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Connector · Human capital management (HCM)

Workday HCM MCP Server & Agent Skill

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

Workday HCM is a cloud system of record for workers. A tenant stores worker profiles, positions and organizations, compensation, absence and time off, benefits, recruiting, learning and payroll data.

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

SOAP Workday Web Services (v47.0) cover Human_Resources, Staffing, Compensation, Absence_Management, Recruiting, Payroll and more. REST APIs serve small, low-latency calls. RaaS exposes a custom report as an XML or JSON web service.

  • API: Workday Web Services (SOAP), Workday REST APIs, Reports-as-a-Service (RaaS) (Mixed)
  • Access: Issued by your administrator
  • Base URL: https://api.workday.com/{service}/{version}/{resource}
  • Authentication: OAuth 2.0 (API client registered in the tenant); Integration System User (ISU)

Only Workday customers (and their partners) get credentials. A tenant admin creates an Integration System User or runs the Register API Client task, and grants domain security for the data needed.

REST APIs use OAuth and Workday's configurable security model, acting as the signed-in user or an integration system. The Register API Client task supplies the client ID and token endpoint; scopes are functional areas.

What can an agent read from Workday HCM?

  • Workers — Worker profiles, positions and organizations via the Human_Resources and Staffing web services.
  • Compensation — Pay plans and worker compensation via the Compensation web service.
  • Absence and time off — Time-off balances and requests via the Absence_Management web service.
  • Custom reports (RaaS) — Call a custom report's URL and get XML or JSON back.
  • Recruiting — Job requisitions and candidates via the Recruiting web service.

What can an agent write to Workday HCM?

  • Worker data changes — Human_Resources and Staffing operations that create or edit worker data; many start business processes. Confirm with the user first.
  • Time-off entries — Absence_Management operations to enter or adjust time off.

Limits: Workday advises REST APIs for small, user-initiated requests and not for bulk export or import; SOAP web services are favored for large scheduled transfers.

Holds employee personal data: government IDs, compensation, payroll bank details, and benefits elections that can include health information. Treat as sensitive HR data under privacy law.

How do I connect Workday HCM to an AI agent over MCP?

Workday, Inc. publishes an official MCP server: Workday Agent-Ready Tools (MCP).

Workday-built MCP tools spanning Core HR, Payroll, Recruiting, Talent and more; external agents connect through Workday's Agent Gateway. Confirm tenant availability with Workday.

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 Workday Web Services (SOAP), Workday REST APIs, Reports-as-a-Service (RaaS) 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.

For an API key or a service credential, one token connection at platform scope serves the whole organization; scope a connection to a single agent when that agent needs narrower access than the rest.

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 Workday HCM agent skill do?

The Workday HCM skill is one SKILL.md file named iblai-connect-workday-hcm. 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 Workday HCM SKILL.md

Save it as .claude/skills/iblai-connect-workday-hcm/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 Workday, Inc.'s documentation on October 20, 2026. Test it against your own Workday HCM setup before you rely on it.

What can I ask a Workday HCM agent to do?

  • “How many vacation days does Maria Lopez have left this year?”
  • “List open requisitions in Engineering with no candidates in review”
  • “Pull headcount by cost center from our 'Headcount Monthly' custom report”
  • “Who reports directly to the VP of Finance?”

How do I run a Workday HCM agent on ibl.ai?

Agentic OS is where the agent runs on ibl.ai: it holds the Workday HCM 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 Workday HCM data?

Which ibl.ai platform skills does a Workday HCM agent use?

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

Is there an official Workday HCM MCP server?

Yes. Workday, Inc. publishes Workday Agent-Ready Tools (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 Workday Web Services (SOAP), Workday REST APIs, Reports-as-a-Service (RaaS) directly.

Who can get Workday HCM API credentials?

Only Workday customers (and their partners) get credentials. A tenant admin creates an Integration System User or runs the Register API Client task, and grants domain security for the data needed.

Does Workday HCM 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 Workday HCM records need not reach a third-party model provider.

Is the Workday HCM agent skill free to use?

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

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

Which other Enterprise systems have a connector?

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