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How to integrate Ably MCP with Mastra AI

Connect Mastra AI to Ably MCP. List all active channels and their details, get message history from 'support-chat' channel, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

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Ably is a real-time messaging platform for live chat and data sync in modern apps. It offers global scale and rock-solid reliability for seamless, instant experiences.

25 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Ably to Mastra AI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Ably agent that can publish messages to channels, read channel history and presence, send push notifications, manage push devices, and check app stats through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your Mastra AI agent real control over a Ably account through Composio's Ably 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:
  • Set up your environment so Mastra, OpenAI, and Composio work together
  • Create a Tool Router session in Composio that exposes Ably tools
  • Connect Mastra's MCP client to the Composio generated MCP URL
  • Fetch Ably tool definitions and attach them as a toolset
  • Build a Mastra agent that can reason, call tools, and return structured results
  • Run an interactive CLI where you can chat with your Ably agent

What is Mastra AI?

Mastra AI is a TypeScript framework for building AI agents with tool support. It provides a clean API for creating agents that can use external services through MCP.

Key features include:

  • MCP Client: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
  • Toolsets: Organize tools into logical groups
  • Step Callbacks: Monitor and debug agent execution
  • OpenAI Integration: Works with OpenAI models via @ai-sdk/openai

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

The Ably MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Ably account. It provides structured and secure access to your channels, messages, presence data, application statistics, and push notifications, so your agent can publish messages, inspect active channels, review channel history, monitor presence, and manage push notifications on your behalf.

  • Channel messaging: Have your agent publish a message to one channel or send batches of messages across multiple channels.
  • Channel activity and history: Let the agent list active channels, retrieve channel details, review message history, and inspect earlier versions of a message.
  • Presence monitoring: Direct your agent to check who is currently present in one or more channels and review past presence activity.
  • Push notification management: Instruct your agent to send individual or batch push notifications, manage channel subscriptions, and register, update, inspect, or unregister receiving devices.
  • Application insights: Have your agent retrieve Ably service time and review application usage statistics.

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:
  • Node.js 18 or higher
  • A Composio account with an active API key
  • An OpenAI API key
  • Basic familiarity with TypeScript
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key.
  • You need credits or a connected billing setup to use the models.
  • Store the key somewhere safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Go to Settings and copy your API key.
  • This key lets your Mastra agent talk to Composio and reach Ably through MCP.
3

Install dependencies

bash
npm install @composio/core @mastra/core @mastra/mcp @ai-sdk/openai dotenv

Install the required packages.

What's happening:

  • @composio/core is the Composio SDK for creating MCP sessions
  • @mastra/core provides the Agent class
  • @mastra/mcp is Mastra's MCP client
  • @ai-sdk/openai is the model wrapper for OpenAI
  • dotenv loads environment variables from .env
4

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
COMPOSIO_USER_ID=your_user_id_here
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates your requests to Composio
  • COMPOSIO_USER_ID tells Composio which user this session belongs to
  • OPENAI_API_KEY lets the Mastra agent call OpenAI models
5

Import libraries and validate environment

typescript
import "dotenv/config";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { Agent } from "@mastra/core/agent";
import { MCPClient } from "@mastra/mcp";
import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import * as readline from "readline";

import type { AiMessageType } from "@mastra/core/agent";

const openaiAPIKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const composioAPIKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const composioUserID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

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

const composio = new Composio({
  apiKey: composioAPIKey as string,
});
What's happening:
  • dotenv/config auto loads your .env so process.env.* is available
  • openai gives you a Mastra compatible model wrapper
  • Agent is the Mastra agent that will call tools and produce answers
  • MCPClient connects Mastra to your Composio MCP server
  • Composio is used to create a Tool Router session
6

Create a Tool Router session for Ably

typescript
async function main() {
  const session = await composio.create(
    composioUserID as string,
    {
      toolkits: ["ably"],
    },
  );

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log("Ably MCP URL:", composioMCPUrl);
What's happening:
  • create spins up a short-lived MCP HTTP endpoint for this user
  • The toolkits array contains "ably" for Ably access
  • session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that Mastra's MCPClient will connect to
7

Configure Mastra MCP client and fetch tools

typescript
const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
    id: composioUserID as string,
    servers: {
      nasdaq: {
        url: new URL(composioMCPUrl),
        requestInit: {
          headers: session.mcp.headers,
        },
      },
    },
    timeout: 30_000,
  });

console.log("Fetching MCP tools from Composio...");
const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();
console.log("Number of tools:", Object.keys(composioTools).length);
What's happening:
  • MCPClient takes an id for this client and a list of MCP servers
  • The headers property includes the x-api-key for authentication
  • getTools fetches the tool definitions exposed by the Ably toolkit
8

Create the Mastra agent

typescript
const agent = new Agent({
    name: "ably-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with Ably tools via Composio.",
    model: "openai/gpt-5",
  });
What's happening:
  • Agent is the core Mastra agent
  • name is just an identifier for logging and debugging
  • instructions guide the agent to use tools instead of only answering in natural language
  • model uses openai("gpt-5") to configure the underlying LLM
9

Set up interactive chat interface

typescript
let messages: AiMessageType[] = [];

console.log("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n");

