How to integrate Instantly MCP with CrewAI

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Instantly to CrewAI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Instantly agent that can create a new cold email campaign, add a new lead to my campaign, check unread emails in my inbox, run an inbox placement test for gmail through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your CrewAI agent real control over a Instantly account through Composio's Instantly 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 Instantly connection
  • Set up CrewAI with an MCP enabled agent
  • Create a Tool Router session or standalone MCP server for Instantly
  • Build a conversational loop where your agent can execute Instantly 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 Instantly MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Instantly MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Instantly account. It provides structured and secure access to your campaigns, leads, and outreach tools, so your agent can perform actions like launching new campaigns, managing leads, tracking inbox statistics, and handling API credentials on your behalf.

  • Automated campaign creation and management: Ask your agent to launch new cold email campaigns or update existing ones, streamlining your outreach workflow without manual setup.
  • Lead and lead list management: Let your agent add new leads, organize them into lists, or enrich them with AI-driven insights to maximize your campaign effectiveness.
  • Email verification and deliverability tracking: Direct your agent to check the verification status of email addresses or run inbox placement tests to monitor and improve deliverability across providers.
  • Inbox activity monitoring: Fetch unread email counts or campaign engagement metrics, helping you stay on top of your outreach performance in real time.
  • API key and webhook automation: Have your agent create or delete API keys for secure integrations, or set up webhooks to receive instant notifications about important Instantly events.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Check Email Verification StatusTool to check status of an email verification job.
Count Unread EmailsTool to retrieve the count of unread emails.
Create AI EnrichmentTool to create an AI enrichment job for a campaign or lead list.
Create API KeyTool to create a new API key.
Create CampaignTool to create a new campaign.
Create Inbox Placement TestTool to create an inbox placement test.
Create LeadTool to create a new lead.
Create Lead ListTool to create a new lead list.
Create WebhookTool to create a new webhook endpoint.
Delete API KeyTool to delete an API key.
Delete CampaignTool to delete a campaign.
Delete LeadTool to delete a lead by its ID.
Delete Lead ListTool to delete a lead list by ID.
Delete WebhookTool to delete a webhook.
Disable Account WarmupTool to disable the warm-up process for email accounts.
Enable Account WarmupTool to enable the warm-up process for email accounts.
Get CampaignTool to retrieve campaign details.
Get Campaign AnalyticsTool to retrieve analytics for campaigns.
Get Daily Campaign AnalyticsTool to retrieve daily analytics for a campaign.
Get Email Service Provider OptionsTool to retrieve email service provider options for inbox placement tests.
Get Inbox Placement TestTool to retrieve inbox placement test results.
Get LeadTool to retrieve details of a specific lead by its ID.
Get Lead ListTool to retrieve details of a specific lead list by its ID.
Get Lead List Verification StatsTool to retrieve verification statistics for a lead list.
Get WebhookTool to retrieve details of a specific webhook subscription.
Get Webhook EventTool to retrieve details of a specific webhook event.
List Email AccountsTool to list all email accounts for the authenticated user.
List API KeysTool to list all API keys.
List CampaignsTool to list all campaigns.
List Custom TagsTool to list custom tags.
List DFY Email Account OrdersTool to list DFY email account orders.
List EmailsTool to list emails.
List Inbox Placement Blacklist & SpamAssassin ReportsTool to list inbox placement blacklist & SpamAssassin reports.
List Inbox Placement TestsTool to list inbox placement tests.
List Lead ListsTool to list all lead lists.
List LeadsTool to list leads.
List Email ThreadsTool to list email threads.
List Webhook EventsTool to list webhook events.
List WebhooksTool to list configured webhooks.
Mark Thread As ReadTool to mark all emails in a specific thread as read.
Merge LeadsTool to merge multiple leads into a single lead.
Search Campaigns by Lead EmailTool to search campaigns by a lead's email address.
Update CampaignTool to update details of a campaign.
Update LeadTool to update a lead's details.
Update Lead Interest StatusTool to update a lead's interest status.
Update Lead ListTool to update details of a specific lead list by its ID.
Verify EmailTool to initiate email verification.

