How to integrate Hex MCP with Autogen

This guide walks you through connecting Hex to AutoGen using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Hex agent that can list recent hex analytics projects, run weekly revenue hex project, check latest hex project status through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your AutoGen agent real control over a Hex account through Composio's Hex MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Api Key

Hex is a collaborative data workspace for SQL, Python, and R notebooks. It helps teams build analytics, data apps, and data science workflows together.

32 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Hex to AutoGen using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Hex agent that can list recent hex analytics projects, run weekly revenue hex project, check latest hex project status through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Hex with

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install the required dependencies for Autogen and Composio
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Hex
  • Wire that MCP URL into Autogen using McpWorkbench and StreamableHttpServerParams
  • Configure an Autogen AssistantAgent that can call Hex tools
  • Run a live chat loop where you ask the agent to perform Hex operations

What is AutoGen?

Autogen is a framework for building multi-agent conversational AI systems from Microsoft. It enables you to create agents that can collaborate, use tools, and maintain complex workflows.

Key features include:

  • Multi-Agent Systems: Build collaborative agent workflows
  • MCP Workbench: Native support for Model Context Protocol tools
  • Streaming HTTP: Connect to external services through streamable HTTP
  • AssistantAgent: Pre-built agent class for tool-using assistants

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

The Hex MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Hex account. It provides structured and secure access to your projects, notebook cells, runs, collections, guides, users, and groups, so your agent can manage projects, edit notebook cells, run analyses, organize workspace content, and administer access on your behalf.

  • Project discovery and review: Have your agent list viewable Hex projects and retrieve project details for quick workspace research.
  • Notebook cell management: Direct your agent to list, create, update, or delete cells in the draft version of a Hex project.
  • Project runs and monitoring: Let the agent run the latest published version of a project, review its recent runs, and check a specific run's status.
  • Workspace organization: Instruct your agent to list or create collections and create, update, or delete guide drafts.
  • User and group administration: Have your agent list workspace users and groups, edit group names or membership, delete groups, and deactivate users.

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 step08 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

You will need:

  • A Composio API key
  • An OpenAI API key (used by Autogen's OpenAIChatCompletionClient)
  • A Hex account you can connect to Composio
  • Some basic familiarity with Autogen and Python async
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
  • 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

bash
pip install composio python-dotenv
pip install autogen-agentchat autogen-ext-openai autogen-ext-tools

Install Composio, Autogen extensions, and dotenv.

What's happening:

  • composio connects your agent to Hex via MCP
  • autogen-agentchat provides the AssistantAgent class
  • autogen-ext-openai provides the OpenAI model client
  • autogen-ext-tools provides MCP workbench support

4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-composio-api-key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
USER_ID=your-user-identifier@example.com

Create a .env file in your project folder.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY is required to talk to Composio
  • OPENAI_API_KEY is used by Autogen's OpenAI client
  • USER_ID is how Composio identifies which user's Hex connections to use
5

Import dependencies and create Tool Router session

python
import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from composio import Composio

from autogen_agentchat.agents import AssistantAgent
from autogen_ext.models.openai import OpenAIChatCompletionClient
from autogen_ext.tools.mcp import McpWorkbench, StreamableHttpServerParams

load_dotenv()

async def main():
    # Initialize Composio and create a Hex session
    composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))
    session = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["hex"]
    )
    url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • load_dotenv() reads your .env file
  • Composio(api_key=...) initializes the SDK
  • create(...) creates a Tool Router session that exposes Hex tools
  • session.mcp.url is the MCP endpoint that Autogen will connect to
6

Configure MCP parameters for Autogen

python
# Configure MCP server parameters for Streamable HTTP
server_params = StreamableHttpServerParams(
    url=url,
    timeout=30.0,
    sse_read_timeout=300.0,
    terminate_on_close=True,
    headers={"x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")}
)

Autogen expects parameters describing how to talk to the MCP server. That is what StreamableHttpServerParams is for.

What's happening:

  • url points to the Tool Router MCP endpoint from Composio
  • timeout is the HTTP timeout for requests
  • sse_read_timeout controls how long to wait when streaming responses
  • terminate_on_close=True cleans up the MCP server process when the workbench is closed
7

Create the model client and agent

python
# Create model client
model_client = OpenAIChatCompletionClient(
    model="gpt-5",
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
)

# Use McpWorkbench as context manager
async with McpWorkbench(server_params) as workbench:
    # Create Hex assistant agent with MCP tools
    agent = AssistantAgent(
        name="hex_assistant",
        description="An AI assistant that helps with Hex operations.",
        model_client=model_client,
        workbench=workbench,
        model_client_stream=True,
        max_tool_iterations=10
    )

What's happening:

  • OpenAIChatCompletionClient wraps the OpenAI model for Autogen
  • McpWorkbench connects the agent to the MCP tools
  • AssistantAgent is configured with the Hex tools from the workbench
8

Run the interactive chat loop

python
print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
print("Ask any Hex related question or task to the agent.\n")

# Conversation loop
while True:
    user_input = input("You: ").strip()

    if user_input.lower() in ["exit", "quit", "bye"]:
        print("\nGoodbye!")
        break

    if not user_input:
        continue

    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    # Run the agent with streaming
    try:
        response_text = ""
        async for message in agent.run_stream(task=user_input):
            if hasattr(message, "content") and message.content:
                response_text = message.content

