How to integrate Zep MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Zep to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Zep agent that can store a memory about today's meeting, retrieve all memories tagged urgent, summarize knowledge about client preferences through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Zep account through Composio's Zep MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Zep is a foundational memory layer for AI agents and apps. It lets your AI remember, recall, and organize key information over time.

43 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Zep to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Zep agent that can store a memory about today's meeting, retrieve all memories tagged urgent, summarize knowledge about client preferences through natural language commands.

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

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

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TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Zep
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Zep as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Zep 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 Zep MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Zep MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Zep account. It provides structured and secure access so your agent can perform Zep operations on your behalf.

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

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 Zep action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add Fact Triple

Tool to add a manually specified fact triple (subject-predicate-object) to the Zep knowledge graph.

Add Session Memory

Tool to add memory messages to a specified Zep session.

Add Thread Messages

Tool to add chat messages to a thread in Zep and ingest them into the user knowledge graph.

Clone Graph

Tool to clone a user or group graph with new identifiers in Zep.

Create Graph

Tool to create a new graph by adding data to Zep.

Create Group

Tool to create a new group in Zep for multi-user graph management.

Create Session

Tool to create a new session in Zep for storing conversation memory.

Create Thread

Tool to create a new thread in Zep for a specific user.

Create User

Tool to create a new user in Zep with properties like user_id, email, and metadata.

Delete Graph

Tool to delete a graph from Zep.

Delete Group

Tool to delete a group from Zep.

Delete Session Memory

Tool to delete a session and its memory from Zep.

Delete Thread

Tool to delete a thread and its messages from Zep.

Delete User

Tool to delete a user and all associated threads and artifacts from Zep.

Get Edge by UUID

Tool to retrieve a specific edge by its UUID from the Zep knowledge graph.

Get Graph by ID

Tool to retrieve a graph by its unique identifier from Zep.

Get Group by ID

Tool to retrieve a group by ID from Zep.

Get Node Entity Edges

Tool to retrieve all entity edges for a specific node in the Zep knowledge graph.

Get Project Info

Tool to retrieve project information based on the provided API key.

Get Session by ID

Tool to retrieve a session by its unique identifier from Zep.

Get Session Memory

Tool to retrieve memory for a given session including relevant facts and entities.

Get Session Message by UUID

Tool to retrieve a specific message by UUID from a Zep session.

Get Session Messages

Tool to retrieve messages for a given session from Zep.

Get Task Status

Tool to check the status of asynchronous operations in Zep.

Get Thread Messages

Tool to retrieve conversation history for a specific thread from Zep.

Get Thread User Context

Tool to retrieve the most relevant user context from the user graph based on thread messages.

Get User by ID

Tool to retrieve a user by their user ID from Zep.

Get User Node

Tool to retrieve a user's graph node and summary from Zep.

Get User Nodes

Tool to retrieve all nodes for a specific user from their graph in Zep.

Get User Sessions

Tool to retrieve all sessions for a user from Zep.

Get User Threads

Tool to retrieve all threads for a specific user from Zep.

Graph Search

Tool to perform hybrid graph search combining semantic similarity and BM25 full-text search across the Zep knowledge graph.

List Graphs

Tool to retrieve all graphs from Zep with pagination support.

List Groups Ordered

Tool to retrieve all groups from Zep with pagination support.

List Sessions Ordered

Tool to retrieve all sessions from Zep with pagination and ordering support.

List Threads

Tool to retrieve all threads from Zep with pagination support.

List Users Ordered

Tool to retrieve all users from Zep with pagination support.

List All Threads

Tool to list all threads with pagination and ordering support.

Update Graph

Tool to update graph information in Zep including name and description.

Update Group

Tool to update group information in Zep including name, description, and fact rating instructions.

Update Message

Tool to update a message in a Zep thread.

Update Session Metadata

Tool to update session metadata in Zep.

Update User

Tool to update an existing user's information in Zep including email, metadata, and ontology settings.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

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