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 Instantly 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[mcp] python-dotenv
What's happening:
  • composio connects your agent to Instantly via MCP
  • crewai provides Agent, Task, Crew, and LLM primitives
  • crewai-tools[mcp] 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
import os
from composio import Composio
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
import dotenv

dotenv.load_dotenv()

COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set")
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 Instantly MCP URL

Create a Composio Tool Router session for Instantly

python
composio_client = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio_client.create(user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID, toolkits=["instantly"])

url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • You create a Instantly only session through Composio
  • Composio returns an MCP HTTP URL that exposes Instantly tools

Initialize the MCP Server

python
server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users search the internet effectively",
        backstory="You are a helpful assistant with access to search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )
What's Happening:
  • Server Configuration: The code sets up connection parameters including the MCP server URL, streamable HTTP transport, and Composio API key authentication.
  • MCP Adapter Bridge: MCPServerAdapter acts as a context manager that converts Composio MCP tools into a CrewAI-compatible format.
  • Agent Setup: Creates a CrewAI Agent with a defined role (Search Assistant), goal (help with internet searches), and access to the MCP tools.
  • Configuration Options: The agent includes settings like verbose=False for clean output and max_iter=10 to prevent infinite loops.
  • Dynamic Tool Usage: Once created, the agent automatically accesses all Composio Search tools and decides when to use them based on user queries.

Create a CLI Chatloop and define the Crew

python
print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\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"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
            f"Current request: {user_input}"
        ),
        expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
        agent=agent,
    )

    crew = Crew(agents=[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:
  • Interactive CLI Setup: The code creates an infinite loop that continuously prompts for user input and maintains the entire conversation history in a string variable.
  • Input Validation: Empty inputs are ignored to prevent processing blank messages and keep the conversation clean.
  • Context Building: Each user message is appended to the conversation context, which preserves the full dialogue history for better agent responses.
  • Dynamic Task Creation: For every user input, a new Task is created that includes both the full conversation history and the current request as context.
  • Crew Execution: A Crew is instantiated with the agent and task, then kicked off to process the request and generate a response.
  • Response Management: The agent's response is converted to a string, added to the conversation context, and displayed to the user, maintaining conversational continuity.

Complete Code

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

python
from crewai import Agent, Task, Crew, LLM
from crewai_tools import MCPServerAdapter
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()

GOOGLE_API_KEY = os.getenv("GOOGLE_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_API_KEY = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
COMPOSIO_USER_ID = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID")

if not GOOGLE_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("GOOGLE_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_API_KEY:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment.")
if not COMPOSIO_USER_ID:
    raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment.")

# Initialize Composio and create a session
composio = Composio(api_key=COMPOSIO_API_KEY)
session = composio.create(
    user_id=COMPOSIO_USER_ID,
    toolkits=["instantly"],
)
url = session.mcp.url

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

server_params = {
    "url": url,
    "transport": "streamable-http",
    "headers": {"x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY},
}

with MCPServerAdapter(server_params) as tools:
    agent = Agent(
        role="Search Assistant",
        goal="Help users with internet searches",
        backstory="You are an expert assistant with access to Composio Search tools.",
        tools=tools,
        llm=llm,
        verbose=False,
        max_iter=10,
    )

    print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\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"Conversation history:\n{conversation_context}\n\n"
                f"Current request: {user_input}"
            ),
            expected_output="A helpful response addressing the user's request",
            agent=agent,
        )

        crew = Crew(agents=[agent], tasks=[task], verbose=False)
        result = crew.kickoff()
        response = str(result)

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

Conclusion

You now have a CrewAI agent connected to Instantly through Composio's Tool Router. The agent can perform Instantly 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 Instantly MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Instantly MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Use Instantly MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Google ADK

Google ADK

Use Instantly MCP with Google ADK

LangChain

LangChain

Use Instantly MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Vercel AI SDK

Use Instantly MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI

Mastra AI

Use Instantly MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex

LlamaIndex

Use Instantly MCP with LlamaIndex

Claude Code

Claude Code

Use Instantly MCP with Claude Code

Codex

Codex

Use Instantly MCP with Codex

FAQ

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

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

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

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

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