How to integrate Nutshell MCP with Mastra AI

Connect Mastra AI to Nutshell MCP. List all open deals in the current pipeline, add a new contact with name and email, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

Nutshell logoNutshell
Basic

Nutshell is a flexible CRM and email marketing platform for small businesses. It helps manage contacts, sales pipelines, and customer relationships efficiently.

78 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Nutshell to Mastra AI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Nutshell agent that can list all open deals in the current pipeline, add a new contact with name and email, update the status of deal 'acme corp' to won through natural language commands.

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

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

Also integrate Nutshell with

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 Nutshell tools
  • Connect Mastra's MCP client to the Composio generated MCP URL
  • Fetch Nutshell 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 Nutshell 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 Nutshell MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Nutshell MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Nutshell account. It provides structured and secure access to your accounts, contacts, leads, and sales records, so your agent can create accounts, add contacts, manage leads, retrieve customer details, and update sales information on your behalf.

  • Account creation and lookup: Have your agent create company accounts and retrieve existing account details when you need customer context.
  • Contact management: Let the agent add new contacts, review your contact list, retrieve specific contact details, and update existing records.
  • Lead creation: Direct your agent to create new leads in Nutshell as prospects enter your sales pipeline.
  • Lead review and updates: Instruct your agent to list leads, retrieve specific lead details, and update records as sales conversations progress.
  • Sales record maintenance: Have your agent keep account, contact, and lead information current as customer relationships develop.

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 Nutshell 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 Nutshell

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

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log("Nutshell MCP URL:", composioMCPUrl);
What's happening:
  • create spins up a short-lived MCP HTTP endpoint for this user
  • The toolkits array contains "nutshell" for Nutshell 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 Nutshell toolkit
8

Create the Mastra agent

typescript
const agent = new Agent({
    name: "nutshell-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with Nutshell 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: {
        nutshell: 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 Nutshell 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 Nutshell 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: ["nutshell"],
  });

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;

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

  const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();

  const agent = new Agent({
    name: "nutshell-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with Nutshell 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: { nutshell: 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 Nutshell 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 Nutshell action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Create Accounts

Tool to create one or more accounts in Nutshell.

Create Custom Field for Accounts

Tool to create a custom field for accounts in Nutshell.

Create Activities

Tool to create one or more activities in Nutshell CRM.

Create Contacts

Tool to create one or more contacts in Nutshell CRM.

Create Lead

Tool to create a lead in Nutshell CRM using the JSON-RPC API.

Create Custom Field for Leads

Tool to create a custom field for leads in Nutshell.

Create Notes

Tool to create a note in Nutshell.

Create Sources

Tool to create new sources in Nutshell CRM.

Create Tags

Tool to create one or more tags in Nutshell.

Delete Account

Tool to delete an account from Nutshell.

Delete Contact

Tool to delete a contact by ID.

Delete Lead

Tool to delete a lead from Nutshell CRM.

Delete Note

Tool to delete a note from Nutshell CRM.

Delete Product Map

Tool to delete a product on a lead.

Delete Task

Tool to delete a task from Nutshell CRM.

Edit Nutshell Account

Tool to edit an existing account in Nutshell CRM.

Get Account

Tool to retrieve an account from Nutshell.

Get Account Custom Fields

Tool to retrieve custom fields for a specific account in Nutshell.

Get Activity

Tool to retrieve a single activity by ID from Nutshell CRM.

Get Contact

Tool to retrieve a specific contact by ID from Nutshell CRM.

Get Contact Custom Fields

Tool to retrieve custom fields for a specific contact in Nutshell.

Get Lead

Tool to retrieve a specific lead by ID from Nutshell CRM.

Get Lead's Custom Fields

Tool to retrieve custom fields for a specific lead in Nutshell CRM.

Get Note

Tool to retrieve a single note by ID from Nutshell CRM.

Get Product Category

Tool to retrieve a single product category by ID from Nutshell CRM.

Get Task

Tool to retrieve a single task by ID from Nutshell CRM.

List Account Custom Field Attributes

Tool to retrieve all account custom field attributes from Nutshell CRM.

