How to integrate Scale ai MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Scale ai to the OpenAI Agents SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Scale ai agent that can create image labeling task for dataset 'road-signs', list completed annotation tasks for project, fetch results of data labeling job through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your OpenAI Agents SDK agent real control over a Scale ai account through Composio's Scale ai 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 Scale ai
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Scale ai as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Scale ai 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 Scale ai MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Scale ai MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Scale ai account. It provides structured and secure access so your agent can perform Scale ai operations on your behalf.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Add Studio AssignmentsTool to add project assignments to team members in Scale AI Studio.
Add Task TagsTool to add tags to an existing task.
Create BatchTool to create a new batch within a project.
Create Document Transcription TaskTool to create a document transcription task where workers transcribe and annotate information from single or multi-page documents.
Create Image Annotation TaskTool to create an image annotation task where annotators label images with vector geometric shapes (box, polygon, line, point, cuboid, ellipse).
Create Lidar Annotation TaskTool to create a lidar annotation task where annotators mark objects with 3D cuboids in 3D space.
Create LiDAR Segmentation TaskTool to create a LiDAR segmentation task where annotators assign semantic class labels to individual LiDAR points.
Create Named Entity Recognition TaskTool to create a named entity recognition task for labelers to highlight text entity mentions.
Create Segmentation Annotation TaskTool to create a segmentation task where annotators classify pixels in an image according to provided labels.
Create Text Collection TaskTool to create a textcollection task for collecting information from attachments and/or web sources.
Create Video Annotation TaskTool to create a video annotation task where annotators draw geometric shapes around specified objects across video frames.
Create Video Playback Annotation TaskTool to create a video playback annotation task where annotators draw shapes around specified objects in video files.
Delete Task TagsTool to remove specified tags from a Scale AI task.
Delete Task Unique IDTool to remove the unique identifier from a task.
Finalize BatchTool to finalize a batch so its tasks can be worked on.
Get AssetsTool to retrieve file assets with filtering capabilities by project and metadata.
Get BatchTool to retrieve the details of a batch with the specified name.
Get Batch StatusTool to retrieve the current status of a batch and task completion counts.
Get Fixless AuditsTool to retrieve fixless audits by task ID or audit ID.
Get ProjectTool to retrieve details about a specific Scale AI project using its unique identifier.
Get Quality LabelersTool to retrieve training attempts matching provided filter parameters.
Get Studio AssignmentsTool to retrieve current project assignments of all active team users in Scale AI Studio.
Get Studio BatchesTool to retrieve basic information about all pending batches in Studio.
Get TaskTool to retrieve detailed information about a specific task in Scale AI.
Get TeamsTool to retrieve basic information about all team members associated with the account.
Get Task by IDTool to retrieve detailed information about a specific task using its task ID.
Get Secure Task Response URLTool to retrieve secure authenticated task response data.
Import FileTool to import files from an external URL endpoint into Scale's system rather than uploading directly from local storage.
Invite Team MemberTool to invite users by email to team with specified role.
List BatchesTool to retrieve all batches in descending order by creation date.
List ProjectsTool to retrieve information for all projects in the Scale AI account with optional archived filtering.
List TasksTool to retrieve a paginated list of tasks in descending order by creation time.
Re-send Task CallbackTool to re-send a callback for a completed or errored task to the callback_url.
Remove Studio AssignmentsTool to unassign projects from specified team members in Scale AI Studio.
Reset Batch PrioritiesTool to restore batch priority order to default order (calibration batches first, then sorted by creation date).
Set Batch PrioritiesTool to modify batch priority order in Scale AI Studio.
Set Project OntologyTool to set ontologies on a Scale AI project.
Set Project ParametersTool to set default parameters for tasks created under a project.
Set Task MetadataTool to set key-value metadata on an existing Scale AI task.
Update Task Unique IDTool to update or assign a unique identifier to a task.
Upload FileTool to upload a local file to Scale's servers with a maximum size limit of 80 MB per file.

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 Scale ai 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 Scale ai.

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 Scale ai Tool Router session
session = composio.create(
    user_id=user_id,
    toolkits=["scale_ai"]
)

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 scale_ai.
  • The router checks the user's Scale ai connection and prepares the MCP endpoint.
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that your agent will use to access Scale ai.
  • This approach keeps things lightweight and lets the agent request Scale ai 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 Scale ai. "
        "Help users perform Scale ai 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 Scale ai 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 Scale ai 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 Scale ai.
  • 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 Scale ai 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=["scale_ai"]
)
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 Scale ai. "
        "Help users perform Scale ai 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 Scale ai MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK to build a functional AI agent that can interact with Scale ai.

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.

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FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Scale ai MCP?

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

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

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

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