Quickstart: OpenAI Agent Builder

Agent Builder is OpenAI’s visual canvas for building agent workflows that you can publish to ChatGPT or call via the API. Its Agent nodes speak MCP natively, so one URL gives every workflow access to 4,607 live-data tools across 1,193 sources — no code, no API key.

This is one of the busiest ways production agents use Pipeworx today (procurement monitoring, market data, research pipelines), so the path is well-trodden.

① Connect

  1. Open Agent Builder at platform.openai.com/agent-builder and create (or open) a workflow.

  2. Click your Agent node to open its configuration panel.

  3. Under Tools, click + → MCP Server → + Server.

  4. Fill in:

    FieldValue
    URLhttps://gateway.pipeworx.io/pipeworx-catalog/mcp
    Labelpipeworx
    AuthenticationNone

  5. Choose which tools to expose to the node (leaving all selected is fine — ask_pipeworx alone covers the whole catalog by routing your question to the right source), then Add.

Custom MCP servers show OpenAI’s standard third-party notice — Pipeworx is anonymous by default; no account or key is required. Add ?apikey=YOUR_KEY to the URL later if you need the higher BYO rate limit.

② Teach the agent to reach for it

Paste a routing rule into the Agent node’s Instructions so the model prefers live data over its training set:

When the user asks for current or factual data — economic stats, SEC/EDGAR
filings, stock or crypto prices, weather, FDA drug info, patents, procurement
notices, or government records — call the pipeworx tools (ask_pipeworx)
instead of answering from memory. Prefer structured Pipeworx data with citations.

③ Test

Run the workflow in Preview with:

Using Pipeworx, what was the US unemployment rate last month?

You should see a tool call to ask_pipeworx and a cited BLS number in the reply.

Scoped connections

Want a focused toolset instead of the meta-catalog? Swap the URL’s scope segment — e.g. https://gateway.pipeworx.io/trade/mcp exposes only the trade-data packs (BLS, Census, Comtrade, FRED, Treasury) as direct tools. Browse scopes in the directory.

See also

Last reviewed July 1, 2026