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

rl.prompt();

rl.on("line", async (userInput: string) => {
  const trimmedInput = userInput.trim();

  if (["exit", "quit", "bye"].includes(trimmedInput.toLowerCase())) {
    console.log("\nGoodbye!");
    rl.close();
    process.exit(0);
  }

  if (!trimmedInput) {
    rl.prompt();
    return;
  }

  messages.push({
    id: crypto.randomUUID(),
    role: "user",
    content: trimmedInput,
  });

  console.log("\nAgent is thinking...\n");

  try {
    const response = await agent.generate(messages, {
      toolsets: {
        ably: composioTools,
      },
      maxSteps: 8,
    });

    const { text } = response;

    if (text && text.trim().length > 0) {
      console.log(`Agent: ${text}\n`);
        messages.push({
          id: crypto.randomUUID(),
          role: "assistant",
          content: text,
        });
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("\nError:", error);
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on("close", async () => {
    console.log("\nSession ended.");
    await mcpClient.disconnect();
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main().catch((err) => {
  console.error("Fatal error:", err);
  process.exit(1);
});
What's happening:
  • messages keeps the full conversation history in Mastra's expected format
  • agent.generate runs the agent with conversation history and Ably toolsets
  • maxSteps limits how many tool calls the agent can take in a single run
  • onStepFinish is a hook that prints intermediate steps for debugging

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Ably and Mastra AI:

typescript
import "dotenv/config";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { Agent } from "@mastra/core/agent";
import { MCPClient } from "@mastra/mcp";
import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import * as readline from "readline";

import type { AiMessageType } from "@mastra/core/agent";

const openaiAPIKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const composioAPIKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const composioUserID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

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

const composio = new Composio({ apiKey: composioAPIKey as string });

async function main() {
  const session = await composio.create(composioUserID as string, {
    toolkits: ["ably"],
  });

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;

  const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
    id: composioUserID as string,
    servers: {
      ably: {
        url: new URL(composioMCPUrl),
        requestInit: {
          headers: session.mcp.headers,
        },
      },
    },
    timeout: 30_000,
  });

  const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();

  const agent = new Agent({
    name: "ably-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with Ably tools via Composio.",
    model: "openai/gpt-5",
  });

  let messages: AiMessageType[] = [];

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

  rl.prompt();

  rl.on("line", async (input: string) => {
    const trimmed = input.trim();
    if (["exit", "quit"].includes(trimmed.toLowerCase())) {
      rl.close();
      return;
    }

    messages.push({ id: crypto.randomUUID(), role: "user", content: trimmed });

    const { text } = await agent.generate(messages, {
      toolsets: { ably: composioTools },
      maxSteps: 8,
    });

    if (text) {
      console.log(`Agent: ${text}\n`);
      messages.push({ id: crypto.randomUUID(), role: "assistant", content: text });
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on("close", async () => {
    await mcpClient.disconnect();
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main();

Conclusion

You've built a Mastra AI agent that can interact with Ably through Composio's Tool Router. You can extend this further by:
  • Adding other toolkits like Gmail, Slack, or GitHub
  • Building a web-based chat interface around this agent
  • Using multiple MCP endpoints to enable cross-app workflows
TOOLS

Supported Tools

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

Query Batch Presence

Queries the presence states of multiple Ably channels in a single request, retrieving member presence details for the specified channels.

Query Batch Presence History

Query presence history for multiple Ably channels, with optional start and end times and forwards or backwards ordering.

Delete Channel Subscription

Unsubscribes a device or client from push notifications for a specified channel, or across all channels if no channel is provided.

Get Channel Details

Retrieves status and occupancy metadata for a specific Ably channel, including connection, presence, publisher, and subscriber metrics.

Get Channel History

Retrieves a page of message history for a specified Ably channel, with time range, limit, and direction filters.

Get Channel Presence

Tool to obtain the set of members currently present for a channel.

Get Message Versions

Retrieves a page of historical versions of a specific Ably channel message, including the original and subsequent updates or deletes.

Get Channel Presence History

This tool retrieves the history of presence messages for a specified channel in Ably.

Get Push Device Registration

Retrieves a device's push registration by device ID, including available platform, state, recipient, and metadata fields.

Get Ably Service Time

This tool retrieves the current server time from Ably's service in milliseconds since the epoch.

Get Application Stats

Retrieve a page of Ably application usage statistics by minute, hour, day or month, with optional time range, direction and limit.

List Channels

Tool to enumerate all active channels in the Ably application.

List Push Channels

Lists a page of Ably channels with at least one subscribed device for push notifications.

List Push Channel Subscriptions

Lists a page of push channel subscriptions filtered by channel, client ID, or device ID, with pagination links; at least one filter is required.

List Registered Push Devices

List a page of Ably push device registrations, optionally filtered by device ID or client ID.

Patch Push Device Registration

Partially update an existing Ably push device registration.

Batch Publish Messages

Tool to batch publish messages to multiple channels in parallel.

Publish Message to Channel

Publishes a message to a specified Ably channel with a string or JSON object payload and an optional event name and client ID.

Publish Push Notification

Tool to publish a push notification directly to device(s) via Ably's Push Notifications API.

Batch Publish Push Notifications

Tool to batch publish push notifications directly to specific recipients.

Register Push Device

Register an iOS, Android, or browser device with Ably to receive push notifications.

Request Access Token

Request an Ably access token with optional capabilities, client ID and lifetime.

Unregister All Push Devices

Unregister matching Ably push devices, optionally filtering by device ID or client ID, but not both.

Unregister Push Device

Unregister a single Ably push device by device ID.

Update Push Device Registration

Upsert an Ably push device registration, creating it or replacing an existing registration.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Ably MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Ably MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Ably MCP with Claude Cowork

OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Ably MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Ably MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Codex logo

Codex

Use Ably MCP with Codex

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Ably MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Ably MCP with Hermes

Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

Use Ably MCP with Atomic Agent

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Ably MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Ably MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Ably MCP with Vercel AI SDK

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Ably MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Ably MCP with CrewAI

Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

Use Ably MCP with Pydantic AI

AutoGen logo

AutoGen

Use Ably MCP with AutoGen

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

Yes, you can. Mastra AI 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 Ably tools.

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

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