How to integrate Help Scout MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Help Scout to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Help Scout agent that can summarize open help scout conversations, draft replies for urgent help scout conversations, list unassigned help scout conversations through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Help Scout account through Composio's Help Scout MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Help Scout logoHelp Scout
Oauth2

Help Scout is customer support software for shared inboxes, help centers, and customer management. It helps support teams resolve customer conversations faster with clear context and simple workflows.

129 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Help Scout to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Help Scout agent that can summarize open help scout conversations, draft replies for urgent help scout conversations, list unassigned help scout conversations through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Help Scout with

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 Help Scout
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Help Scout as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Help Scout 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 Help Scout MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Help Scout MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Help Scout account. It provides structured and secure access to your inboxes, conversations, customers, organizations, and support team, so your agent can find conversations, create support requests, manage customer records, update organizations, and review team members on your behalf.

  • Conversation management: Have your agent list and filter support conversations, retrieve their details, create new conversations, and update existing ones.
  • Customer record management: Let the agent find customers, review their profiles, create new records, and update contact or profile information.
  • Inbox visibility: Direct your agent to list the Help Scout inboxes you can access and retrieve details about a specific inbox.
  • Organization management: Instruct your agent to find, create, review, and update customer organizations in Help Scout.
  • Support team lookup: Have your agent list support users, filter them by inbox or email, and retrieve individual team member 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:

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

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 Help Scout action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Create Chat Handle

Tool to create a chat handle for a Help Scout customer.

Create Chat Thread

Tool to create a new chat thread on a Help Scout conversation.

Create Conversation

Tool to create a new conversation in Help Scout.

Create Customer

Tool to create a new customer in Help Scout with contact details and profile information.

Create Customer Address

Tool to create an address for a Help Scout customer.

Create customer email

Tool to create an email for a customer in Help Scout.

Create Customer Phone

Tool to create a phone number for a Help Scout customer.

Create Customer Property

Tool to create a customer property definition in Help Scout.

Create Customer Thread

Tool to create a new customer thread on a Help Scout conversation.

Create Customer Website

Tool to create a website entry for a customer in Help Scout.

Create Note on Conversation

Tool to create a new note thread on a Help Scout conversation.

Create Organization

Tool to create a new organization in Help Scout.

Create Organization Property

Tool to create a new custom property definition for organizations in Help Scout.

Create Phone Thread

Tool to create a new phone thread on a Help Scout conversation.

Create Reply Thread

Tool to create a new reply thread on a Help Scout conversation.

Create saved reply

Tool to create a saved reply for a mailbox in Help Scout.

Create Social Profile

Tool to create a social profile for a customer in Help Scout.

Create Webhook

Tool to create a new webhook subscription in Help Scout to receive real-time event notifications.

Delete Chat Handle

Tool to delete a chat handle for a customer.

Delete Conversation

Tool to move a conversation to the deleted folder.

Delete customer

Tool to permanently delete a customer by ID from Help Scout.

Delete Customer Address

Tool to delete a customer's address from Help Scout.

Delete Customer Email

Tool to delete an email for a customer.

Delete Customer Phone

Tool to delete a customer's phone number from Help Scout.

Delete Customer Property

Tool to perform a soft delete on a customer property definition.

Delete Customer Website

Tool to delete a website for a customer.

Delete Organization

Tool to delete an organization by ID.

Delete Organization Property Customer Tier

Tool to delete a customer tier property definition from organizations.

Delete Saved Reply

Tool to delete a saved reply from a mailbox.

Delete Snooze

Tool to delete a snooze on a conversation.

Delete Social Profile

Tool to delete a social profile for a customer in Help Scout.

Delete Thread Schedule

Tool to unschedule a scheduled thread in a conversation.

Delete Webhook

Tool to permanently delete a webhook subscription from Help Scout.

Download Attachment

Tool to download an attachment file from a Help Scout conversation.

Get Attachment Data

Tool to retrieve attachment data for a specific attachment.

