Gusto agent skills for Claude Code, Cursor and RevampKey

5 ready-made playbooks that teach an AI agent how to do real Gusto work: which tools to call, what to check first, and when to stop and ask you.

Download RevampKey, free I have it: connect Gusto

Connect Gusto once and all 5 skills install themselves and stay up to date. Mac, Windows and Linux.

All 5 Gusto skills

Each skill is one job. You ask in plain words and the agent loads the skill that matches, then follows its steps.

Start hereAsks before writing17 Gusto tools

Use Gusto with AI safely

Connects your Gusto account to an AI assistant with access limited to the data categories you grant. It confirms which company it is reading and asks before running payroll, creating a company or logging time.

Use it when

You connect Gusto to an AI assistant for the first time and want to know what it can read and change.
You have several companies in Gusto and need the assistant to work on the right one.
You want quick answers about employees or payroll without the assistant pulling more personal data than needed.

Tools it uses

get_company
get_employee
get_compensation
get_employee_home_address
list_employees
get_departments
get_employee_earnings_summary
list_payrolls
list_time_records
list_contractors
get_contractor
get_company_onboarding_status
get_company_onboarding_package
get_employee_rehire
run_payroll
create_company
record_time

Example

Which company am I looking at, and how many employees does it have in each department?

You are looking at Acme Studio. It has 42 employees: 18 in Engineering, 14 in Operations and 10 in Sales. I counted employees only and did not include contractors. I have not made any changes to your payroll.

Use in RevampKeyRead the full skill →

Read-only7 Gusto tools

Reconcile contractor payments in Gusto

Audits contractor payment groups and individual payments against each contractor's record, flagging missing, duplicate and mismatched payments. Read-only: it never pays, cancels or edits anything.

Use it when

You want to check that every active contractor was paid for a period
You suspect a duplicate or an unexpected contractor payment
You need an audit trail of contractor pay for year-end review

Tools it uses

get_company
list_contractors
get_contractor
list_contractor_payment_groups
get_contractor_payment_group
list_contractor_payments
get_contractor_payment

Example

Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.

Reconciled 38 of 41 active contractors for Q1 cleanly. Three findings: one possible duplicate payment to Priya Shah (two payments of $4,200 on 14 March, groups 1187 and 1190), one amount mismatch for Marcus Lee ($3,800 paid against $4,000 expected), and one active contractor, Dana Ortiz, with no payment group this quarter. Nothing was paid or changed.

Use in RevampKeyRead the full skill →

Read-only6 Gusto tools

Build an employee roster and department report with AI

Builds a headcount report by department and location from your Gusto employee records, keeping personal details out unless you need them. It reconciles totals before reporting and does not change any records.

Use it when

You need headcount by department for an HR planning review
You are preparing a staffing summary for a board update
You want to see how employees are spread across locations without exposing addresses

Tools it uses

get_company
get_departments
list_employees
get_employee
list_employee_home_addresses
get_employee_rehire

Example

Give me headcount by department and by state for the current staff, no names or addresses in the output.

Your company has 84 current employees. Engineering has 39, Operations 22, Sales 15 and 8 are unassigned. By state, 61 are in California, 17 in New York and 6 have no home address on file. The department and location totals both reconcile to 84.

Use in RevampKeyRead the full skill →

Asks before writing11 Gusto tools

Check if your Gusto payroll is ready to run

Reviews your upcoming Gusto payroll for missing hours, employees without active pay and unusual pay periods, then gives a go or hold verdict. It never runs payroll without your explicit approval.

Use it when

Before approving a payroll, to catch missing hours or pay rates
When a payroll looks wrong and you want to know what is blocking it
Monthly, as a routine pre-payroll review

Tools it uses

get_company
list_payrolls
list_time_records
record_time
list_employees
get_compensation
get_employee
get_employee_earnings_summary
list_contractor_payment_groups
run_payroll
create_company

Example

Is my payroll ready to run this Friday?

Not yet, there are 2 blockers. Maple Rivera has no active pay rate, so she would be paid zero. Jonah Park has no time entries for the period, though he is listed as hourly. Fix both before running. Everything else looks ready, with one check: a salary change for Sam Lee dated the 1st.

Use in RevampKeyRead the full skill →

Read-only10 Gusto tools

Gusto R&D tax credit qualification review

Screens whether your Gusto company plausibly qualifies for the federal R&D tax credit, estimates the credit as a range, and separates what the data shows from what a tax professional must decide. It is read-only and does not file anything.

Use it when

You want to know whether your engineering payroll could support an R&D credit claim.
You need a rough range of the credit before talking to your accountant.
You are gathering what to collect for an R&D credit review.

Tools it uses

get_company
check_rd_credit_qualification
list_employees
get_employee
get_compensation
get_employee_earnings_summary
list_contractors
get_contractor
calculate_rd_tax_credit
list_time_records

Example

Do we qualify for the R&D tax credit for 2024? Give me a rough estimate and tell me what I still need to decide.

Your Gusto company, Harbor Labs, passes the screening checks for the 2024 period. The estimate is between $38,000 and $52,000, based on $410,000 in qualified engineering wages with two scenarios for how much of that time was research. Contractor spend of $60,000 is shown separately. Still open: which engineering activities were qualifying research, and whether time was recorded by project. A tax professional should confirm the four-part test before any claim.

