How to Connect Hrworks to Gemini — via MCP

Connect HR WORKS to Gemini

HR WORKS is the Freiburg-based HR/payroll SaaS used by ~20,000 DACH SMBs. With AnythingMCP you connect HR WORKS to Gemini via MCP and run people-ops workflows in natural language — absence approvals, working-time analytics, applicant triage — all from a chat surface.

What You Can Ask Gemini

• "Who is on vacation next week in the engineering team?"
• "Show me the sick-leave totals for Q1 2026 across all org units"
• "List the working-time entries for personnel number 1042 in March"
• "Which applicants are in the pipeline for the Berlin Frontend role?"
• "Get the leave-account balance for Jane Doe"

Setup

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

1. In HR WORKS: Administration → API, create an API key pair (accessKey + secretAccessKey)
2. Open http://localhost:3000/connectors/store, import HR WORKS and paste the pair into HRWORKS_ACCESS_KEY and HRWORKS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY. The connector exchanges it for a short-lived token and renews the token on its own.
3. (Optional) For the sandbox at https://api.demo-hrworks.de, change the connector's base URL and the login URL in its auth settings to the demo host
4. Assign the connector to an MCP server

Connect Gemini

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Gemini CLI reads MCP servers from ~/.gemini/settings.json (on Windows %USERPROFILE%\.gemini\settings.json). Add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmcp": {
      "httpUrl": "https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

1. Create an MCP API key in AnythingMCP under MCP Servers → your server → API keys, and paste it in place of YOUR_MCP_API_KEY.
2. Save the file and restart gemini.
3. Run /mcp inside Gemini CLI (or gemini mcp list in your shell) — anythingmcp should show as connected.
4. Start prompting — Gemini CLI can now call the HR WORKS tools.

Self-hosting with the quickstart above? Use your server's local endpoint http://localhost:4000/mcp/<server-id> as the URL.

Tool Highlights for Gemini

(showing 30 of 31 tools — install the connector to see them all)

Full list of all 31 tools is in the HR WORKS MCP Server overview.

Important: Token Lifetime

HR WORKS tokens expire after ~15 minutes. The connector logs in with your key pair, renews the token before it expires and logs in again after a 401, so long conversations, scheduled runs and agents keep working without you touching a token.

Date Interval Cap

hrworks_list_absences, _sick_leaves, _remote_work, _working_times cap at 1 year per call (or 31 days if interval=days). For multi-year analyses, ask Gemini to iterate year by year.

FAQ

Where does Gemini CLI look for MCP servers? In ~/.gemini/settings.json for your user, or in .gemini/settings.json inside a project. gemini mcp list shows each server and whether it connects.

Related Guides

• HR WORKS MCP Server overview
• Connect HR WORKS to Claude
• Connect HR WORKS to ChatGPT
• Connect HR WORKS to Cursor
• Connect HR WORKS to Meta Muse
• Personio MCP Server — alternative DACH HR
• Kenjo HR MCP Server — alternative DACH HR