How to integrate Xero MCP with CrewAI

This guide walks you through connecting Xero to CrewAI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Xero agent that can list all active xero tenant connections, show latest contacts added this week, retrieve all open quotes for this month through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your CrewAI agent real control over a Xero account through Composio's Xero MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Xero is cloud-based accounting software for small businesses, offering invoicing, bookkeeping, and real-time financial reports. It helps you manage business finances efficiently from anywhere.

41 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Xero to CrewAI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Xero agent that can list all active xero tenant connections, show latest contacts added this week, retrieve all open quotes for this month through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Xero with

ChatGPTOpenAI Agents SDKClaude Agent SDKClaude CodeClaude CoworkCodexOpenCodeCursorVS CodeOpenClawHermesCLIGoogle ADKLangChainVercel AI SDKMastra AILlamaIndex

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get a Composio API key and configure your Xero connection
  • Set up CrewAI with an MCP enabled agent
  • Create a Tool Router session or standalone MCP server for Xero
  • Build a conversational loop where your agent can execute Xero operations

What is CrewAI?

CrewAI is a powerful framework for building multi-agent AI systems. It provides primitives for defining agents with specific roles, creating tasks, and orchestrating workflows through crews.

Key features include:

  • Agent Roles: Define specialized agents with specific goals and backstories
  • Task Management: Create tasks with clear descriptions and expected outputs
  • Crew Orchestration: Combine agents and tasks into collaborative workflows
  • MCP Integration: Connect to external tools through Model Context Protocol

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

The Xero MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Xero account. It provides structured and secure access to your accounting data, so your agent can retrieve contacts, manage connections, update invoices, and monitor quotes automatically on your behalf.

  • Connection management: Instantly list all active Xero tenant connections linked to your account, making it easy for your agent to select and operate on the right organization.
  • Contact retrieval and lookup: Fetch detailed, up-to-date lists of business contacts including filtering, paging, and incremental updates to keep your records synchronized and actionable.
  • Quote management and tracking: Retrieve, filter, or search through your sales quotes so your agent can help you stay on top of prospective business and follow up faster.
  • Invoice updating and automation: Modify details of existing invoices—such as amounts, due dates, and line items—allowing your agent to keep your invoicing accurate and up to date without manual edits.

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 step08 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.9 or higher
  • A Composio account and API key
  • A Xero connection authorized in Composio
  • An OpenAI API key for the CrewAI LLM
  • Basic familiarity with Python
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
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.
3

Install dependencies

bash
pip install composio crewai crewai-tools[mcp] python-dotenv
What's happening:
  • composio connects your agent to Xero via MCP
  • crewai provides Agent, Task, Crew, and LLM primitives
  • crewai-tools[mcp] includes MCP helpers
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables from .env
4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID scopes the session to your account
  • OPENAI_API_KEY lets CrewAI use your chosen OpenAI model
5

Import dependencies

python
import os
from composio import Composio
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
import dotenv

dotenv.load_dotenv()

COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set")
What's happening:
  • CrewAI classes define agents and tasks, and run the workflow
  • MCPServerHTTP connects the agent to an MCP endpoint
  • Composio will give you a short lived Xero MCP URL
6

Create a Composio Tool Router session for Xero

python
composio_client = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio_client.create(user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID, toolkits=["xero"])

url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • You create a Xero only session through Composio
  • Composio returns an MCP HTTP URL that exposes Xero tools
7

Initialize the MCP Server

python
server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users search the internet effectively",
        backstory="You are a helpful assistant with access to search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )
What's Happening:
  • Server Configuration: The code sets up connection parameters including the MCP server URL, streamable HTTP transport, and Composio API key authentication.
  • MCP Adapter Bridge: MCPServerAdapter acts as a context manager that converts Composio MCP tools into a CrewAI-compatible format.
  • Agent Setup: Creates a CrewAI Agent with a defined role (Search Assistant), goal (help with internet searches), and access to the MCP tools.
  • Configuration Options: The agent includes settings like verbose=False for clean output and max_iter=10 to prevent infinite loops.
  • Dynamic Tool Usage: Once created, the agent automatically accesses all Composio Search tools and decides when to use them based on user queries.
8

Create a CLI Chatloop and define the Crew

python
print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

conversation_context = ""

while True:
    user_input = input("You: ").strip()

    if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
        print("\nGoodbye!")
        break

    if not user_input:
        continue

    conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    task = Task(
        description=(
            f"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
            f"Current request: {user_input}"
        ),
        expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
        agent=agent,
    )

    crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
    result = crew.kickoff()
    response = str(result)

    conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
    print(f"Agent: {response}\n")
What's Happening:
  • Interactive CLI Setup: The code creates an infinite loop that continuously prompts for user input and maintains the entire conversation history in a string variable.
  • Input Validation: Empty inputs are ignored to prevent processing blank messages and keep the conversation clean.
  • Context Building: Each user message is appended to the conversation context, which preserves the full dialogue history for better agent responses.
  • Dynamic Task Creation: For every user input, a new Task is created that includes both the full conversation history and the current request as context.
  • Crew Execution: A Crew is instantiated with the agent and task, then kicked off to process the request and generate a response.
  • Response Management: The agent's response is converted to a string, added to the conversation context, and displayed to the user, maintaining conversational continuity.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Xero and CrewAI:

python
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, LLM
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()

GOOGLE_API_KEY = os.getenv("GOOGLE_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not GOOGLE_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("GOOGLE_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment.")