Get Busy Times Report

Tool to get busiest time of day report showing conversation volume by day and hour.

Get Chat Report

Tool to retrieve comprehensive chat report statistics from Help Scout.

Get Company Customers Helped Report

Tool to retrieve company customers helped report showing distinct customer count receiving support.

Get Company Drilldown Report

Tool to retrieve company drilldown report showing underlying conversation data for company statistics.

Get Company Report

Tool to retrieve overall company performance report from Help Scout.

Get Conversation

Tool to retrieve a specific conversation by ID from Help Scout.

Get Conversations Drilldown Report

Tool to get conversations drilldown report from Help Scout.

Get Conversations Field Drilldown Report

Tool to get conversations drilldown by field report from Help Scout.

Get Conversations Report

Tool to get overall conversations report with statistics on conversation volume, channels, and trends.

Get Customer

Tool to get a specific customer by ID from Help Scout.

Get Customer Address

Tool to retrieve a customer's address from Help Scout.

Get Docs Report

Tool to retrieve overall docs performance report from Help Scout.

Get Email Report

Tool to retrieve email report with volume, resolution, and response metrics from Help Scout.

Get First Response Time Report

Tool to retrieve first response time productivity report showing average response duration.

Get Happiness Ratings Report

Tool to retrieve happiness ratings report with customer satisfaction scores and feedback from Help Scout.

Get Happiness Report

Tool to retrieve overall happiness report from Help Scout.

Get Inbox

Tool to retrieve a specific inbox by ID with details including name, email, and timestamps.

Get New Conversations Drilldown Report

Tool to get new conversations drilldown report showing underlying conversation data for new conversations created within a time period.

Get New Conversations Report

Tool to get new conversations report showing conversation counts over time intervals.

Get Organization

Tool to retrieve a specific organization by ID from Help Scout.

Get Organization Conversations

Tool to get conversations associated with an organization in Help Scout.

Get Organization Customers

Tool to get customers associated with an organization in Help Scout.

Get Organization Property

Tool to retrieve a single organization property definition by its slug identifier.

Get Phone Report

Tool to retrieve phone report statistics from Help Scout.

Get Productivity Report

Tool to retrieve productivity overall report showing comprehensive team performance metrics.

Get Received Messages Report

Tool to retrieve received messages statistics report from Help Scout.

Get Replies Sent Report

Tool to get replies sent productivity report showing reply volume metrics over time.

Get Resolution Time Report

Tool to retrieve resolution time productivity report showing average time to resolve conversations.

Get Resolved Report

Tool to retrieve productivity resolved report from Help Scout.

Get Resource Owner

Tool to get the authenticated user's profile information.

Get Routing Configuration

Tool to retrieve routing configuration for a mailbox inbox.

Get Saved Reply

Tool to retrieve a specific saved reply from a mailbox.

Get Tag

Tool to retrieve a specific tag by ID from Help Scout.

Get User

Tool to retrieve a specific user by ID from Help Scout.

Get User Chat Report

Tool to retrieve user/team chat report statistics from Help Scout.

Get User Conversation History

Tool to retrieve detailed conversation history for a specific user over a designated timeframe.

Get User Customers Helped Report

Tool to retrieve user customers helped report showing distinct customer count receiving support from a specific user.

Get User Drilldown Report

Tool to get user drilldown report from Help Scout.

Get User Happiness Report

Tool to retrieve user happiness report from Help Scout.

Get User Ratings Report

Tool to retrieve user happiness ratings drilldown report showing customer satisfaction ratings for a specific user.

Get User Replies Report

Tool to retrieve user replies report showing the number of replies sent by a specific user over time.

Get User Report

Tool to retrieve overall user/team performance report from Help Scout.

Get User Resolutions Report

Tool to retrieve user resolutions report showing the number of conversations resolved by a specific user over time.

Get User Status

Tool to get the status of a user in Help Scout.

