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Gusto MCP connector

The Gusto connector lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP client look up employees, contractors, departments, and benefits in Gusto through one governed Elaichi endpoint, with every request running as the signed-in person and recorded in an audit log.

  • How it connects. Connects over OAuth. The credential goes into a vault nobody reads back.

  • One address. https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, the same for every user.

  • Their own access. An agent never gets more than the person it acts for.

How to connect

How to connect Gusto to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

Two steps, about a minute.

1

In Elaichi

Connect Gusto once

  1. Open Connections, choose Add connection, and pick Gusto.

  2. Optionally set Share with to give a team access, then press Connect.

  3. Approve it in Gusto. Gusto's own window opens. Whoever approves it decides what this connection can reach.

The credential is vaulted. Nobody reads it back, not even the AI.

Add connection

Choose a connector.

gusto
Gusto
360learning
7shifts
BambooHR
Charlie
Deel
2

In your AI client

Point it at one endpoint

Everyone in the organization uses the same address, and each person only ever reaches what their own account allows.

Connect Gusto to Claude

  1. 1

    Open Customize, then Connectors.

  2. 2

    Press Add.

  3. 3

    Name it, paste the MCP server URL, then Continue.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  4. 4

    Sign in and approve.

On Team and Enterprise, an Owner adds it once. Everyone else turns it on for themselves.

Connect Gusto to ChatGPT

  1. 1

    Open Plugins, then press the + button.

  2. 2

    Name it and paste the endpoint into Server URL.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  3. 3

    Leave Authentication on OAuth, then tick the risk acknowledgement.

  4. 4

    Press Create, then sign in and approve.

Works on the web today. The plugin directory lives at chatgpt.com/plugins.

Connect Gusto to Cursor

  1. 1

    Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

  2. 2

    Add the endpoint under mcpServers.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  3. 3

    Reload Cursor, then sign in and approve.

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elaichi": {
      "url": "https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Set up per machine, so repeat it on each computer you work from.

Connect Gusto to any MCP client

  1. 1

    Add the endpoint as a remote MCP server.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  2. 2

    Sign in and approve.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elaichi": {
      "url": "https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The Elaichi Agent already has these tools, with nothing to set up.

Use cases

What teams do with Gusto through Elaichi

Every one of these runs inside the access the person already has, and lands in the same audit log.

  • People ops

    Answer employee questions without opening Gusto

    Ask which department someone sits in, what their work address is, or what a custom field says, and get the answer from the live Gusto record in your chat window.

  • Benefits

    Enroll a new hire in company benefits

    Pull up the company benefit plans in Gusto, add the new employee to the right ones, and adjust an enrollment later when their situation changes.

  • Finance

    Reconcile contractors against what was paid

    List every active contractor in Gusto and compare them to your vendor records before month end, so nobody gets paid twice or missed.

  • IT

    Build the offboarding list from terminations

    Ask for everyone whose termination is recorded in Gusto this week and hand the list straight to the people who revoke laptops and accounts.

  • Managers

    See who reports where across departments

    Get a headcount by department from Gusto, or a list of everyone in one team, before a planning meeting or a reorg conversation.

  • Operations

    Plan offices around real work addresses

    Pull employee work and home addresses from Gusto to see how many people sit in each location and who is remote before choosing a new office or a team offsite.

Try asking

  • “List employees in the Engineering department with their job titles.”
  • “Which contractors were added to Gusto this quarter?”
  • “Show company benefits and how many employees are enrolled.”

See all 22 Gusto tools below

AI tools

Gusto tools for your AI agents

22 tools are ready to call through Elaichi's MCP endpoint the moment you connect Gusto, governed by the same roles, restrictions, and audit log as everything else in Elaichi.

See it in Elaichi

What connecting Gusto gets you

6 screens from the product, each doing one job for your Gusto account.

The agent

Ask about employees, get real answers.

Plain language questions run against live Gusto employees, departments and benefits.

  • employees
  • contractors
  • departments
  • benefits

Ask Elaichi to work across your apps.

List employees in the Engineering department with their job titles.

Which contractors were added to Gusto this quarter?

Show company benefits and how many employees are enrolled.

Also runs in Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

MCP clients

Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor reach Gusto.

One org MCP endpoint over OAuth, no SDK and no shared API key.

ElaichiMCP clients
Claude ChatGPT Cursor

Copy the endpoint

https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
Client Connected by Status Last used
Claude
E

Emma Laurent

• Connected 4 minutes ago
Cursor
S

Sofia Ricci

• Connected 2 hours ago
ChatGPT
C

Clara Nowak

• Connected Yesterday

Tool catalog

22 Gusto tools ready on connect.

Employees, contractors, departments, benefits and terminations covered without writing custom code.

  • List all Gusto me
  • Get single Gusto company by ID
  • List all Gusto company custom fields
  • List all Gusto departments
ElaichiTools
Tool Action Description
List all Gusto me List Get the current authenticated user's profile in Gusto. Returns: version, email.
Get single Gusto company by ID Get Get a single Gusto company by id. Returns the full company object including uuid, name, trade_name, ein, entity_type, company_status, locations, compensations, primary_signatory, and primary_payroll_admin. Required: id.
List all Gusto company custom fields List List custom fields for a company in Gusto. Returns: uuid, name, type, description, selection_options. Required: company_id.
List all Gusto departments List List all departments for a company in Gusto. Returns each department including uuid and title. Required: company_id.
Get single Gusto department by ID Get Get a single Gusto department by id. Returns the department object including uuid and title. Required: id.

Toolboxes

Every team gets its own toolbox.

Curate separate Gusto toolboxes for People Ops, Finance, IT and Legal.

