How to integrate Hex MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

This guide walks you through connecting Hex to the OpenAI Agents SDK 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 OpenAI Agents SDK 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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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 the OpenAI Agents SDK 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 OpenAI Agents SDK 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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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 Hex
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Hex as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Hex 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 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 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 Hex 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 Hex.
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 Hex
const session = await composio.create(userId as string, {
  toolkits: ['hex'],
});
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 hex.
  • The router checks the user's Hex connection and prepares the MCP endpoint.
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that your agent will use to access Hex.
  • This approach keeps things lightweight and lets the agent request Hex 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 Hex. Help users perform Hex 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 Hex 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 Hex 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 Hex.
  • 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 Hex 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: ['hex'],
  });
  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 Hex. Help users perform Hex 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 Hex MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK to build a functional AI agent that can interact with Hex.

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 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. 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 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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