List Account Fields

Tool to retrieve all available fields for accounts in Nutshell.

List Accounts

Tool to retrieve list items for all accounts in Nutshell CRM.

List Account Types

Tool to retrieve a list of all account types from Nutshell CRM.

List Activities

Tool to retrieve a list of activities from Nutshell CRM.

List Activity Types

Tool to retrieve a list of all activity types from Nutshell CRM.

List Competitor Maps

Tool to get a list of lead-competitor relationships from Nutshell CRM.

List Competitors

Tool to get a list of competitors from Nutshell CRM.

List Contacts

Tool to get a list of contacts from Nutshell CRM.

List Contact Custom Field Attributes

Tool to retrieve all available custom field attributes for contacts in Nutshell.

List Contact Fields

Tool to retrieve all available fields for contacts in Nutshell.

List Contacts

Tool to retrieve list items for all contacts in Nutshell CRM.

List Deleted Events

Tool to get a feed of deletion events from Nutshell CRM.

List Editions

Tool to retrieve a list of all editions from Nutshell CRM.

List Events

Tool to get a list of events from Nutshell CRM.

List Filters

Tool to get saved filters from Nutshell CRM.

List Forms

Tool to get all forms from Nutshell.

List Industries

Tool to retrieve a list of all industries from Nutshell CRM.

List Invoices

Tool to get a list of invoices from Nutshell CRM.

List Leads

Tool to get a list of leads from Nutshell CRM.

List Lead Custom Field Attributes

Tool to retrieve all applicable custom field attributes for leads in Nutshell CRM.

List Lead Fields

Tool to retrieve all available fields for leads in Nutshell.

List Leads

Tool to retrieve list items for all leads in Nutshell CRM.

Get Leads Report

Tool to get reports for leads from Nutshell CRM.

List Lead Stages

Tool to retrieve all stages associated with a specific lead in Nutshell CRM.

List Markets

Tool to retrieve a list of all markets from Nutshell CRM.

List Notes

Tool to get a list of notes from Nutshell CRM.

List Lead Outcomes

Tool to retrieve a list of lead outcomes from Nutshell CRM.

List Product Categories

Tool to get a list of all product categories from Nutshell CRM.

List Product Maps

Tool to get a list of lead products from Nutshell CRM.

List Products

Tool to get a list of products from Nutshell CRM.

List Quotes

Tool to get a list of quotes from Nutshell CRM.

List Sources

Tool to retrieve a list of sources from Nutshell CRM.

List Stages

Tool to retrieve a list of all stages from Nutshell CRM.

List Pipelines

Tool to retrieve a list of all pipelines (stagesets) from Nutshell CRM.

List Tags

Tool to retrieve a list of tags from Nutshell CRM.

List Territories

Tool to retrieve a list of all territories from Nutshell CRM.

List Users

Tool to get a list of all users from Nutshell CRM.

Reopen Lead

Tool to reopen a lead in Nutshell CRM.

Set Lead Pipeline

Tool to set the pipeline (stageset) for a lead in Nutshell CRM.

Undelete Account

Tool to undelete a previously deleted account in Nutshell.

Undelete Contact

Tool to undelete a previously deleted contact in Nutshell CRM.

Undelete Lead

Tool to undelete a previously deleted lead from Nutshell CRM.

Undelete Note

Tool to undelete a previously deleted note in Nutshell CRM.

Undelete Source

Tool to undelete a source by ID.

Undelete Tag

Tool to undelete a previously deleted tag in Nutshell.

Update Account with JSON Patch

Tool to update an account in Nutshell using JSON Patch operations.

Update Nutshell Contact

Tool to update a contact using JSON Patch operations.

Update Lead

Tool to update a lead in Nutshell CRM using JSON Patch operations.

Update Lead Status

Tool to update the status of a lead in Nutshell CRM.

Update Task with JSON Patch

Tool to update a task in Nutshell using JSON Patch operations.

Watch Lead

Tool to watch a lead in Nutshell CRM.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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

Start with Nutshell.It takes 30 seconds.

Managed auth, hosted MCP servers, and every Nutshell tool your agent needs.Free to start.

Start building