How to integrate Foursquare MCP with Claude Agent SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Foursquare to the Claude Agent SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Foursquare agent that can find coffee shops open near me now, show photos of central park attractions, get reviews for the best pizza spots nearby through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your Claude Agent SDK agent real control over a Foursquare account through Composio's Foursquare MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Foursquare is a global location platform for searching places and place recommendations. It helps users discover restaurants, shops, and venues with rich, up-to-date data.

5 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Foursquare to the Claude Agent SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Foursquare agent that can find coffee shops open near me now, show photos of central park attractions, get reviews for the best pizza spots nearby through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Foursquare with

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TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your Claude/Anthropic and Composio API keys
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Foursquare
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Foursquare as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Foursquare operations

What is Claude Agent SDK?

The Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic's official framework for building AI agents powered by Claude. It provides a streamlined interface for creating agents with MCP tool support and conversation management.

Key features include:

  • Native MCP Support: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
  • Permission Modes: Control tool execution permissions
  • Streaming Responses: Real-time response streaming for interactive applications
  • Context Manager: Clean async context management for sessions

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

The Foursquare MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Foursquare account. It provides structured and secure access to the powerful Foursquare Places database, so your agent can search for venues, recommend places, retrieve detailed location data, surface user tips, and even fetch photos—all on your behalf.

  • Comprehensive place search and discovery: Let your agent find places or points of interest nearby or in any area using keywords, categories, or specific criteria.
  • Retrieve rich place details: Instantly pull in-depth information about a specific venue, including its name, address, ratings, categories, and more.
  • Access user-generated tips and reviews: Have your agent surface real user insights, tips, and experiences for any place to help guide your decisions.
  • Fetch location photos: Enhance your applications by retrieving and displaying user-contributed images for any venue in the Foursquare database.
  • Explore lesser-known and trending spots: Use Foursquare's broader search to discover new, up-and-coming, or hidden places that might not appear in standard searches.

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 Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Primary know-how of Claude Agents SDK
  • A Foursquare account
  • Some knowledge of Python
2

Getting API Keys for Claude/Anthropic and Composio

Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Go to the Anthropic Console and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models.
  • 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

npm install @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk @composio/core dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the Claude Agents SDK.

What's happening:

  • @composio/core provides Composio integration for Anthropic
  • @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk is the core agent framework
  • dotenv/config loads environment variables
4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID identifies the user for session management
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY authenticates with Anthropic/Claude
5

Import dependencies

import 'dotenv/config';
import readline from 'node:readline';
import { Composio } from '@composio/core';
import { query, type Options } from "@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk";

dotenv.config();
What's happening:
  • We're importing all necessary libraries including the Claude Agent SDK and Composio
  • The dotenv.config() function loads environment variables from your .env file
  • This setup prepares the foundation for connecting Claude with Foursquare functionality
6

Create a Composio instance and Tool Router session

async function chat() {
  const { COMPOSIO_API_KEY, USER_ID } = process.env;
  if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY || !USER_ID) {
    throw new Error('COMPOSIO_API_KEY and USER_ID required in .env');
  }

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

  // Create Tool Router session for Foursquare
  const session = await composio.create(USER_ID, {
    toolkits: ['foursquare'],
  });
  const mcpUrl = session?.mcp.url;
What's happening:
  • The function checks for the required COMPOSIO_API_KEY environment variable
  • We're creating a Composio instance using our API key
  • The create method creates a Tool Router session for Foursquare
  • The returned url is the MCP server URL that your agent will use
7

Configure Claude Agent with MCP

const options: Options = {
  permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions',
  mcpServers: {
    composio: {
      type: 'http',
      url: mcpUrl,
      headers: { 'x-api-key': COMPOSIO_API_KEY }
    }
  },
  systemPrompt: 'You are a helpful assistant with access to Foursquare tools via Composio.',
  maxTurns: 10,
};
What's happening:
  • We're configuring the Claude Agent options with the MCP server URL
  • permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions' allows the agent to execute operations without asking for permission each time
  • The system prompt instructs the agent that it has access to Foursquare
  • maxTurns: 10 limits the conversation length to prevent excessive API usage
8

