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Developer Guide - Build AI-Powered Data Assistants with OpenAI Python SDK

Build intelligent data assistants that can query your live data sources using natural language. This guide walks you through creating a Python application that combines OpenAI's GPT models with CData Connect AI to enable conversational access to your data.

NOTE: While this guide uses Google Sheets as the data source, the same principles apply to any of the hundreds of data sources CData Connect AI supports.

By the end of this guide, you'll have a working Python application that can:

Connect to any of hundreds of data sources through CData Connect AI
Discover available databases, schemas, and tables automatically
Execute SQL queries using natural language
Maintain multi-turn conversations with context
Stream responses in real-time

Architecture overview

The application uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to bridge OpenAI's GPT models with your data sources:

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│                 │     │                  │     │                 │
│  Your Python    │---->│  CData Connect   │---->│  Data Sources   │
│  Application    │     │  AI MCP Server   │     │ (100s of types) │
│                 │<----│                  │<----│                 │
└─────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘
        |                        |
        |    Tool Discovery      |
        |    & Execution         |
        v                        |
┌─────────────────┐              |
│                 │              |
│  OpenAI API     │--------------┘
│  (GPT-4, etc.)  │   Natural Language
│                 │   to SQL Translation
└─────────────────┘

How it works:

Your Python application connects to CData Connect AI's MCP server
The MCP server exposes tools for data discovery and querying
OpenAI's GPT models use these tools to translate natural language into SQL
Queries are executed against your live data sources
Results are returned and interpreted by the AI

Prerequisites

This guide requires the following:

Python 3.9+ installed on your system
An OpenAI API key (requires a paid account)
A Connect AI account, either Developer Edition (free, MCP-only) or a 14-day Connect AI trial
A Google account for the sample Google Sheets data

Getting started

Overview

Here's a quick overview of the steps:

Set up sample data in Google Sheets
Configure CData Connect AI and create a Personal Access Token
Set up the Python project and install dependencies
Build and run the chat application

Step 1: Set up sample data in Google Sheets

We'll use a sample Google Sheet containing customer data to demonstrate the capabilities. This dataset includes accounts, sales opportunities, support tickets, and usage metrics.

Navigate to the sample customer health spreadsheet
Click File > Make a copy to save it to your Google Drive
Give it a memorable name (e.g., "demo_organization") - you'll need this later

The spreadsheet contains four sheets:

account: Company information (name, industry, revenue, employees)
opportunity: Sales pipeline data (stage, amount, probability)
tickets: Support tickets (priority, status, description)
usage: Product usage metrics (job runs, records processed)

Step 2: Configure CData Connect AI

2.1 Sign up or log in

Sign up at cloud.cdata.com/developer for free Developer Edition, or request a Connect AI trial if you need non-MCP access, caching, workspaces, or higher call volume. Existing users: log in here
Complete the registration process if creating a new account

2.2 Add a Google Sheets connection

Once logged in, click Sources in the left navigation menu and click Add Connection
Select Google Sheets from the Add Connection panel
Configure the connection:
- Set the Spreadsheet property to the name of your copied sheet (e.g., "demo_organization")
- Click Sign in to authenticate with Google OAuth
After authentication, navigate to the Permissions tab and verify your user has access

2.3 Create a Personal Access Token

Your Python application will use a Personal Access Token (PAT) to authenticate with Connect AI.

Click the Gear icon in the top right to open Settings
Go to the Access Tokens section
Click Create PAT
Give the token a name (e.g., "OpenAI Python App") and click Create
Important: Copy the token immediately - it's only shown once!

Step 3: Set up the Python project

3.1 Clone from GitHub (recommended)

Clone the complete project with all examples:


git clone https://github.com/CDataSoftware/connectai-openai-agent.git
cd connectai-openai-agent
pip install -r requirements.txt

★ Star on GitHub

3.2 Alternative: Create from scratch

Create a new project directory and install dependencies:


mkdir connectai-openai-agent
cd connectai-openai-agent
pip install openai httpx python-dotenv

3.3 Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in your project root:

# OpenAI Configuration
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-openai-api-key-here
OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4o

# CData Connect AI Configuration
[email protected]
CDATA_PAT=your-personal-access-token-here
MCP_SERVER_URL=https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp

Replace the placeholder values with your actual credentials.