        # Print the final response
        if response_text:
            print(f"Agent: {response_text}\n")
        else:
            print("Agent: I encountered an issue processing your request.\n")

    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Agent: Sorry, I encountered an error: {str(e)}\n")
What's happening:
  • The script prompts you in a loop with You:
  • Autogen passes your input to the model, which decides which Hex tools to call via MCP
  • agent.run_stream(...) yields streaming messages as the agent thinks and calls tools
  • Typing exit, quit, or bye ends the loop

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Hex and AutoGen:

python
import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from composio import Composio

from autogen_agentchat.agents import AssistantAgent
from autogen_ext.models.openai import OpenAIChatCompletionClient
from autogen_ext.tools.mcp import McpWorkbench, StreamableHttpServerParams

load_dotenv()

async def main():
    # Initialize Composio and create a Hex session
    composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))
    session = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["hex"]
    )
    url = session.mcp.url

    # Configure MCP server parameters for Streamable HTTP
    server_params = StreamableHttpServerParams(
        url=url,
        timeout=30.0,
        sse_read_timeout=300.0,
        terminate_on_close=True,
        headers={"x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")}
    )

    # Create model client
    model_client = OpenAIChatCompletionClient(
        model="gpt-5",
        api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
    )

    # Use McpWorkbench as context manager
    async with McpWorkbench(server_params) as workbench:
        # Create Hex assistant agent with MCP tools
        agent = AssistantAgent(
            name="hex_assistant",
            description="An AI assistant that helps with Hex operations.",
            model_client=model_client,
            workbench=workbench,
            model_client_stream=True,
            max_tool_iterations=10
        )

        print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
        print("Ask any Hex related question or task to the agent.\n")

        # Conversation loop
        while True:
            user_input = input("You: ").strip()

            if user_input.lower() in ['exit', 'quit', 'bye']:
                print("\nGoodbye!")
                break

            if not user_input:
                continue

            print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

            # Run the agent with streaming
            try:
                response_text = ""
                async for message in agent.run_stream(task=user_input):
                    if hasattr(message, 'content') and message.content:
                        response_text = message.content

                # Print the final response
                if response_text:
                    print(f"Agent: {response_text}\n")
                else:
                    print("Agent: I encountered an issue processing your request.\n")

            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Agent: Sorry, I encountered an error: {str(e)}\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Conclusion

You now have an Autogen assistant wired into Hex through Composio's Tool Router and MCP. From here you can:
  • Add more toolkits to the toolkits list, for example notion or hubspot
  • Refine the agent description to point it at specific workflows
  • Wrap this script behind a UI, Slack bot, or internal tool
Once the pattern is clear for Hex, you can reuse the same structure for other MCP-enabled apps with minimal code changes.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Cancel Run

Tool to cancel a project run that is in progress.

Create Cell

Tool to create a new cell in the draft version of a Hex project.

Create Collection

Tool to create a new collection in the Hex workspace.

Create Group

Tool to create a new group in the Hex workspace.

Deactivate User

Deactivates a user in the Hex workspace.

Delete Cell

Permanently delete a cell from the draft version of a project.

Delete Group

Deletes a group from the Hex workspace.

Delete Guide Draft

Deletes a guide draft by ID from Hex.

Edit Collection

Tool to edit a collection's name, description, and sharing settings in Hex.

Edit Group

Tool to edit a group's name and/or members in Hex.

Edit Project Sharing Collections

Tool to add a project to collections or remove it from collections.

Edit Project Sharing Groups

Tool to edit project sharing settings for groups in Hex.

Edit Project Sharing Settings

Tool to edit project sharing settings for workspace members and public web access.

Edit Project Sharing Users

Tool to edit project sharing settings for individual users in Hex.

Get Cell

Tool to get a single cell by ID from the draft version of a Hex project.

Get collection

Tool to get information about a specific collection in Hex.

Get Group

Tool to retrieve information about a specific Hex group.

Get Project

Tool to get metadata about a single Hex project.

Get Project Runs

Tool to retrieve the status of API-triggered runs for a specific Hex project.

Get Run Chart Image

Tool to retrieve a rendered chart image from a Hex project run.

Get Run Status

Tool to retrieve the status of a specific Hex project run.

List Cells

Tool to list all cells from the draft version of a Hex project.

List Collections

Tool to retrieve all collections in the workspace with pagination support.

List Data Connections

Tool to list all data connections in the Hex workspace with pagination support.

List groups

Tool to list all groups in the Hex workspace with pagination support.

List Hex Projects

Tool to list all viewable Hex projects with pagination and filtering support.

List Users

Tool to list all users in the Hex workspace with pagination support.

Publish Guide Drafts

Tool to publish all currently drafted guides or specific guides by ID.

Run Project

Tool to trigger a run of the latest published version of a Hex project.

Update Cell

Tool to update a cell's source code and/or data connection in Hex.

Update Project Status

Tool to add or remove a status (including endorsements) from a Hex project.

Upsert Guide Draft

Tool to update or create guide drafts by filePath.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. Autogen 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 Hex tools.

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

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