How to integrate CarsXE MCP with Mastra AI

This guide walks you through connecting CarsXE to Mastra AI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working CarsXE agent that can decode vin and summarize vehicle specs, check recalls for a used car, estimate market value from license plate through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your Mastra AI agent real control over a CarsXE account through Composio's CarsXE MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Get started for free Get a demo

CarsXE

Api Key

CarsXE is a vehicle data API platform for VIN specs, recalls, license plate decoding, market values, history, images, and automotive lookups. Use it to turn raw vehicle identifiers into clear, useful car data fast.

12 Tools

Managed auth

Connect CarsXE without auth hassles

We manage OAuth, API keys, token refresh, and scopes — you just build.

Try for free

Introduction

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

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

Also integrate CarsXE with

OpenAI Agents SDK Claude Agent SDK Claude Code Claude Cowork Codex OpenClaw Hermes CLI Google ADK LangChain Vercel AI SDK LlamaIndex CrewAI

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:

Set up your environment so Mastra, OpenAI, and Composio work together
Create a Tool Router session in Composio that exposes CarsXE tools
Connect Mastra's MCP client to the Composio generated MCP URL
Fetch CarsXE tool definitions and attach them as a toolset
Build a Mastra agent that can reason, call tools, and return structured results
Run an interactive CLI where you can chat with your CarsXE agent

What is Mastra AI?

Mastra AI is a TypeScript framework for building AI agents with tool support. It provides a clean API for creating agents that can use external services through MCP.

Key features include:

MCP Client: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
Toolsets: Organize tools into logical groups
Step Callbacks: Monitor and debug agent execution
OpenAI Integration: Works with OpenAI models via @ai-sdk/openai

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

The CarsXE MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your CarsXE account. It provides structured and secure access to vehicle specifications, records, valuations, images, and diagnostic data, so your agent can decode vehicles, check recalls and history, estimate market values, diagnose OBD codes, and recognize license plates on your behalf.

Vehicle identification and specifications: Have your agent decode a VIN or license plate, or look up detailed vehicle and trim information by year, make, and model.
Recall and safety checks: Instruct your agent to find safety recalls for a VIN or vehicle model, or submit and review recall checks for many VINs.
History, lien, and theft research: Let the agent retrieve title, salvage, insurance, lien, theft, VIN change, and historical title records for a vehicle.
Market values and diagnostics: Direct your agent to estimate wholesale, retail, and trade-in values or translate an OBD-II trouble code into a readable diagnosis.
Vehicle images and plate recognition: Have your agent find vehicle photos by make and model or analyze a public image for license plate candidates and detected vehicle details.

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:

Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step09 STEPS

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

Node.js 18 or higher
A Composio account with an active API key
An OpenAI API key
Basic familiarity with TypeScript

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key

Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key.
You need credits or a connected billing setup to use the models.
Store the key somewhere safe.

Composio API Key

Log in to the Composio dashboard.
Go to Settings and copy your API key.
This key lets your Mastra agent talk to Composio and reach CarsXE through MCP.

Install dependencies

bash

npm install @composio/core @mastra/core @mastra/mcp @ai-sdk/openai dotenv

Install the required packages.

What's happening:

@composio/core is the Composio SDK for creating MCP sessions
@mastra/core provides the Agent class
@mastra/mcp is Mastra's MCP client
@ai-sdk/openai is the model wrapper for OpenAI
dotenv loads environment variables from .env

Set up environment variables

bash

COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
COMPOSIO_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 your requests to Composio
COMPOSIO_USER_ID tells Composio which user this session belongs to
OPENAI_API_KEY lets the Mastra agent call OpenAI models

Import libraries and validate environment

typescript

import "dotenv/config";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { Agent } from "@mastra/core/agent";
import { MCPClient } from "@mastra/mcp";
import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import * as readline from "readline";

import type { AiMessageType } from "@mastra/core/agent";

const openaiAPIKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const composioAPIKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const composioUserID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!openaiAPIKey) throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioAPIKey) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioUserID) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set");

const composio = new Composio({
  apiKey: composioAPIKey as string,
});

What's happening:

dotenv/config auto loads your .env so process.env.* is available
openai gives you a Mastra compatible model wrapper
Agent is the Mastra agent that will call tools and produce answers
MCPClient connects Mastra to your Composio MCP server
Composio is used to create a Tool Router session

Create a Tool Router session for CarsXE

typescript

async function main() {
  const session = await composio.create(
    composioUserID as string,
    {
      toolkits: ["carsxe"],
    },
  );

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log("CarsXE MCP URL:", composioMCPUrl);

