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Connector · Payroll and HR platform

Gusto MCP Server & Agent Skill

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ibl.ai publishes a free Gusto agent skill: a SKILL.md that teaches an AI agent to read and write Gusto data and expose it as an MCP tool. Download it, connect your own Gusto credentials, and run the agent on ibl.ai Agentic OS, where you own all the code and the data.

Payroll, benefits and HR platform for small businesses. A Gusto company holds employees and contractors, compensation, pay schedules, payrolls, time off, departments, and payroll tax filings.

What is the Gusto API, and what can an agent read from it?

REST endpoints for companies, employees, contractors, compensations, pay schedules and payrolls. App Integrations read and write data for shared Gusto customers; Embedded Payroll lets partners run payroll inside their own product.

  • API: Gusto API (App Integrations and Gusto Embedded Payroll) (REST)
  • Access: Partner or license program
  • Base URL: https://api.gusto.com (demo: https://api.gusto-demo.com)
  • Authentication: OAuth 2.0 authorization code; System access token (client credentials, partner-level)

Built for established software companies serving shared customers; individual Gusto customers connecting their own systems are excluded. Demo keys come from the Developer Portal; production keys need an approved Production Pre-Approval and Security Review.

Company admins authorize the app; exchange the code at /oauth/token for an access token (2 hours) and refresh token. Embedded partners get a system access token with grant_type system_access, then company-level tokens per company.

What can an agent read from Gusto?

  • Companies — Company records, locations and departments.
  • Employees — Employee and contractor records, jobs and compensation.
  • Payrolls — Payroll runs, pay periods and payroll history with totals.
  • Pay schedules — Pay schedules and upcoming pay periods.

What can an agent write to Gusto?

  • Create or update employee — Add an employee or update job and compensation details.
  • Update payroll — Enter hours, earnings and reimbursements on an unprocessed payroll.
  • Submit payroll — Calculate and submit a payroll; this pays people and triggers tax payments. Confirm with the user first.

Limits: 200 requests per minute per OAuth grant (per access token), on a 60-second rolling window. Over the limit, requests get HTTP 429 until the window clears.

Holds payroll and tax PII: Social Security numbers, bank accounts, wages, tax withholding and benefits. Treat as highly sensitive; payroll submission moves money and creates tax filings.

How do I connect Gusto to an AI agent over MCP?

Gusto publishes an official MCP server: Gusto MCP.

Gusto-hosted MCP at https://mcp.api.gusto.com; payroll admins sign in with their Gusto account. Reads what that user can already see. Gusto Embedded also has a docs-only Dev Assistant MCP.

You can register that server on ibl.ai as it is, or use the SKILL.md below when you want the agent to call the Gusto API (App Integrations and Gusto Embedded Payroll) directly.

On ibl.ai an MCP connection is three records, and a working integration always needs all three:

  1. Register the server — POST …/mcp-servers/ with its URL, a transport (sse, websocket or streamable_http) and an auth_type of none, token or oauth2.
  2. Create a connection that holds the credential, scoped to the whole organization (platform), to a single agent, or to each user (user).
  3. Enable it on the agent — mcp-tool in tool_slugs and the server id in mcp_servers. Both lists are replaced, not merged, so read the settings first.

Gusto supports per-user OAuth, so the server can use auth_type=oauth2 with auth_scope=user: each person connects their own Gusto account in the chat the first time the agent needs it.

The field reference is in MCP server connections, and the /iblai-api-agent-mcp skill runs all three steps from a coding agent.

What does the Gusto agent skill do?

The Gusto skill is one SKILL.md file named iblai-connect-gusto. It gives an agent the auth conventions, what to read, which writes need a person's confirmation, the ibl.ai MCP wiring, example prompts and guardrails.

Download the Gusto SKILL.md

Save it as .claude/skills/iblai-connect-gusto/SKILL.md, or in your agent's skills folder. The ibl.ai platform skills it calls come from one install:

$ npx skills add iblai/vibe --all

This connector skill is a starting point maintained on ibl.ai, not part of the iblai/vibe repository.

It was checked against Gusto's documentation on October 20, 2026. Test it against your own Gusto setup before you rely on it.

What can I ask a Gusto agent to do?

  • “List everyone on the next Gusto payroll with their gross pay”
  • “How much did we spend on payroll last quarter, by department?”
  • “Which employees have a compensation change effective this month?”
  • “Show contractors paid more than $600 this year”

How do I run a Gusto agent on ibl.ai?

Agentic OS is where the agent runs on ibl.ai: it holds the Gusto MCP connection, the model the agent uses, its instructions and its conversation history.

On ibl.ai you own all the code and the data, run it model-agnostic across any LLM, and pay with no per-seat pricing — so you can deploy anywhere, from your own cloud to a fully air-gapped network.

Which ibl.ai agents work with Gusto data?

Which ibl.ai platform skills does a Gusto agent use?

What else should I know before connecting Gusto to an AI agent?

Is there an official Gusto MCP server?

Yes. Gusto publishes Gusto MCP.

You can register it on ibl.ai as an MCP server, or use the SKILL.md when you want the agent to call the Gusto API (App Integrations and Gusto Embedded Payroll) directly.

Who can get Gusto API credentials?

Built for established software companies serving shared customers; individual Gusto customers connecting their own systems are excluded. Demo keys come from the Developer Portal; production keys need an approved Production Pre-Approval and Security Review.

Does Gusto data leave my infrastructure when an ibl.ai agent uses it?

On ibl.ai, you own all the code and the data. Self-hosted in your cloud or data center, the agent, its MCP connections and its conversation logs stay inside your perimeter.

Because the platform is model-agnostic, you can point the agent at a model you host, so Gusto records need not reach a third-party model provider.

Is the Gusto agent skill free to use?

Yes. The SKILL.md is a free download with no sign-up. It assumes you already have Gusto credentials, and your agreement with Gusto still governs how you use its API.

Which other data sources can an AI agent connect to alongside Gusto?

Which other Small Business systems have a connector?

Every connector, grouped by sector, is on the connectors hub.