Breathe HR
BreatheHR is a simple, cloud-based HR software designed for SMEs to manage employee records, absences, performance reviews, and other HR processes.
Verdict
Common use cases
- Check who's out before scheduling meetings
- Pull headcount by department for budget planning
- Verify employee start dates during onboarding
- Generate absence reports for payroll review
- Answer policy questions with live HR data
Integration
- Vendor
- Breathe HR
- Category
- developer-tools
- Auth
- API_KEY
- Composio slug
breathehr
Tools
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. In Switchy, open your workspace settings and navigate to the MCP Integrations section. 2. Click 'Add Integration' and select Breathe HR from the list. 3. Log into your Breathe HR account and go to Settings > API Access to generate a new API key with read permissions for employees, absences, and reports. 4. Copy that key and paste it into the Switchy connection dialog, then click 'Connect'. 5. Switchy will verify the key and confirm which data scopes are accessible. 6. Open any Space, type '@Breathe HR show me who's on leave this week' and hit send — if you see a structured response listing absences, the connection is live. 7. If the response is empty or errors, double-check that your API key has the correct read scopes enabled in Breathe's settings.
What teammates see: by default, memories from Breathe HR are scoped to the Space (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Spaces have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Weekly Absence Summary
@Breathe HR show me all employees on leave this week, grouped by department, with their return dates.Open in a Space →
Headcount by Team
@Breathe HR give me a headcount breakdown by department, including full-time and part-time employees.Open in a Space →
Verify Start Date
@Breathe HR what is the start date for [employee name]?Open in a Space →
Remaining Leave Balances
@Breathe HR list remaining annual leave balances for everyone in the [team name] team.Open in a Space →
Upcoming Birthdays
@Breathe HR show me all employee birthdays coming up in the next month.Open in a Space →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@breathehr show me all employees on leave this week and their return dates
Based on current leave records, three employees are out this week: Sarah Chen (annual leave, returns Monday 13th), Marcus Williams (sick leave, returns Thursday 16th), and Priya Patel (parental leave, returns March 3rd). All leave requests were approved between January 20-28. This reflects the state of your Breathe HR account as of this query.
This example shows read access to absence data. Requires API key with leave-read permissions. The MCP returns structured data the AI can format into natural language. Useful for quick team-capacity checks without opening the Breathe dashboard.
@breathehr create a new employee record for Jamie Rodriguez, starting March 1st as Senior Developer in the Engineering department
Employee record created successfully. Jamie Rodriguez has been added to Breathe HR with employee ID #1847, start date March 1st 2025, job title Senior Developer, reporting to Engineering department. Default onboarding workflow triggered. You'll need to complete additional fields (contact info, emergency contacts, bank details) directly in Breathe before the start date.
Demonstrates write capability for employee onboarding. Requires API key with employee-write scope. The MCP creates the core record but cannot populate sensitive fields like banking information — those must be entered through Breathe's secure interface. Side-effect: triggers automated onboarding emails if configured.
@breathehr analyze our team's leave patterns over the last quarter and flag any departments with unusually high absence rates
Reviewing 127 leave records from Q1 2025 across six departments. Customer Support shows 18% absence rate (vs. company average of 11%), driven by three long-term sick leaves in February. Engineering and Sales both at 9%. Marketing at 14%, mostly concentrated around school holidays. No single department exceeds the 20% threshold that typically indicates systemic issues, but Support may benefit from workload review.
This synthesis example combines the MCP's data retrieval with the AI's analytical reasoning. Useful for spotting trends HR teams might miss in raw reports. Accuracy depends on how Breathe categorizes leave types — verify classifications match your internal definitions before acting on insights.
Use-case deep-dives
When Breathe HR MCP handles new-hire workflows in Slack
A 12-person agency onboards 2-3 contractors per quarter and runs the entire process in Slack threads. The Breathe HR MCP lets the ops lead query who's starting this week, pull their documents list, and post reminders without opening the HR portal. This works when onboarding is event-driven and low-volume—someone kicks off the flow manually each time. If you're hiring weekly or need multi-step approvals, the MCP becomes a bottleneck because it can't trigger on calendar events or route tasks between people. The API key auth means one person owns the connection, so the MCP fits teams where HR tasks funnel through a single channel or admin. If your onboarding spans multiple tools (Gusto, Notion, GitHub), you'll still need those integrations separately.
Why this MCP saves time for engineering managers at capacity
A 6-person dev team plans two-week sprints and the EM needs to know who's taking time off before committing story points. The Breathe HR MCP pulls leave calendars into the planning doc without switching tabs. This is faster than logging into the HR system when you're already in the AI workspace and the team is small enough that one query covers everyone. The trade-off: if your team is over 15 people or leave requests change daily, the MCP doesn't push updates—you're querying a snapshot. It also won't help with PTO approval workflows or accrual calculations, just read-only lookups. If sprint planning happens in Jira or Linear and you need live calendar sync, stick with a native integration there instead.
When the MCP speeds document collection before a funding round
A 20-person startup is six weeks from Series A and legal needs proof that every employee has signed the handbook and submitted tax forms. The founder uses the Breathe HR MCP to pull document status for the entire roster in one query, then exports the list to a spreadsheet for the lawyers. This scenario works because it's a one-time bulk read, not an ongoing sync, and the founder already has API key access. If you're running quarterly audits or need to cross-reference documents with payroll data in another system, the MCP won't connect those dots—you'll script it or use Breathe's native reporting. The MCP is the right call when the alternative is manually clicking through 20 employee profiles the day before the diligence call.
Frequently asked
What does the Breathe HR MCP do in Switchy?
It connects your Breathe HR account so AI agents in Switchy can read employee data, absence records, and HR documents without switching apps. You ask questions like "who's off next week" or "show me Sarah's leave balance" and the agent pulls live data from Breathe. It doesn't write back to Breathe — read-only access keeps your HR system safe.
Do I need admin access to connect Breathe HR?
Yes. The MCP uses an API key, which only Breathe HR admins can generate from the account settings. If you're not an admin, ask whoever manages your Breathe account to create the key and share it with you. Standard employee accounts can't generate API credentials.
Can the Breathe HR MCP approve time-off requests?
No. This integration is read-only — it pulls data but doesn't modify anything in Breathe. If you need to approve leave, update records, or change employee details, you still do that in the Breathe HR app directly. The MCP exists to surface information, not replace your approval workflow.
Why use this instead of just logging into Breathe HR?
Speed and context. Instead of opening Breathe, navigating menus, and exporting CSVs, you ask an agent in Switchy and get the answer in seconds. It's faster for one-off questions and lets you combine HR data with other tools — like checking who's available before scheduling a meeting in Google Calendar.
Does connecting Breathe HR count against my Switchy plan limits?
The connection itself doesn't count as a seat or user. Plan limits apply to how many people use Switchy, not how many integrations you enable. If your team hits API rate limits on Breathe's side, that's between you and Breathe — Switchy doesn't impose extra restrictions on top.