What's happening:

create spins up a short-lived MCP HTTP endpoint for this user
The toolkits array contains "carsxe" for CarsXE access
session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that Mastra's MCPClient will connect to

Configure Mastra MCP client and fetch tools

typescript

const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
    id: composioUserID as string,
    servers: {
      nasdaq: {
        url: new URL(composioMCPUrl),
        requestInit: {
          headers: session.mcp.headers,
        },
      },
    },
    timeout: 30_000,
  });

console.log("Fetching MCP tools from Composio...");
const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();
console.log("Number of tools:", Object.keys(composioTools).length);

What's happening:

MCPClient takes an id for this client and a list of MCP servers
The headers property includes the x-api-key for authentication
getTools fetches the tool definitions exposed by the CarsXE toolkit

Create the Mastra agent

typescript

const agent = new Agent({
    name: "carsxe-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with CarsXE tools via Composio.",
    model: "openai/gpt-5",
  });

What's happening:

Agent is the core Mastra agent
name is just an identifier for logging and debugging
instructions guide the agent to use tools instead of only answering in natural language
model uses openai("gpt-5") to configure the underlying LLM

Set up interactive chat interface

typescript

let messages: AiMessageType[] = [];

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

const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout,
  prompt: "> ",
});

rl.prompt();

rl.on("line", async (userInput: string) => {
  const trimmedInput = userInput.trim();

  if (["exit", "quit", "bye"].includes(trimmedInput.toLowerCase())) {
    console.log("\nGoodbye!");
    rl.close();
    process.exit(0);
  }

  if (!trimmedInput) {
    rl.prompt();
    return;
  }

  messages.push({
    id: crypto.randomUUID(),
    role: "user",
    content: trimmedInput,
  });

  console.log("\nAgent is thinking...\n");

  try {
    const response = await agent.generate(messages, {
      toolsets: {
        carsxe: composioTools,
      },
      maxSteps: 8,
    });

    const { text } = response;

    if (text && text.trim().length > 0) {
      console.log(`Agent: ${text}\n`);
        messages.push({
          id: crypto.randomUUID(),
          role: "assistant",
          content: text,
        });
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("\nError:", error);
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on("close", async () => {
    console.log("\nSession ended.");
    await mcpClient.disconnect();
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main().catch((err) => {
  console.error("Fatal error:", err);
  process.exit(1);
});

What's happening:

messages keeps the full conversation history in Mastra's expected format
agent.generate runs the agent with conversation history and CarsXE toolsets
maxSteps limits how many tool calls the agent can take in a single run
onStepFinish is a hook that prints intermediate steps for debugging

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with CarsXE and Mastra AI:

typescript

import "dotenv/config";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { Agent } from "@mastra/core/agent";
import { MCPClient } from "@mastra/mcp";
import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import * as readline from "readline";

import type { AiMessageType } from "@mastra/core/agent";

const openaiAPIKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const composioAPIKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const composioUserID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!openaiAPIKey) throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioAPIKey) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioUserID) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set");

const composio = new Composio({ apiKey: composioAPIKey as string });

async function main() {
  const session = await composio.create(composioUserID as string, {
    toolkits: ["carsxe"],
  });

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;

  const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
    id: composioUserID as string,
    servers: {
      carsxe: {
        url: new URL(composioMCPUrl),
        requestInit: {
          headers: session.mcp.headers,
        },
      },
    },
    timeout: 30_000,
  });

  const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();

  const agent = new Agent({
    name: "carsxe-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with CarsXE tools via Composio.",
    model: "openai/gpt-5",
  });

  let messages: AiMessageType[] = [];

  const rl = readline.createInterface({
    input: process.stdin,
    output: process.stdout,
    prompt: "> ",
  });

  rl.prompt();

  rl.on("line", async (input: string) => {
    const trimmed = input.trim();
    if (["exit", "quit"].includes(trimmed.toLowerCase())) {
      rl.close();
      return;
    }

    messages.push({ id: crypto.randomUUID(), role: "user", content: trimmed });

    const { text } = await agent.generate(messages, {
      toolsets: { carsxe: composioTools },
      maxSteps: 8,
    });

    if (text) {
      console.log(`Agent: ${text}\n`);
      messages.push({ id: crypto.randomUUID(), role: "assistant", content: text });
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on("close", async () => {
    await mcpClient.disconnect();
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main();

Conclusion

You've built a Mastra AI agent that can interact with CarsXE through Composio's Tool Router. You can extend this further by:

Adding other toolkits like Gmail, Slack, or GitHub
Building a web-based chat interface around this agent
Using multiple MCP endpoints to enable cross-app workflows

TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Check Lien and Theft Records

Retrieve reportable US lien and theft events for a VIN.

