How to integrate Bannerbear MCP with CrewAI

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Bannerbear to CrewAI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Bannerbear agent that can merge multiple marketing pdfs into one file, list all video assets created this week, get available fonts for instagram templates, retrieve details for a specific template set through natural language commands.

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

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

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get a Composio API key and configure your Bannerbear connection
  • Set up CrewAI with an MCP enabled agent
  • Create a Tool Router session or standalone MCP server for Bannerbear
  • Build a conversational loop where your agent can execute Bannerbear operations

What is CrewAI?

CrewAI is a powerful framework for building multi-agent AI systems. It provides primitives for defining agents with specific roles, creating tasks, and orchestrating workflows through crews.

Key features include:

  • Agent Roles: Define specialized agents with specific goals and backstories
  • Task Management: Create tasks with clear descriptions and expected outputs
  • Crew Orchestration: Combine agents and tasks into collaborative workflows
  • MCP Integration: Connect to external tools through Model Context Protocol

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

The Bannerbear MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Bannerbear account. It provides structured and secure access to your Bannerbear workspace, so your agent can generate images, create videos, manage templates, merge PDFs, and retrieve creative assets on your behalf.

  • Automated image and video generation: Enable your agent to create customized graphics or videos at scale using your Bannerbear templates and project assets.
  • Template browsing and management: Let your agent list, inspect, and select templates or template sets for creative projects, making it easy to automate content workflows.
  • Font and asset discovery: Have your agent retrieve available fonts and signed bases, ensuring the right design elements are used for every creative output.
  • PDF merging automation: Direct your agent to combine multiple PDFs into a single document, streamlining report or collateral creation.
  • Account and usage monitoring: Allow your agent to fetch current account status, API usage, and quota information to keep your creative operations running smoothly.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Get Account InfoThis tool allows you to check your bannerbear account status, including quota levels and current usage.
Get Available FontsThis tool retrieves a list of all available fonts in bannerbear.
Get Signed BasesThis tool retrieves a list of signed bases for a specific template.
Get Template Set DetailsThis tool retrieves detailed information about a specific template set using its unique identifier (uid).
Join PDFsThis tool allows users to merge multiple pdf files into a single pdf document by accepting an array of pdf urls, sending a post request to the bannerbear api, and returning the unique identifier, status, and url of the merged pdf.
List ImagesLists all images inside a bannerbear project.
List TemplatesThis action retrieves a list of all templates available in your bannerbear project.
List VideosThis action retrieves a list of all videos created in your bannerbear account.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Tool Router?

Composio's Tool Router 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 Tool Router

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Tool Router works

The Tool Router 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

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.9 or higher
  • A Composio account and API key
  • A Bannerbear connection authorized in Composio
  • An OpenAI API key for the CrewAI LLM
  • Basic familiarity with Python

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.

Install dependencies

bash
pip install composio crewai crewai-tools python-dotenv
What's happening:
  • composio connects your agent to Bannerbear via MCP
  • crewai provides Agent, Task, Crew, and LLM primitives
  • crewai-tools includes MCP helpers
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables from .env

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
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 with Composio
  • USER_ID scopes the session to your account
  • OPENAI_API_KEY lets CrewAI use your chosen OpenAI model

Import dependencies

python
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, LLM
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter  # optional import if you plan to adapt tools
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os
from crewai.mcp import MCPServerHTTP

load_dotenv()
What's happening:
  • CrewAI classes define agents and tasks, and run the workflow
  • MCPServerHTTP connects the agent to an MCP endpoint
  • Composio will give you a short lived Bannerbear MCP URL

Create a Composio Tool Router session for Bannerbear

python
composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))
session = composio.create(
    user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
    toolkits=["bannerbear"],
)
url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • You create a Bannerbear only session through Composio
  • Composio returns an MCP HTTP URL that exposes Bannerbear tools