Use in RevampKeyRead the full skill →

Get all 5 without copying a file

RevampKey adds the skills when you connect Gusto, updates them for you and removes them when you disconnect.

Download RevampKey

How Gusto skills work

Connect Gusto
The Gusto MCP server gives the agent its tools.
Ask in plain words
“Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.” Each SKILL.md says when it applies, so only the one that fits is loaded.
Approve any change
The agent calls the tools in order, checks its work, and shows you any change before it makes it.

How to install Gusto skills

In RevampKey the skills install themselves when you connect Gusto. In other tools each skill is one folder with a SKILL.md file, and you also need the Gusto MCP server connected there.

About 1 minute · nothing to copy

Download RevampKey for Mac, Windows or Linux and sign in.
Open Connectors and connect Gusto. All 5 skills come with it and stay up to date; they go away when you remove the connector.
Ask in plain language, for example “Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.”
Download RevampKeyConnect Gusto · 1 click
Get RevampKey to connect Gusto
RevampKey is a free desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux. Install it, sign in, and Gusto is one click away with its skills already attached.
Download RevampKey
Not now? Use the skills in your current tool
for s in essentials contractor-payment-reconciliation employee-roster-and-department-report payroll-run-readiness-check rd-tax-credit-qualification-review; do curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/gusto-$s/SKILL.md https://revampkey.com/marketplace/gusto/skills/$s/SKILL.md done
Other tools

Into this project’s .claude/skills folder

Connect the Gusto MCP server in Claude Code.

Run this in your project folder to add all 5 skills:

for s in essentials contractor-payment-reconciliation employee-roster-and-department-report payroll-run-readiness-check rd-tax-credit-qualification-review; do
  curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/gusto-$s/SKILL.md https://revampkey.com/marketplace/gusto/skills/$s/SKILL.md
done

Ask in plain language, for example “Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.”

Into the shared .agents/skills folder

Connect the Gusto MCP server in Cursor.

Run this in your project folder to add all 5 skills:

for s in essentials contractor-payment-reconciliation employee-roster-and-department-report payroll-run-readiness-check rd-tax-credit-qualification-review; do
  curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .agents/skills/gusto-$s/SKILL.md https://revampkey.com/marketplace/gusto/skills/$s/SKILL.md
done

Ask in plain language, for example “Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.”

Into the shared .agents/skills folder

Connect the Gusto MCP server in Codex.

Run this in your project folder to add all 5 skills:

for s in essentials contractor-payment-reconciliation employee-roster-and-department-report payroll-run-readiness-check rd-tax-credit-qualification-review; do
  curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .agents/skills/gusto-$s/SKILL.md https://revampkey.com/marketplace/gusto/skills/$s/SKILL.md
done

Ask in plain language, for example “Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.”

Into the shared .agents/skills folder

Connect the Gusto MCP server in VS Code.

Run this in your project folder to add all 5 skills:

for s in essentials contractor-payment-reconciliation employee-roster-and-department-report payroll-run-readiness-check rd-tax-credit-qualification-review; do
  curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .agents/skills/gusto-$s/SKILL.md https://revampkey.com/marketplace/gusto/skills/$s/SKILL.md
done

Ask in plain language, for example “Reconcile our contractor payments for Q1 and flag anything missing or duplicated.”

RevampKey or copy the files?

In RevampKey

One click when you connect Gusto
Updated for you when a skill improves
Removed when you disconnect
The MCP server is set up for you
800+ other connectors, same way

Download free

Copy into your project

One command per project
Run it again to get updates
You connect the Gusto MCP server yourself
Works in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and VS Code

See the command

Gusto skills FAQ

What is a Gusto agent skill?

A SKILL.md file: a short playbook an AI agent loads when your request matches it. Each Gusto skill describes one job, which Gusto tools to use in which order, what to check first and when to stop and ask you.

Do the Gusto skills change anything on their own?

3 of the 5 only read. The others tell the agent to show you the change and wait for a yes before it creates, edits or deletes anything in Gusto.

Which tools can use these skills?

Any agent that reads the open Agent Skills format: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code with Copilot and RevampKey. In RevampKey they are attached when you connect Gusto; elsewhere you copy the folders into your project or skills directory.

Do I need the Gusto MCP server too?

Yes. The skills tell the agent how to do the work; the Gusto MCP server gives it the tools to do it. The Gusto MCP setup guide covers every client.

Gusto MCP server setup · This page as Markdown

Put Gusto’s best workflows in your agent

Download RevampKey, connect Gusto and ask your first question in about a minute.

Download RevampKey Connect Gusto · 1 click

All 5 Gusto skills

Use Gusto with AI safely

Use it when

Tools it uses

Reconcile contractor payments in Gusto

Use it when

Tools it uses

Build an employee roster and department report with AI

Use it when

Tools it uses

Check if your Gusto payroll is ready to run

Use it when

Tools it uses

Gusto R&D tax credit qualification review

Use it when

Tools it uses

Get all 5 without copying a file

How Gusto skills work

How to install Gusto skills

RevampKey or copy the files?

In RevampKey

Copy into your project

Gusto skills FAQ

Put Gusto’s best workflows in your agent

Skills for related tools