Decode License Plate

Look up vehicle identity from a license plate using CarsXE's current global v2 decoder.

Decode OBD Code

Translate an OBD-II diagnostic trouble code into a readable diagnosis.

Get Vehicle Market Value

Estimate wholesale, retail, and trade-in values for a VIN using CarsXE's current v2 valuation, optionally adjusted for state, mileage, and condition.

Get Recall Batch

Make exactly one read request for a CarsXE recall batch.

Get Vehicle History

Retrieve title, brand, junk/salvage, insurance, VIN-change, and historical title records for a VIN.

Get Vehicle Images

Find up to 10 vehicle photos by make and model, with optional year, trim, angle, image type, size, color, quality, transparency, and license filters.

Get Vehicle Recalls

Find safety recall campaigns either for one VIN or for a year, make, and model.

Get Vehicle Specifications

Decode a 17-character VIN into vehicle identity, specifications, equipment, colors, and warranty data.

Get Year Make Model Data

Look up detailed vehicle and trim information by year, make, and model without a VIN.

Recognize License Plate

Analyze a publicly accessible vehicle image and return license-plate candidates, regions, confidence, bounding boxes, and detected vehicle details.

Submit Recall Batch

Create one asynchronous CarsXE recall-check batch for 1 to 10,000 VIN entries.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build CarsXE MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use CarsXE MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Use CarsXE MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Use CarsXE MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork

Use CarsXE MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex

Use CarsXE MCP with Codex

OpenClaw

Use CarsXE MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes

Use CarsXE MCP with Hermes

CLI

Use CarsXE MCP with CLI

Google ADK

Use CarsXE MCP with Google ADK

LangChain

Use CarsXE MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Use CarsXE MCP with Vercel AI SDK

LlamaIndex

Use CarsXE MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI

Use CarsXE MCP with CrewAI

MORE TOOLKITS

Explore Other Toolkits

Toolkit marketplace

Excel

Oauth2S2s Oauth2

Microsoft Excel is a robust spreadsheet application for organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data. It's the go-to tool for calculations, reporting, and flexible data management.

Adafruit IO

Api Key

Adafruit IO is Adafruit's cloud platform for connected device and IoT project data. It helps you store, visualize, and act on sensor feeds without running your own backend.

Agenty

Api Key

Agenty is a web scraping and automation platform for extracting data and automating browser tasks—no coding needed. It streamlines data collection, monitoring, and repetitive online actions.

ApexVerify

Api Key

ApexVerify is a contact-data validation service for emails and phone numbers. Use it to normalize, verify, and clean leads before they enter your systems.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. Mastra AI 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 CarsXE tools.

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

Start with CarsXE.It takes 30 seconds.

Managed auth, hosted MCP servers, and every CarsXE tool your agent needs.Free to start.

Start building

Customer stories

Teams ship real agents on Composio

GET STARTED FOR FREE BOOK A DEMO

Karan skipped his own birthday party to fix our critical issue. It was 10pm and he diverted his Waymo to help us instead. This really sets the bar — it shows the commitment you need when users rely on your software.

Harsha Gaddipati

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.

Abhi Arya

Co-founder, Opennote

We chose Composio over Pipedream because it delivered depth where it mattered — niche tools and tricky edge cases other platforms simply ignored. That gave us confidence to scale without compromising.

Nirman Dave

CEO, Zams

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.

Ryan Yu

Founder, Extra Thursday

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.

Tomisin Jenrola

Founder & CEO, SwarmZero

With hands-on help from their founder, we integrated Gmail and Google Drive in just 30 minutes. This level of personal support and commitment is exactly what startups should strive for.

Jerome Leclanche

Co-Founder, Ingram Technologies

How to integrate CarsXE MCP with Mastra AI

Connect CarsXE without auth hassles

Introduction

Also integrate CarsXE with

TL;DR

What is Mastra AI?

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

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

How the Composio SDK works

Step-by-step Guide

Prerequisites

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

Install dependencies

Set up environment variables

Import libraries and validate environment

Create a Tool Router session for CarsXE

Configure Mastra MCP client and fetch tools

Create the Mastra agent

Set up interactive chat interface

Complete Code

Conclusion

Supported Tools

How to build CarsXE MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Claude Cowork

Codex

OpenClaw

Hermes

CLI

Google ADK

LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

LlamaIndex

CrewAI

Explore Other Toolkits

Excel

Adafruit IO

Agenty

ApexVerify

Frequently asked questions

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and CarsXE MCP?+

Can I use Tool Router MCP with Mastra AI?+

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for CarsXE while using Tool Router?+

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?+

Start with CarsXE.It takes 30 seconds.

Teams ship real agents on Composio