How to integrate Charla MCP with LlamaIndex

This guide walks you through connecting Charla to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Charla agent that can review your conversations, find your contacts, create articles, update articles, and delete articles through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your LlamaIndex agent real control over a Charla account through Composio's Charla MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Charla logoCharla
Api Key

Charla is a live chat and AI customer-support platform for property teams. It helps manage guest conversations, property contacts, and support knowledge.

9 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Charla to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Charla agent that can review your conversations, find your contacts, create articles, update articles, and delete articles through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Charla with

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Set your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install LlamaIndex and Composio packages
  • Create a Composio Tool Router session for Charla
  • Connect LlamaIndex to the Charla MCP server
  • Build a Charla-powered agent using LlamaIndex
  • Interact with Charla through natural language

What is LlamaIndex?

LlamaIndex is a data framework for building LLM applications. It provides tools for connecting LLMs to external data sources and services through agents and tools.

Key features include:

  • ReAct Agent: Reasoning and acting pattern for tool-using agents
  • MCP Tools: Native support for Model Context Protocol
  • Context Management: Maintain conversation context across interactions
  • Async Support: Built for async/await patterns

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

The Charla MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Charla account. It provides structured and secure access to your customer contacts, conversation history, and knowledge base, so your agent can review contacts, export conversations, browse help content, and manage articles on your behalf.

  • Customer contact lookup: Have your agent list recently updated contacts and retrieve a specific contact when you need more details.
  • Conversation review: Let the agent export customer conversations with their message history for support reviews, summaries, or follow-up planning.
  • Knowledge base discovery: Instruct your agent to browse article summaries, read full articles, and review the available categories.
  • Article creation and updates: Direct your agent to create new knowledge base articles or replace the content and details of existing ones.
  • Knowledge base cleanup: Have your agent permanently delete outdated knowledge base articles you no longer want to publish.

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 step10 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.8/Node 16 or higher installed
  • A Composio account with the API key
  • An OpenAI API key
  • A Charla account and project
  • Basic familiarity with async Python/Typescript
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI, Composio, and Charla

OpenAI API key (OPENAI_API_KEY)
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard
  • Create an API key if you don't have one
  • Assign it to OPENAI_API_KEY in .env
Composio API key and user ID
  • Log into the Composio dashboard
  • Copy your API key from Settings
    • Use this as COMPOSIO_API_KEY
  • Pick a stable user identifier (email or ID)
    • Use this as COMPOSIO_USER_ID
3

Installing dependencies

npm install @composio/llamaindex @llamaindex/openai @llamaindex/tools @llamaindex/workflow dotenv

Create a new Typescript project and install the necessary dependencies:

  • @composio/llamaindex: Composio's LlamaIndex integration
  • @llamaindex/openai: OpenAI LLM integration
  • @llamaindex/tools: MCP client for LlamaIndex
  • @llamaindex/workflow: Workflow framework for LlamaIndex
  • dotenv: Environment variable management
4

Set environment variables

bash
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-composio-api-key
COMPOSIO_USER_ID=your-user-id

Create a .env file in your project root:

These credentials will be used to:

  • Authenticate with OpenAI's GPT-5 model
  • Connect to Composio's Tool Router
  • Identify your Composio user session for Charla access
5

Import modules

import "dotenv/config";
import readline from "node:readline/promises";
import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from "node:process";

import { Composio } from "@composio/core";

import { mcp } from "@llamaindex/tools";
import { agent as createAgent } from "@llamaindex/workflow";
import { openai } from "@llamaindex/openai";

dotenv.config();

Create a new file called charla_llamaindex_agent.ts and import the required modules:

Key imports:

  • dotenv.config loads .env at runtime
  • readline gives us a simple CLI chat loop
  • Composio is the main Composio SDK client
  • mcp connects to an MCP endpoint
  • createAgent builds a LlamaIndex agent
  • openai configures the LLM backend
6

Load environment variables and initialize Composio

const OPENAI_API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_API_KEY = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_USER_ID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

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

What's happening:

This ensures missing credentials cause early, clear errors before the agent attempts to initialise.