# Initialize Composio and create a session
composio = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio.create(
    user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID,
    toolkits=["xero"],
)
url = session.mcp.url

# Configure LLM
llm = LLM(
    model="gpt-5",
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
)

server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users with internet searches",
        backstory="You are an expert assistant with access to Composio Search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        llm=llm,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )

    print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

    conversation_context = ""

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()

        if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
            print("\nGoodbye!")
            break

        if not user_input:
            continue

        conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
        print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

        task = Task(
            description=(
                f"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
                f"Current request: {user_input}"
            ),
            expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
            agent=agent,
        )

        crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
        result = crew.kickoff()
        response = str(result)

        conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
        print(f"Agent: {response}\n")

Conclusion

You now have a CrewAI agent connected to Xero through Composio's Tool Router. The agent can perform Xero operations through natural language commands.

Next steps:

  • Add role-specific instructions to customize agent behavior
  • Plug in more toolkits for multi-app workflows
  • Chain tasks for complex multi-step operations
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Create Bank Transaction

Create a bank transaction in Xero.

Create Contact

Create a new contact in Xero.

Create Invoice

Create a new invoice in Xero.

Create Item

Create an inventory item in Xero.

Create Manual Journal

Create one or more manual journals (journal entries) in Xero with journal lines.

Create Payment

Create a payment in Xero to link an invoice with a bank account transaction.

Create Purchase Order

Create a purchase order in Xero to order goods/services from suppliers.

Get Account

Retrieve a specific account from Xero's chart of accounts by its unique ID.

Get Asset

Retrieve a specific asset by ID from Xero.

Get Balance Sheet Report

Retrieve Balance Sheet report from Xero.

Get Budget

Retrieve a budget from Xero.

Get Connections

Tool to list active Xero connections.

Get Contacts

Tool to retrieve a list of contacts.

Get Invoice

Retrieve a specific invoice by ID from Xero.

Get Item

Retrieve a specific item by ID from Xero.

Get Manual Journal

Retrieve a specific manual journal by ID from Xero.

Get Organisation

Retrieve organisation details from Xero.

Get Profit & Loss Report

Retrieve Profit & Loss report from Xero.

Get Project

Retrieve a specific project by ID from Xero.

Get Purchase Order

Retrieve a specific purchase order by ID from Xero.

Get Quotes

Tool to retrieve a list of quotes.

Get Trial Balance Report

Retrieve Trial Balance report from Xero.

List Accounts

Retrieve chart of accounts from Xero.

List Assets

Retrieve fixed assets from Xero.

List Attachments

List all attachments for a specific entity in Xero (invoice, contact, etc.

List Bank Transactions

Retrieve bank transactions from Xero.

List Credit Notes

Retrieve list of credit notes from Xero.

List Files

Retrieve files from Xero Files.

List Folders

Retrieve folders from Xero Files.

List Invoices

Retrieve a list of invoices from Xero.

List Items

Retrieve items (inventory/products) from Xero.

List Journals

Retrieve journals from Xero.

List Manual Journals

Retrieve manual journals from Xero.

List Payments

Retrieve list of payments from Xero.

List Projects

Retrieve projects from Xero.

List Purchase Orders

Retrieve list of purchase orders from Xero.

List Tax Rates

Retrieve tax rates from Xero.

List Tracking Categories

Retrieve tracking categories from Xero.

Update Invoice

Tool to update an existing invoice.

Update Contact

Update an existing contact in Xero.

Upload Attachment

Upload a file attachment to a Xero entity (invoice, contact, etc.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Xero MCP Agent with another framework

ChatGPT logo

ChatGPT

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OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Xero MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Xero MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Xero MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Xero MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex logo

Codex

Use Xero MCP with Codex

Cursor logo

Cursor

Use Xero MCP with Cursor

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Xero MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Xero MCP with Hermes

CLI logo

CLI

Use Xero MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Xero MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Xero MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Xero MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Xero MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Xero MCP with LlamaIndex

OpenCode logo

OpenCode

Use Xero MCP with OpenCode

VS Code logo

VS Code

Use Xero MCP with VS Code

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. CrewAI 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 Xero tools.

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

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