  • People Ops
  • Finance
  • Benefits
  • IT
ElaichiToolboxes
Name Source template Tools Created

People Ops toolbox

Gusto · employees and departments

Gusto starter 18 Mar 4, 2026

Finance toolbox

Gusto · contractors and payroll costs

9 Mar 2, 2026

Benefits toolbox

Gusto · company and employee benefits

24 Feb 27, 2026

IT toolbox

Gusto · onboarding and terminations

Gusto starter 6 Feb 19, 2026

Legal toolbox

Gusto · terminations and custom fields

31 Jan 30, 2026

Leadership toolbox

Gusto · headcount by department

12 Jan 22, 2026

Shared connections

Teammates use Gusto without seeing credentials.

See who connected each Gusto account and which teams and members share it.

  • People Ops
  • Finance
  • Benefits
  • IT Onboarding
ElaichiConnections
Connection Scope Status Access
GU

Gusto (People Ops)

Connected by Emma Laurent

Personal • Active 1 team · 6 members
GU

Gusto (Finance)

Connected by James Whitfield

Organization • Active 3 teams · 24 members
GU

Gusto (Benefits)

Connected by Sofia Ricci

Organization • Active 2 teams · 11 members
GU

Gusto (IT Onboarding)

Connected by Daniel Ortega

Personal • Needs re-auth 1 team · 3 members
GU

Gusto (Legal)

Connected by Clara Nowak

Personal • Active Not shared
GU

Gusto (Leadership)

Connected by Michael Brennan

Personal • Active 2 teams · 9 members

Audit log

Answer who read which employee record.

Every Gusto call is logged with time, person, action, type and resource.

  • When
  • Who
  • What happened
  • Type
ElaichiAudit log
When Who What happened Type

2 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 3:10 PM

E

Emma Laurent

[email protected]

Restriction Created Access

8 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 3:04 PM

J

James Whitfield

[email protected]

Restriction Updated Access

14 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:58 PM

S

Sofia Ricci

[email protected]

Role Assigned Access

20 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:52 PM

D

Daniel Ortega

[email protected]

Gusto Users Updated MCP

26 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:46 PM

C

Clara Nowak

[email protected]

Gusto Employees Created MCP

32 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:40 PM

M

Michael Brennan

[email protected]

Gusto Employees List Toolbox

Launching soon

From answering questions to doing the work

A person no longer has to ask. A trigger starts the work, inside the same permissions and the same audit log as everything else. Automations and live dashboards are launching soon, on the Black plan.

Automations

A schedule drafts your headcount digest.

Gusto employees and terminations are fetched, grouped, drafted, approved by a person, posted back.

Gusto digest

Run 418 · started 2 minutes ago · on behalf of Emma Laurent

  1. Schedule

    Every weekday at 08:00

    0.2s
  2. Fetch employees

    Gusto

    1.4s
  3. Group by owner

    Transform

    0.1s
  4. Draft the digest

    Agent step

    Ran with 4 tools, returned a structured summary

    6.2s
  5. Approve the digest

    Needs approval

    Assigned to Michael Brennan

    Approve
  6. Post the digest

    Gusto

    Queued

Collections and dashboards

Headcount numbers arrive before anyone asks.

Four metrics, 14 days of new employees and a department breakdown, refreshed on schedule.

Gusto health

Refreshed 4 minutes ago · every 15 minutes · from the employees collection

Live

Employees

1,284 ↓ 12%

Contractors

96 ↓ 8%

Needs attention

3 ↑ 2

Updated this week

412 ↑ 9%

Employees created

Last 14 days

By team

Share of activity

People Ops 34%

Finance 27%

Benefits 21%

IT Onboarding 18%

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do I connect Gusto to Claude?

First connect Gusto in Elaichi, which opens Gusto's own sign-in page where you authorize access as yourself, with no client ID or secret to generate. Then in Claude go to Customize, then Connectors, then Add, and paste https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp as the endpoint. Claude asks you to sign in to Elaichi once, and Gusto is available in your conversations from then on.

Does Gusto work with ChatGPT and Cursor as well as Claude?

Yes. Once Gusto is connected in Elaichi, the same endpoint, https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, works in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, any other MCP client, and the Elaichi Agent. You connect Gusto once and use it from whichever client you happen to be in.

What can an AI agent actually do with my Gusto data?

With Gusto connected, an agent can look up employees and contractors, find their departments, home and work addresses, and custom fields, and pull the list of recorded terminations. It can read the company's benefit plans and each employee's enrollments, and it can enroll an employee in a benefit or update an existing enrollment. It cannot run payroll or create new employees through this connector.

Does connecting Gusto give the AI access to everyone's records?

No. Every request to Gusto runs inside the access of the person who signed in, so an agent sees exactly what that person could see in Gusto and nothing more. Elaichi can narrow that further with per-action restrictions, but it can never widen access beyond what Gusto already grants that person.

Can my team share one Gusto connection?

Yes. One person connects Gusto in Elaichi and shares the connection with a team, and nobody else ever handles a Gusto credential. Each teammate still signs in to Elaichi as themselves, so the audit log names the actual person behind every Gusto request.

Can I stop an agent from deleting or changing things in Gusto?

Yes. Restrictions in Elaichi apply per action, so you can allow reading employees and benefits from Gusto while blocking benefit enrollments or changes to notification subscriptions. A blocked action is never shown to Claude, ChatGPT, or any other client, so no prompt, however worded, can reach it.

What happens to a Gusto connection when someone leaves?

Offboarding a person in Elaichi ends their access to Gusto through every connected client at once. If they had shared a Gusto connection with a team, it keeps working for everyone else. Disconnecting Gusto once in Elaichi removes it from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and every other client at the same time.

Put Gusto in front of your team

Fourteen days on Gold, no credit card. Connect it once and pick what each team can call.