7

Create a Tool Router session and build the agent function

async function buildAgent() {

  console.log(`Initializing Composio client...${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);
  console.log(`COMPOSIO_USER_ID: ${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);

  const composio = new Composio({
    apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY,
    provider: new LlamaindexProvider(),
  });

  const session = await composio.create(
    COMPOSIO_USER_ID!,
    {
      toolkits: ["charla"],
    },
  );

  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log(`Composio Tool Router MCP URL: ${mcpUrl}`);

  const server = mcp({
    url: mcpUrl,
    clientName: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    requestInit: {
      headers: {
        "x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY!,
      },
    },
    // verbose: true,
  });

  const tools = await server.tools();

  const llm = openai({ apiKey: OPENAI_API_KEY, model: "gpt-5" });

  const agent = createAgent({
    name: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
        description : "An agent that uses Composio Tool Router MCP tools to perform actions.",
    systemPrompt:
      "You are a helpful assistant connected to Composio Tool Router."+
"Use the available tools to answer user queries and perform Charla actions." ,
    llm,
    tools,
  });

  return agent;
}

What's happening here:

  • We create a Composio client using your API key and configure it with the LlamaIndex provider
  • We then create a tool router MCP session for your user, specifying the toolkits we want to use (in this case, charla)
  • The session returns an MCP HTTP endpoint URL that acts as a gateway to all your configured tools
  • LlamaIndex will connect to this endpoint to dynamically discover and use the available Charla tools.
  • The MCP tools are mapped to LlamaIndex-compatible tools and plug them into the Agent.
8

Create an interactive chat loop

async function chatLoop(agent: ReturnType<typeof createAgent>) {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({ input, output });

  console.log("Type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop.");

  while (true) {
    let userInput: string;

    try {
      userInput = (await rl.question("\nYou: ")).trim();
    } catch {
      console.log("\nAgent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    if (!userInput) {
      continue;
    }

    const lower = userInput.toLowerCase();
    if (lower === "quit" || lower === "exit") {
      console.log("Agent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    try {
      process.stdout.write("Agent: ");

      const stream = agent.runStream(userInput);
      let finalResult: any = null;

      for await (const event of stream) {
        // The event.data contains the streamed content
        const data: any = event.data;

        // Check for streaming delta content
        if (data?.delta) {
          process.stdout.write(data.delta);
        }

        // Store final result for fallback
        if (data?.result || data?.message) {
          finalResult = data;
        }
      }

      // If no streaming happened, show the final result
      if (finalResult) {
        const answer =
          finalResult.result ??
          finalResult.message?.content ??
          finalResult.message ??
          "";
        if (answer && typeof answer === "string" && !answer.includes("[object")) {
          process.stdout.write(answer);
        }
      }

      console.log(); // New line after streaming completes
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error("\nAgent error:", err?.message ?? err);
    }
  }

  rl.close();
}

What's happening:

  • We're creating a direct terminal interface to chat with Charla
  • The LLM's responses are streamed to the CLI for faster interaction.
  • The agent uses context to maintain conversation history
  • The agent processes the request, selects appropriate Charla tools, and returns a result
  • We extract the answer from the result data structure and display it to the user
  • You can type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop the chat loop gracefully
  • Agent responses and any errors are streamed in a clear, readable format
9

Define the main entry point

async function main() {
  try {
    const agent = await buildAgent();
    await chatLoop(agent);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Failed to start agent:", err);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

What's happening here:

  • We're orchestrating the entire application flow
  • The agent gets built with proper error handling
  • Then we kick off the interactive chat loop so you can start talking to Charla
10

