Gusto Demo Gusto Embedded Payroll API
Browse all Gusto Demo APIs★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentHR recruitingPayrollapiKey, http213 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Run embedded US payroll for partner-managed companies - create companies, manage employees and contractors, configure tax details, and execute payroll runs.
Use for: Create a partner-managed Gusto company, Run regular payroll for a Gusto company, Add an employee to a partner-managed Gusto company, Update federal tax details for a Gusto company
Not supported: Does not handle international payroll, expense reimbursement workflows, or applicant tracking - use for US embedded payroll, employee management, and tax filing through Gusto Embedded only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Gusto Embedded Payroll API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. Gusto Embedded Payroll is the white-label payroll platform partners use to run US payroll inside their own product. Its 213 endpoints cover partner-managed company creation and migration, federal and state tax details, employees and contractors, jobs and compensations, payroll runs, off-cycle and historical payrolls, garnishments, time-off policies, holiday pay, employee benefits, signatories, and onboarding flows. Authentication uses partner-scoped tokens via Authorization bearer or API key header.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Gusto Embedded Payroll API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Gusto Embedded Payroll API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgusto-demo.com%2Fgusto-embedded-payroll" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgusto-demo.com%2Fgusto-embedded-payroll" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Gusto Embedded Payroll API.
Create and migrate partner-managed companies including federal and state tax detail setup
Manage employee and contractor records with addresses, jobs, and compensation history
Run regular payroll, off-cycle payrolls, and post historical payroll data
Configure pay schedules, time-off policies, and holiday pay rules per company
Set up garnishments and post-tax deductions on employee records
Drive onboarding flows including terms-of-service acceptance and signatory assignment
Read invoicing data and process refresh-token requests for partner authentication
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Gusto Embedded Payroll API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Embedded payroll inside a vertical SaaS
A vertical SaaS - for example construction, restaurants, or healthcare scheduling - embeds Gusto payroll directly so its customers run payroll without leaving the product. Partner-managed company creation, tax-detail configuration, and payroll-run endpoints power the end-to-end flow from sign-up through monthly pay cycles. Embedded launches typically take six to twelve weeks once partner credentials are issued.
Call POST /v1/partner_managed_companies to create a company, then POST tax details under /v1/companies/{company_id}/federal_tax_details before the first payroll.
Historical payroll migration onto Gusto Embedded
When a customer moves to a partner's embedded payroll, prior-period payroll history must be loaded so year-to-date tax calculations and W-2 generation are accurate. The historical payroll endpoints accept prior pay periods and gross-to-net amounts so Gusto can replay year-to-date balances cleanly without manual reconciliation.
POST historical payroll records for the current year against /v1/partner_managed_companies/{company_uuid}/migrate and verify YTD totals match the source system.
Off-cycle and bonus payroll runs
Partner products trigger off-cycle bonus or correction runs outside the regular pay schedule. The off-cycle payroll endpoints let the partner specify employees, gross amounts, and tax treatment for a single dated run, and produce the matching pay stubs and tax filings.
Create an off-cycle payroll for a list of employees with a specified bonus amount and confirm the run reaches the calculated state.
AI agent payroll ops via Jentic
An AI assistant in a partner's admin console handles a request to add an employee to a partner-managed company, set their job and compensation, and assign them to the next payroll run. Through Jentic the agent loads the right Embedded Payroll endpoints on demand, with token refresh handled automatically.
Search Jentic for 'add an employee to gusto embedded', load the matching operation, and execute with the company UUID, employee details, and starting compensation.
Key Endpoints
213 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for gusto embedded payroll api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/v1/partner_managed_companies
Create a partner-managed company
GET
/v1/companies/{company_id}
Get a company
PUT
/v1/partner_managed_companies/{company_uuid}/migrate
Migrate company to embedded payroll
GET
/v1/companies/{company_id}/federal_tax_details
Get federal tax details
PUT
/v1/companies/{company_id}/federal_tax_details
Update federal tax details
POST
/oauth/token
Refresh access token
POST
/v1/partner_managed_companies
Create a partner-managed company
GET
/v1/companies/{company_id}
Get a company
PUT
/v1/partner_managed_companies/{company_uuid}/migrate
Migrate company to embedded payroll
GET
/v1/companies/{company_id}/federal_tax_details
Get federal tax details
PUT
/v1/companies/{company_id}/federal_tax_details
Update federal tax details
POST
/oauth/token
Refresh access token
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the Gusto Embedded Payroll API by hand means handling partner-scoped tokens, refreshing them before expiry, choosing the demo or production host, and coding required scopes across a large payroll surface yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Gusto Embedded Payroll from the API Directory, store the credentials once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
Gusto Embedded Payroll puts the company id in the URL path (/companies/{company_id}/...), so a rule can pin your agent to one company: it can read and update that company's federal tax details and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so creating partner-managed companies or running a migration is not included unless you add it.
Credential isolation
Your partner-scoped Gusto Embedded tokens are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, with refresh handled automatically before expiry. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'run Gusto embedded payroll' or 'read a company's federal tax details', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema and required scope so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Gusto Embedded Payroll API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Gusto Embedded Payroll API?
Gusto does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Gusto Embedded Payroll API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the Gusto Embedded Payroll API use?
Embedded Payroll uses partner-scoped tokens - an Authorization bearer token plus an X-Gusto-API-Version header, with API-key flows available for some operations. Tokens are refreshed via POST /oauth/token. Through Jentic the partner credential is held in the vault and refreshed automatically.
Can I create a new company under my partner account with the Gusto Embedded Payroll API?
Yes. POST /v1/partner_managed_companies creates a partner-managed company, returns its UUID, and lets you continue with federal tax details, locations, and employee setup. Use the migrate endpoint when bringing an existing company over.
Can I run an off-cycle payroll with the Gusto Embedded Payroll API?
Yes. The payrolls resource includes off-cycle endpoints that accept a list of employees, gross amounts, and a check date. Submit, calculate, and approve the run through the standard payroll lifecycle endpoints.
What are the rate limits for the Gusto Embedded Payroll API?
Embedded Payroll enforces partner-tier rate limits scoped to each partner credential, typically a few requests per second per token. Pace high-volume migration calls and respect Retry-After on 429 responses; subscribe to webhooks instead of polling for payroll-state changes.
How do I update federal tax details for a Gusto Embedded company through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'update gusto federal tax details', load the PUT /v1/companies/{company_id}/federal_tax_details operation, then execute with the company ID and tax detail payload. Install with pip install jentic.
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