How to integrate Countdown api MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Framework Integration Gradient
Countdown api Logo
open-ai-agents-sdk Logo
divider

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Countdown api to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Countdown api agent that can list all my ebay data collections, start processing requests for a collection, get autocomplete suggestions for 'wireless earbuds', delete a finished collection by its id through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Countdown api account through Composio's Countdown api 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 and set up your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Countdown api
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Countdown api as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Countdown api operations

What is open-ai-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 Countdown api MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Countdown api MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Countdown api account. It provides structured and secure access to real-time eBay marketplace data, so your agent can perform actions like searching eBay products, managing collections, retrieving seller feedback, and automating product data workflows on your behalf.

  • eBay product search and autocomplete: Instantly fetch eBay autocomplete suggestions and help agents surface relevant product search terms and ideas in real time.
  • Collection management and orchestration: Create, update, list, or delete collections to batch and organize multiple eBay data requests for streamlined marketplace analysis.
  • Automated collection processing: Start or clear queued requests within a collection, making it easy to control and automate data gathering operations from eBay.
  • Destination setup and notifications: Set up or remove destinations for results and notifications, ensuring your agent can manage where and how you receive processed eBay data.
  • Access to rich eBay metadata: Retrieve detailed collection information, product details, customer reviews, and seller feedback to power analytics and business decisions.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Clear Collection RequestsTool to clear all requests from a specified collection.
Create a new collectionTool to create a new collection.
Get CollectionTool to retrieve details for a single collection by ID.
List CollectionsTool to list all collections for the authenticated account.
Start CollectionTool to start processing a collection's queued requests.
Update an existing collectionTool to update an existing collection.
eBay AutocompleteTool to fetch eBay autocomplete suggestions.
Create DestinationTool to create a destination.
Delete CollectionTool to delete a collection and its configuration by ID.
Delete DestinationTool to delete a destination by ID.
Delete Single RequestTool to remove a specific request from a collection.
List DestinationsTool to list all destinations configured for the account.
Get Account InformationTool to retrieve account usage and current platform status.
Export Requests CSVTool to export all requests in a collection as CSV download links.
Export Requests as JSONTool to download all requests in a collection as JSON.
List Requests PagedTool to list requests for a collection by page.
Update Single RequestTool to modify parameters of an existing request in a collection.
Get Result SetTool to retrieve a collection run's result set payload.
List Result SetsTool to list result sets produced by a collection.
Resend Result Set WebhookTool to resend the webhook for a previously generated result set.
Stop All CollectionsTool to stop all collections.
Stop CollectionTool to stop (pause) a single collection’s processing by ID.
Update DestinationTool to update a destination's configuration by ID.

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:
  • Composio API Key and OpenAI API Key
  • Primary know-how of OpenAI Agents SDK
  • A live Countdown api project
  • Some knowledge of Python or Typescript

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

Install dependencies

pip install composio_openai_agents openai-agents python-dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the OpenAI Agents SDK.

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.

Import dependencies

import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

from composio import Composio
from composio_openai_agents import OpenAIAgentsProvider
from agents import Agent, Runner, HostedMCPTool, SQLiteSession
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 Countdown api.

Set up the Composio instance

load_dotenv()

api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
user_id = os.getenv("USER_ID")

if not api_key:
    raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set. Create a .env file with COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_key")

# Initialize Composio
composio = Composio(api_key=api_key, provider=OpenAIAgentsProvider())
What's happening:
  • load_dotenv() loads your .env file so OPENAI_API_KEY and COMPOSIO_API_KEY are available as environment variables.
  • Creating a Composio instance using the API Key and OpenAIAgentsProvider class.

Create a Tool Router session

# Create a Countdown api Tool Router session
session = composio.create(
    user_id=user_id,
    toolkits=["countdown_api"]
)

mcp_url = session.mcp.url

What is happening:

  • You give the Tool Router the user id and the toolkits you want available. Here, it is only countdown_api.
  • The router checks the user's Countdown api connection and prepares the MCP endpoint.
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that your agent will use to access Countdown api.
  • This approach keeps things lightweight and lets the agent request Countdown api tools only when needed during the conversation.

Configure the agent

# Configure agent with MCP tool
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    model="gpt-5",
    instructions=(
        "You are a helpful assistant that can access Countdown api. "
        "Help users perform Countdown api operations through natural language."
    ),
    tools=[
        HostedMCPTool(
            tool_config={
                "type": "mcp",
                "server_label": "tool_router",
                "server_url": mcp_url,
                "headers": {"x-api-key": api_key},
                "require_approval": "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 Countdown api 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 dict includes the Composio API key for secure authentication with the MCP server.
  • require_approval: 'never' means the agent can execute Countdown api operations without asking for permission each time, making interactions smoother.

Start chat loop and handle conversation

print("\nComposio Tool Router session created.")

chat_session = SQLiteSession("conversation_openai_toolrouter")

print("\nChat started. Type your requests below.")
print("Commands: 'exit', 'quit', or 'q' to end\n")

async def main():
    try:
        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            "What can you help me with?",
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}\n")

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit", "q"}:
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            user_input,
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")

asyncio.run(main())
What's happening:
  • The program prints a session URL that you visit to authorize Countdown api.
  • After authorization, the chat begins.
  • Each message you type is processed by the agent using Runner.run().
  • The responses are printed to the console, and conversations are saved locally using SQLite.
  • Typing exit, quit, or q cleanly ends the chat.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Countdown api and open-ai-agents-sdk:

import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

from composio import Composio
from composio_openai_agents import OpenAIAgentsProvider
from agents import Agent, Runner, HostedMCPTool, SQLiteSession

load_dotenv()

api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
user_id = os.getenv("USER_ID")

if not api_key:
    raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set. Create a .env file with COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_key")

# Initialize Composio
composio = Composio(api_key=api_key, provider=OpenAIAgentsProvider())

# Create Tool Router session
session = composio.create(
    user_id=user_id,
    toolkits=["countdown_api"]
)
mcp_url = session.mcp.url

# Configure agent with MCP tool
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    model="gpt-5",
    instructions=(
        "You are a helpful assistant that can access Countdown api. "
        "Help users perform Countdown api operations through natural language."
    ),
    tools=[
        HostedMCPTool(
            tool_config={
                "type": "mcp",
                "server_label": "tool_router",
                "server_url": mcp_url,
                "headers": {"x-api-key": api_key},
                "require_approval": "never",
            }
        )
    ],
)

print("\nComposio Tool Router session created.")

chat_session = SQLiteSession("conversation_openai_toolrouter")

print("\nChat started. Type your requests below.")
print("Commands: 'exit', 'quit', or 'q' to end\n")

async def main():
    try:
        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            "What can you help me with?",
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}\n")

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit", "q"}:
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            user_input,
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")

asyncio.run(main())

Conclusion

This was a starter code for integrating Countdown api MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK to build a functional AI agent that can interact with Countdown api.

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.

How to build Countdown api MCP Agent with another framework

FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Countdown api MCP?

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

Can I use Tool Router MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK?

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 Countdown api tools.

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

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

Used by agents from

Context
Letta
glean
HubSpot
Agent.ai
Altera
DataStax
Entelligence
Rolai
Context
Letta
glean
HubSpot
Agent.ai
Altera
DataStax
Entelligence
Rolai
Context
Letta
glean
HubSpot
Agent.ai
Altera
DataStax
Entelligence
Rolai

Never worry about agent reliability

We handle tool reliability, observability, and security so you never have to second-guess an agent action.