Create client and start chat loop

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

  console.log('\nChat started. Type "exit" to quit.\n');

  let isProcessing = false;

  async function ask(prompt: string) {
    isProcessing = true;
    rl.pause();

    process.stdout.write('Claude is thinking...');
    const stream = query({ prompt, options });

    let firstChunk = true;
    for await (const msg of stream) {
      const content = (msg as any).message?.content || (msg as any).content;
      if (Array.isArray(content)) {
        for (const block of content) {
          if (block.type === 'text' && block.text) {
            if (firstChunk) {
              process.stdout.write('\r\x1b[K');
              process.stdout.write('Claude: ');
              firstChunk = false;
            }
            process.stdout.write(block.text);
          }
        }
      }
    }
    process.stdout.write('\n\n');

    isProcessing = false;
    rl.resume();
    rl.prompt();
  }

  rl.on('line', async (line) => {
    if (isProcessing) return;

    const input = line.trim();
    if (input === 'exit') {
      rl.close();
      process.exit(0);
    }
    if (input) await ask(input);
    else rl.prompt();
  });

  await ask('What can you help me with?');
}
What's happening:
  • The readline interface is created to handle user input and output
  • The query function is used to send the user's input to the agent
  • The chat loop continues until the user types 'exit' or 'quit'
9

Run the application

try {
  await chat();
} catch (error) {
  console.error(error);
  process.exit(1);
}
What's happening:
  • The chat function is the entry point for the application
  • The try-catch block is used to handle any errors that occur

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Foursquare and Claude Agent SDK:

import 'dotenv/config';
import readline from 'node:readline';
import { Composio } from '@composio/core';
import { query, type Options } from "@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk";

async function chat() {
  const { COMPOSIO_API_KEY, USER_ID } = process.env;
  if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY || !USER_ID) {
    throw new Error('COMPOSIO_API_KEY and USER_ID required in .env');
  }

  const composio = new Composio({ apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY });
  const session = await composio.create(USER_ID, {
    toolkits: ['foursquare']
  });
  const mcp_url = session?.mcp.url;

  const options: Options = {
    permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions',
    mcpServers: {
      composio: {
        type: 'http',
        url: mcp_url,
        headers: { 'x-api-key': COMPOSIO_API_KEY }
      }
    },
    systemPrompt: 'You are a helpful assistant with access to Foursquare tools via Composio.',
    maxTurns: 10,
  };

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

  console.log('\nChat started. Type "exit" to quit.\n');

  let isProcessing = false;

  async function ask(prompt: string) {
    isProcessing = true;
    rl.pause();

    process.stdout.write('Claude is thinking...');
    const stream = query({ prompt, options });

    let firstChunk = true;
    for await (const msg of stream) {
      const content = (msg as any).message?.content || (msg as any).content;
      if (Array.isArray(content)) {
        for (const block of content) {
          if (block.type === 'text' && block.text) {
            if (firstChunk) {
              process.stdout.write('\r\x1b[K');
              process.stdout.write('Claude: ');
              firstChunk = false;
            }
            process.stdout.write(block.text);
          }
        }
      }
    }
    process.stdout.write('\n\n');

    isProcessing = false;
    rl.resume();
    rl.prompt();
  }

  rl.on('line', async (line) => {
    if (isProcessing) return;

    const input = line.trim();
    if (input === 'exit') {
      rl.close();
      process.exit(0);
    }
    if (input) await ask(input);
    else rl.prompt();
  });

  await ask('What can you help me with?');
}

try {
  await chat();
} catch (error) {
  console.error(error);
  process.exit(1);
}

Conclusion

You've successfully built a Claude Agent SDK agent that can interact with Foursquare through Composio's Tool Router.

Key features:

  • Native MCP support through Claude's agent framework
  • Streaming responses for real-time interaction
  • Permission bypass for smooth automated workflows
You can extend this by adding more toolkits, implementing custom business logic, or building a web interface around the agent.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Retrieve nearby places v3

The GetNearbyPlaces endpoint retrieves a list of places near a specified location, primarily supporting check-in use cases and local discovery.

Retrieve place photos by id

Retrieves photos associated with a specific place in Foursquare's database.

Retrieve places by id

Retrieves detailed information about a specific place using its unique Foursquare ID (FSQ ID).

Retrieve place tips using fsq id

Retrieves user-generated tips for a specific place in the Foursquare database.

Search places api request

The GetPlacesSearch endpoint allows you to search for places in the Foursquare database based on various criteria such as location, keywords, and categories.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Foursquare MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Foursquare MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Foursquare MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Foursquare MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex logo

Codex

Use Foursquare MCP with Codex

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Foursquare MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Foursquare MCP with Hermes

CLI logo

CLI

Use Foursquare MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Foursquare MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Foursquare MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Foursquare MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Foursquare MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Foursquare MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Foursquare MCP with CrewAI

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. Claude Agent 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 Foursquare tools.

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

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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.

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