How to integrate Workday MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Workday to the OpenAI Agents SDK 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 OpenAI Agents SDK 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.

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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 the OpenAI Agents SDK 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 OpenAI Agents SDK 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

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

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 & 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.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Workday MCP Agent with another framework

ChatGPT logo

ChatGPT

Use Workday MCP with ChatGPT

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Workday MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Workday MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Workday MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex logo

Codex

Use Workday MCP with Codex

Cursor logo

Cursor

Use Workday MCP with Cursor

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Workday MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Workday MCP with Hermes

CLI logo

CLI

Use Workday MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Workday MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Workday MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Workday MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Workday MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Workday MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Workday MCP with CrewAI

OpenCode logo

OpenCode

Use Workday MCP with OpenCode

VS Code logo

VS Code

Use Workday MCP with VS Code

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. 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 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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Co-founder, Slashy

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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