Configure the LLM

python
llm = LLM(
    model="gpt-5-mini",
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
)
What's happening:
  • CrewAI will call this LLM for planning and responses
  • You can swap in a different model if needed

Attach the MCP server and create the agent

python
toolkit_agent = Agent(
    role="Bannerbear Assistant",
    goal="Help users interact with Bannerbear through natural language commands",
    backstory=(
        "You are an expert assistant with access to Bannerbear tools. "
        "You can perform various Bannerbear operations on behalf of the user."
    ),
    mcps=[
        MCPServerHTTP(
            url=url,
            streamable=True,
            cache_tools_list=True,
            headers={"x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")},
        ),
    ],
    llm=llm,
    verbose=True,
    max_iter=10,
)
What's happening:
  • MCPServerHTTP connects the agent to the Bannerbear MCP endpoint
  • cache_tools_list saves a tools catalog for faster subsequent runs
  • verbose helps you see what the agent is doing

Add a REPL loop with Task and Crew

python
print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")
print("Try asking the agent to perform Bannerbear operations.\n")

conversation_context = ""

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

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

    if not user_input:
        continue

    conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    task = Task(
        description=(
            f"Based on the conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
            f"Current user request: {user_input}\n\n"
            f"Please help the user with their Bannerbear related request."
        ),
        expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
        agent=toolkit_agent,
    )

    crew = Crew(
        agents=[toolkit_agent],
        tasks=[task],
        verbose=False,
    )

    result = crew.kickoff()
    response = str(result)

    conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
    print(f"Agent: {response}\n")
What's happening:
  • You build a simple chat loop and keep a running context
  • Each user turn becomes a Task handled by the same agent
  • Crew executes the task and returns a response

Run the application

python
if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
What's happening:
  • Standard Python entry point so you can run python crewai_bannerbear_agent.py

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Bannerbear and CrewAI:

python
# file: crewai_bannerbear_agent.py
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, LLM
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter  # optional
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os
from crewai.mcp import MCPServerHTTP

load_dotenv()

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

    # Configure LLM
    llm = LLM(
        model="gpt-5-mini",
        api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
    )

    # Create Bannerbear assistant agent
    toolkit_agent = Agent(
        role="Bannerbear Assistant",
        goal="Help users interact with Bannerbear through natural language commands",
        backstory=(
            "You are an expert assistant with access to Bannerbear tools. "
            "You can perform various Bannerbear operations on behalf of the user."
        ),
        mcps=[
            MCPServerHTTP(
                url=url,
                streamable=True,
                cache_tools_list=True,
                headers={"x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")},
            ),
        ],
        llm=llm,
        verbose=True,
        max_iter=10,
    )

    print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
    print("Try asking the agent to perform Bannerbear operations.\n")

    conversation_context = ""

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

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

        if not user_input:
            continue

        conversation_context += f"\nUser: {user_input}\n"
        print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

        task = Task(
            description=(
                f"Based on the conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
                f"Current user request: {user_input}\n\n"
                f"Please help the user with their Bannerbear related request."
            ),
            expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
            agent=toolkit_agent,
        )

        crew = Crew(
            agents=[toolkit_agent],
            tasks=[task],
            verbose=False,
        )

        result = crew.kickoff()
        response = str(result)

        conversation_context += f"Agent: {response}\n"
        print(f"Agent: {response}\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Conclusion

You now have a CrewAI agent connected to Bannerbear through Composio's Tool Router. The agent can perform Bannerbear operations through natural language commands. Next steps:
  • Add role-specific instructions to customize agent behavior
  • Plug in more toolkits for multi-app workflows
  • Chain tasks for complex multi-step operations

How to build Bannerbear MCP Agent with another framework

FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Bannerbear MCP?

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

Can I use Tool Router MCP with CrewAI?

Yes, you can. CrewAI 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 Bannerbear tools.

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Bannerbear while using Tool Router?

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Bannerbear 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.

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?

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 Bannerbear data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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