How to integrate Zoho desk MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Zoho desk to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Zoho desk agent that can list high-priority open support tickets, summarize recent customer interactions today, create new ticket for incoming email through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Zoho desk account through Composio's Zoho desk MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Zoho desk logoZoho desk
Oauth2

Zoho Desk is a context-aware helpdesk platform that helps support teams track, manage, and resolve customer tickets. It streamlines workflows and gives you actionable insights into every customer interaction.

23 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Zoho desk to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Zoho desk agent that can list high-priority open support tickets, summarize recent customer interactions today, create new ticket for incoming email through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Zoho desk account through Composio's Zoho desk 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 Zoho desk
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Zoho desk as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Zoho desk 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 Zoho desk MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Zoho desk MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Zoho Desk account. It provides structured and secure access to your helpdesk workspace, so your agent can perform actions like tracking support tickets, managing customer conversations, automating ticket workflows, and generating support insights on your behalf.

  • Ticket tracking and management: Let your agent create, update, and monitor support tickets, ensuring customer inquiries are handled efficiently.
  • Automated workflow execution: Empower your agent to automate repetitive support processes, such as assigning tickets or escalating issues based on rules.
  • Customer communication handling: Enable your agent to fetch and organize customer conversations, keeping your team informed and responsive.
  • Insightful analytics and reporting: Have your agent generate detailed reports and metrics on ticket trends, response times, and agent performance for better decision-making.
  • Collaboration with support teams: Allow your agent to coordinate with team members by tagging, commenting, or sharing ticket information securely within Zoho Desk.

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

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 Zoho desk action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Create Ticket

Tool to create a new Zoho Desk ticket with subject, description, department, and requester details.

Get Agent

Tool to fetch details of a Zoho Desk agent.

Get Agents Count

Tool to get the total count of agents in Zoho Desk.

Get Contact

Tool to fetch details of a Zoho Desk contact.

Get Contacts By IDs

Tool to fetch multiple contacts by their IDs using Zoho Desk's contactsByIds endpoint.

Get Department

Tool to fetch details of a Zoho Desk department by ID.

Get Department Logo

Tool to get/download a department's logo from Zoho Desk.

Get Departments Count

Tool to get the total count of departments in Zoho Desk.

Get Ticket

Get Ticket

Get Ticket Latest Thread

Tool to fetch the most recent thread of a ticket.

Get Ticket Resolution

Get Ticket Resolution

Get Ticket Thread

Tool to fetch a specific thread within a Zoho Desk ticket.

List Contact Accounts

Tool to list accounts associated with a Zoho Desk contact.

List Contacts

Tool to list contacts with filters and pagination.

List Departments

Tool to list all departments in the current Zoho Desk organization.

List Organizations

Tool to list all organizations the current user belongs to.

List Roles

List Roles

List Roles By IDs

List Roles By IDs

List Teams in Department

Tool to list teams in the specified Zoho Desk department.

List Ticket Conversations

List Ticket Conversations

List Tickets

List Tickets

Update Many Tasks

Update multiple tasks in a single call using Zoho Desk API.

Upload Department Logo

Tool to upload/update a department logo in Zoho Desk.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

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