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How to integrate Ahrefs MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Connect OpenAI Agents SDK to Ahrefs MCP. Get domain rating trend for competitor site, list all broken backlinks for your website, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

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Ahrefs is an SEO and marketing platform for site audits, keyword research, and competitor insights. It helps you improve search rankings and drive organic traffic.

46 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Ahrefs to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Ahrefs agent that can analyze backlinks and referring domains, research keywords and search volume, track domain rating, find organic competitors, and check top pages through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Ahrefs with

Claude CodeClaude CoworkClaude Agent SDKMuseCodexKimi CodeOpenClawHermesAtomic AgentCLIGoogle ADKLangChainVercel AI SDKMastra AILlamaIndexCrewAIPydantic AIAutoGen

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

The Ahrefs MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Ahrefs account. It provides structured and secure access to backlink, keyword, competitor, ranking, and search results data, so your agent can analyze backlinks, compare competitors, review keyword rankings, inspect search results, and discover keyword ideas on your behalf.

  • Backlink and anchor analysis: Have your agent retrieve backlinks, summarize backlink statistics, and examine the anchor text pointing to a website or URL.
  • Competitor research: Let the agent compare competitors based on keyword rankings and organic search performance.
  • Keyword ranking history: Direct your agent to review current rank tracking data and historical keyword performance for a website or domain.
  • Search results and keyword ideas: Instruct your agent to inspect search results for chosen queries and find related search suggestions for a keyword or phrase.
  • Outgoing links and crawler verification: Have your agent review outgoing link statistics for a website or retrieve AhrefsBot IP ranges for crawler verification.

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

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 Ahrefs action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Backlinks stats retrieval

Retrieves comprehensive backlink statistics for a specified website or URL using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Batch Url Analysis

Performs a batch analysis on multiple URLs or domains using Ahrefs' powerful SEO metrics.

Domain rating for site explorer

Retrieves Ahrefs Domain Rating and Ahrefs Rank for a specified domain or URL on a requested date.

Domain rating history

Retrieves the historical Domain Rating (DR) data for a specified domain over time.

Explore keywords overview

Retrieves keyword-level overview metrics from Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer for specified keywords or an existing keyword list in a country.

Explore keyword volume by country

Retrieves monthly search volume data across countries for a specified keyword using Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer.

Explore linked domains of a site

Retrieves a list of external domains that the specified target website or URL links to, using Ahrefs' Site Explorer functionality.

Explore matching terms for keywords

The keywords_explorer_matching_terms endpoint retrieves a list of keyword phrases that match or contain the specified keyword from Ahrefs' vast database.

Fetch all backlinks

Retrieves a comprehensive list of backlinks for a specified website or URL using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Fetch broken backlinks data

Retrieves a list of broken backlinks for a specified website using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Fetch competitors overview

Retrieves a Rank Tracker competitor overview for a project, including comparative keyword ranking and organic search performance data.

Fetch rank tracker overview

Retrieves an Ahrefs Rank Tracker overview for a project, date and device, with ranking and search-performance metrics.

Fetch site explorer referring domains

Retrieves a list of domains that have backlinks pointing to a specified target website.

Fetch total search volume history

Retrieves historical total search volume for keywords associated with a target domain or URL using Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Get content helper topics

Retrieve topics covered by top-ranking pages for a keyword.

Get domain rating free

Retrieve the free Ahrefs Domain Rating for a domain or URL.

Get domain rating top domains

Retrieves domains ordered by Ahrefs Domain Rating.

Get serp overview

Retrieves a SERP overview for one keyword in a specified country, optionally at a historical date.

Get site audit projects

Lists Site Audit projects associated with the authenticated Ahrefs account, with project and crawl status details.

Get site explorer AI responses count

Retrieve AI response citation and page counts for a site.

Get site explorer country metrics

Retrieves country-specific Site Explorer metrics for a target website or URL, including organic traffic and keyword metrics.

Get site explorer crawled pages

Retrieve crawled pages and crawl metadata for a target URL.

Get site explorer linked anchors external

Retrieves anchor text data for external links going out from a target website using Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Get url rating history

Retrieves the historical URL Rating data for a specified URL over time.

Linked anchors explorer

Retrieves information about internal linked anchors for a specified website using the Ahrefs API.

List best by external links

Retrieves pages from a specified website using Ahrefs' Site Explorer best-by-external-links report.

Pages by traffic overview

Retrieves a list of pages from a specified website, ordered by their estimated organic search traffic.

Post Domain Rating Free

Retrieve Domain Rating scores for up to 1,000 target URLs.

Retrieve anchor data

Retrieves anchor text data for a specified website or URL using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Retrieve best by internal links

Retrieves pages ranked by internal links for a specified website using Ahrefs' Site Explorer.

Retrieve crawler ip ranges

Retrieves the list of IP address ranges used by Ahrefs' web crawler (AhrefsBot).

Retrieve organic competitors

Retrieves organic search competitors for a target domain or URL, with keyword overlap and performance metrics.

Retrieve organic keywords

Retrieves organic keywords data for a specified website using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Retrieve outlinks stats

Retrieves outgoing-link statistics for a specified website or URL using Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Retrieve paid pages data

Retrieves information about paid pages (PPC advertising) for a specified website using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Retrieve public crawler ips

Retrieves a list of IP addresses currently used by AhrefsBot, Ahrefs' web crawler.

Retrieve related terms

Retrieves related keyword ideas for a given keyword or keyword list in a specified country.

Retrieve site explorer keywords history

Retrieves historical keyword performance data for a specified website or domain using Ahrefs' Site Explorer.

Retrieve site explorer metrics

Retrieves Site Explorer SEO metrics for a target domain or URL on a specified date, including backlink, referring-page and crawled-page counts.

Retrieve site explorer metrics history

Retrieves historical Site Explorer traffic metrics for a target website or URL over a specified period, including estimated organic and paid traffic and cost.

Retrieve site explorer pages history

Retrieves historical page counts for a target domain or URL from Ahrefs Site Explorer over a specified period.

Retrieve site explorer referring domains history

Retrieves the historical data of referring domains for a specified website or URL over time.

Retrieve subscription limits and usage

Retrieves an Ahrefs account's subscription limits and remaining API usage allowance.

Retrieve top pages from site explorer

Retrieves data about the top-performing pages of a specified website using Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool.

Retrieve volume history

Retrieves the historical search volume data for a specified keyword using Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer tool.

Search suggestions explorer

Retrieves search suggestions for keywords or an existing keyword list using Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Ahrefs MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Ahrefs MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork logo

Claude Cowork

Use Ahrefs MCP with Claude Cowork

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Ahrefs MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Muse logo

Muse

Use Ahrefs MCP with Muse

Codex logo

Codex

Use Ahrefs MCP with Codex

Kimi Code logo

Kimi Code

Use Ahrefs MCP with Kimi Code

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Ahrefs MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Ahrefs MCP with Hermes

Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

Use Ahrefs MCP with Atomic Agent

CLI logo

CLI

Use Ahrefs MCP with CLI

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Ahrefs MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Ahrefs MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Ahrefs MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Ahrefs MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Ahrefs MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Ahrefs MCP with CrewAI

Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

Use Ahrefs MCP with Pydantic AI

AutoGen logo

AutoGen

Use Ahrefs MCP with AutoGen

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

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