Retrieves a job change reason instance from Workday.

Get Job Change Reasons

Retrieves a collection of job change reasons from Workday.

Get Job Change Reason Values

Retrieves job change reason instances that can be used as values for other staffing endpoint parameters.

Get Job Changes Group Templates

Retrieves job changes group template instances in Workday.

Get Job Changes Job Values

Retrieves job instances that can be used as values for job changes parameters.

Get Job Changes Worker Values

Retrieves worker instances that can be used as values for job changes parameters.

Get Job Classifications

Retrieves job classification instances for job changes in Workday.

Get Job Posting

Retrieves detailed information about a specific job posting including job description.

Get Job Posting Questionnaire

Retrieves screening questions and questionnaires associated with a specific job posting.

Get Job Profiles Values

Retrieves job profile instances from Workday Staffing API.

Get Job Requisition Values

Retrieves job requisition instances that can be used as values for other endpoint parameters.

Get Job Workspace

Tool to retrieve a single workspace instance for a specific job.

Get Job Workspaces

Tool to retrieve a collection of workspaces for a specified job ID.

Get Leave Status Values

Get all available leave status values from Workday.

Get My Job Postings

Retrieves job postings assigned to the authenticated user (current recruiter).

Get Organization Assignment Business Units

Retrieves business unit instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Organization Assignment Customs

Retrieves custom organization assignment instances.

Get Organization Assignment Funds

Retrieves fund instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Organization Assignment Regions

Retrieves region instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Organization Assignment Workers

Retrieves worker instances for organization assignment changes.

Get Pay Group by Job ID

Retrieves the pay group for a specified job ID.

Get Payroll Input Instance

Retrieves detailed information for a single payroll input instance by ID.

Get Pay Slip Instance for Worker

Retrieves a specific pay slip instance for a worker.

Get Pay Slips for Worker

Retrieves a collection of pay slips for a specific worker.

Get Proposed Position Values

Retrieves proposed position instances that can be used as values for job changes parameters.

Get Prospect

Retrieves a single prospect instance for talent matching and best-fit analysis.

Get Prospect Educations

Retrieves the educational background of a prospect from Workday Recruiting API for talent matching and best-fit analysis.

Get Prospect Experiences

Retrieves the work experience of a prospect for talent matching and best-fit analysis.

Get Prospect Resume Attachments

Retrieves resume attachments for a specific prospect to help prepare for upcoming interviews.

Get Prospect Skills

Retrieves the skills of a prospect from Workday Recruiting API for talent matching and best-fit analysis.

Get Supervisory Organization Values

Retrieves supervisory organization instances that can be used as values for job changes parameters.

Get Time Off Entries for Worker

Retrieves a collection of time off entries for a specific worker.

Get Time Off Plans For Worker

Retrieves a collection of time off plans for a specific worker.

Get Time Off Status Values

Retrieves available time off status values from Workday.

Get Time Types

Retrieves time type values for job changes in Workday.

Get Worker Business Title Changes

Retrieves business title changes for a specific worker.

Get Worker Eligible Absence Types

Retrieves a collection of eligible absence types for the specified worker.

Get Worker Info

Retrieves detailed worker information including staffing data.

Get Worker Leaves of Absence

Retrieves the Leaves Of Absence for the specified worker using the working absenceManagement v1 API.

Get Workers Collection Staffing

Tool to retrieve workers and current staffing information from Workday.

Get Worker Service Dates

Tool to retrieve service dates for a specified worker from Workday Staffing API v6.

Get Worker Staffing Information

Tool to retrieve a worker's current staffing information from Workday.

Get Worker Time Off Details

Retrieves a collection of time off details for the specified worker.

Get Worker Types

Retrieves worker type instances that can be used as values for job changes parameters.

Get Worker Valid Time Off Dates

Retrieves valid time off dates for a worker, indicating when they are eligible to take time off.

Get Workspace Instances

Tool to retrieve workspace instances that can be used as prompt values for other Workday API parameters.

Get Work Study Awards

Retrieves work study award instances for job changes in Workday.

List Countries

Retrieves country values from Workday Recruiting API.

List Interviews

Retrieves a list of interviews with job requisition and recruiter assignment details.

List Job Postings

Retrieves a paginated list of job postings from Workday Recruiting system.

List Jobs

Retrieves a collection of jobs from Workday Staffing system.

Retrieve Worker Leave of Absence

Retrieves the leave of absence details for a specified worker.

Update An Existing Payroll

Tool to partially update an existing payroll input instance in Workday.

Update Job Change Business Title

Partially updates the business title for a specific job change.

Update Message Template By ID

Tool to update a message template in Workday by its ID.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

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