Run the agent

npx ts-node llamaindex-agent.ts

When prompted, authenticate and authorise your agent with Charla, then start asking questions.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Charla and LlamaIndex:

import "dotenv/config";
import readline from "node:readline/promises";
import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from "node:process";

import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import { LlamaindexProvider } from "@composio/llamaindex";

import { mcp } from "@llamaindex/tools";
import { agent as createAgent } from "@llamaindex/workflow";
import { openai } from "@llamaindex/openai";

dotenv.config();

const OPENAI_API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_API_KEY = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_USER_ID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!OPENAI_API_KEY) {
    throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set in the environment");
  }
if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY) {
    throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment");
  }
if (!COMPOSIO_USER_ID) {
    throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment");
  }

async function buildAgent() {

  console.log(`Initializing Composio client...${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);
  console.log(`COMPOSIO_USER_ID: ${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);

  const composio = new Composio({
    apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY,
    provider: new LlamaindexProvider(),
  });

  const session = await composio.create(
    COMPOSIO_USER_ID!,
    {
      toolkits: ["charla"],
    },
  );

  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log(`Composio Tool Router MCP URL: ${mcpUrl}`);

  const server = mcp({
    url: mcpUrl,
    clientName: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    requestInit: {
      headers: {
        "x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY!,
      },
    },
    // verbose: true,
  });

  const tools = await server.tools();

  const llm = openai({ apiKey: OPENAI_API_KEY, model: "gpt-5" });

  const agent = createAgent({
    name: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    description:
      "An agent that uses Composio Tool Router MCP tools to perform actions.",
    systemPrompt:
      "You are a helpful assistant connected to Composio Tool Router."+
"Use the available tools to answer user queries and perform Charla actions." ,
    llm,
    tools,
  });

  return agent;
}

async function chatLoop(agent: ReturnType<typeof createAgent>) {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({ input, output });

  console.log("Type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop.");

  while (true) {
    let userInput: string;

    try {
      userInput = (await rl.question("\nYou: ")).trim();
    } catch {
      console.log("\nAgent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    if (!userInput) {
      continue;
    }

    const lower = userInput.toLowerCase();
    if (lower === "quit" || lower === "exit") {
      console.log("Agent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    try {
      process.stdout.write("Agent: ");

      const stream = agent.runStream(userInput);
      let finalResult: any = null;

      for await (const event of stream) {
        // The event.data contains the streamed content
        const data: any = event.data;

        // Check for streaming delta content
        if (data?.delta) {
          process.stdout.write(data.delta);
        }

        // Store final result for fallback
        if (data?.result || data?.message) {
          finalResult = data;
        }
      }

      // If no streaming happened, show the final result
      if (finalResult) {
        const answer =
          finalResult.result ??
          finalResult.message?.content ??
          finalResult.message ??
          "";
        if (answer && typeof answer === "string" && !answer.includes("[object")) {
          process.stdout.write(answer);
        }
      }

      console.log(); // New line after streaming completes
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error("\nAgent error:", err?.message ?? err);
    }
  }

  rl.close();
}

async function main() {
  try {
    const agent = await buildAgent();
    await chatLoop(agent);
  } catch (err: any) {
    console.error("Failed to start agent:", err?.message ?? err);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

Conclusion

You've successfully connected Charla to LlamaIndex through Composio's Tool Router MCP layer. Key takeaways:
  • Tool Router dynamically exposes Charla tools through an MCP endpoint
  • LlamaIndex's ReActAgent handles reasoning and orchestration; Composio handles integrations
  • The agent becomes more capable without increasing prompt size
  • Async Python provides clean, efficient execution of agent workflows
You can easily extend this to other toolkits like Gmail, Notion, Stripe, GitHub, and more by adding them to the toolkits parameter.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Create Knowledge Base Article

Create a knowledge base article.

Delete Knowledge Base Article

Permanently delete one knowledge base article by ID.

Get Contact

Return one contact in the connected Charla property by UUID.

Get Knowledge Base Article

Return the full content and metadata of one knowledge base article by ID.

List Contacts

Return one page of contacts for the connected Charla property, ordered by most recently modified.

List Conversations

Export one page of conversations grouped by contact for the connected Charla property, including message history.

List Knowledge Base Articles

Return one page of knowledge base article summaries for the connected Charla property, newest first.

List Knowledge Base Categories

Return all knowledge base categories available in the connected Charla property.

Update Knowledge Base Article

Replace every writable field of an existing knowledge base article.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. LlamaIndex 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 Charla tools.

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

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