Get Volume by Channel Report

Tool to retrieve conversation volume by channel (email, chat, phone) over a specified time period.

Get Webhook

Tool to retrieve a specific webhook by ID from Help Scout.

List Chat Handles

Tool to list all chat handles for a specific customer in Help Scout.

List Conversations

Tool to list and filter conversations from Help Scout.

List Customer Emails

Tool to list all emails for a specific customer in Help Scout.

List Customer Phones

Tool to list all phone numbers for a specific Help Scout customer.

List Customer Properties

Tool to list all customer property definitions.

List Customers

Tool to list customers in Help Scout with optional filters for name, email, or modification date.

List Customer Websites

Tool to list all websites associated with a specific customer in Help Scout.

List Inbox Custom Fields

Tool to list all custom fields configured for a specific inbox.

List Inboxes

Tool to list all mailboxes (inboxes) the user has access to with pagination support.

List Inbox Folders

Tool to retrieve all folders within a specific inbox/mailbox.

List Organizations

Tool to list all organizations (companies) in Help Scout with optional filtering and sorting.

List Organizations Properties

Tool to list all organization property definitions.

List Saved Replies

Tool to list saved replies for a mailbox.

List Social Profiles

Tool to list all social profiles for a customer in Help Scout.

List Tags

Tool to list all tags in Help Scout with pagination support.

List Teams

Tool to list all teams in Help Scout with pagination support.

List Threads

Tool to list all threads for a specific Help Scout conversation.

List Users

Tool to list all users in the Help Scout account with optional filters for mailbox or email.

List Users Status

Tool to list the status of all users including email and chat availability.

List Webhooks

Tool to retrieve all webhooks configured in Help Scout.

List Workflows

Tool to list all workflows (automation rules) in the account with optional filters for mailbox, type, and status.

Overwrite Customer

Tool to overwrite an existing customer in Help Scout, replacing all customer data.

Publish Thread Schedule

Tool to publish a scheduled thread immediately in a Help Scout conversation.

Remove Organization Property Value

Tool to remove an organization property value.

Run Manual Workflow

Tool to run a manual workflow on one or more conversations in Help Scout.

Set Organization Property Value

Tool to set or update a property value for a specific organization.

Set User Status

Tool to set the status of a user in Help Scout.

Update Chat Handle

Tool to update a chat handle for a Help Scout customer.

Update Conversation

Tool to update specific properties of a Help Scout conversation using JSON Patch format.

Update Conversation Tags

Tool to update tags on a conversation in Help Scout.

Update Conversation Thread Schedule

Tool to update an existing schedule for a conversation thread in Help Scout.

Update Customer

Tool to update an existing customer in Help Scout using JSON Patch operations.

Update Customer Address

Tool to update an existing address for a Help Scout customer.

Update customer email

Tool to update an existing email for a customer in Help Scout.

Update Customer Phone

Tool to update an existing phone number for a Help Scout customer.

Update Customer Properties

Tool to update custom property values for a Help Scout customer using JSON Patch operations.

Update Customer Social Profile

Tool to update an existing social profile for a customer in Help Scout.

Update Customer Website

Tool to update an existing website URL for a customer in Help Scout.

Update Custom Fields

Tool to update custom fields on a Help Scout conversation.

Update Mailbox Routing Configuration

Tool to update routing configuration for a mailbox inbox in Help Scout.

Update Organization

Tool to update an organization in Help Scout.

Update Organization Property

Tool to update an organization property definition in Help Scout.

Update Organization Property Industry

Tool to update the industry organization property definition in Help Scout.

Update saved reply

Tool to update an existing saved reply in a Help Scout mailbox.

Update Conversation Snooze

Tool to update or set a snooze on a Help Scout conversation.

Update Thread

Tool to update a specific thread in a Help Scout conversation using JSON Patch format.

Update Webhook

Tool to update an existing webhook subscription in Help Scout.

Update Workflow Status

Tool to update the status of a Help Scout workflow (enable/disable automation rule).

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

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