Step 4: Understanding the code architecture

The project consists of three main components:

4.1 Config class

Handles configuration and credential management:


from dataclasses import dataclass
import os
import base64

@dataclass
class Config:
    """Configuration for the Connect AI OpenAI Agent."""
    openai_api_key: str
    cdata_email: str
    cdata_pat: str
    openai_model: str = "gpt-4o"
    mcp_server_url: str = "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp"

    @classmethod
    def from_env(cls) -> "Config":
        """Create configuration from environment variables."""
        return cls(
            openai_api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"),
            cdata_email=os.getenv("CDATA_EMAIL"),
            cdata_pat=os.getenv("CDATA_PAT"),
            openai_model=os.getenv("OPENAI_MODEL", "gpt-4o"),
            mcp_server_url=os.getenv("MCP_SERVER_URL", "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp"),
        )

    def get_auth_header(self) -> str:
        """Generate Base64 authentication header."""
        credentials = f"{self.cdata_email}:{self.cdata_pat}"
        return base64.b64encode(credentials.encode()).decode()

4.2 Mcpclient class

Handles HTTP communication with the CData Connect AI MCP server:


import json
import sys
import httpx

class MCPClient:
    """HTTP client for CData Connect AI MCP server."""

    def __init__(self, config: Config):
        self.config = config
        self._client = httpx.Client(
            headers={
                "Content-Type": "application/json",
                "Accept": "application/json, text/event-stream",
                "Authorization": f"Basic {config.get_auth_header()}",
                "User-Agent": f"CDataConnectAI-OpenAIAgent (Python/{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor})",
            },
            timeout=60.0,
        )

    def _parse_sse_response(self, response_text: str) -> dict:
        """Parse Server-Sent Events response."""
        for line in response_text.split("
"):
            if line.startswith("data: "):
                return json.loads(line[6:])
        raise ValueError("No data found in SSE response")

    def list_tools(self) -> list:
        """Discover available tools from the MCP server."""
        response = self._client.post(
            self.config.mcp_server_url,
            json={"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/list", "params": {}, "id": 1},
        )
        result = self._parse_sse_response(response.text)
        return result.get("result", {}).get("tools", [])

    def call_tool(self, tool_name: str, arguments: dict) -> dict:
        """Execute a tool on the MCP server."""
        response = self._client.post(
            self.config.mcp_server_url,
            json={
                "jsonrpc": "2.0",
                "method": "tools/call",
                "params": {"name": tool_name, "arguments": arguments},
                "id": 2,
            },
        )
        result = self._parse_sse_response(response.text)
        return result.get("result", \{})

4.3 Mcpagent class

The AI agent that combines OpenAI with MCP tools:


from openai import OpenAI

class MCPAgent:
    """AI Agent using OpenAI with CData Connect AI MCP tools."""

    def __init__(self, config: Config):
        self.config = config
        self.mcp_client = MCPClient(config)
        self.openai_client = OpenAI(api_key=config.openai_api_key)
        self.conversation_history = []
        self._tools_cache = []

    def _get_openai_tools(self) -> list:
        """Convert MCP tools to OpenAI function format."""
        if not self._tools_cache:
            mcp_tools = self.mcp_client.list_tools()
            for tool in mcp_tools:
                self._tools_cache.append({
                    "type": "function",
                    "function": {
                        "name": tool.get("name"),
                        "description": tool.get("description", ""),
                        "parameters": tool.get("inputSchema", {}),
                    },
                })
        return self._tools_cache

    def chat(self, message: str) -> str:
        """Send a message and get a response."""
        self.conversation_history.append({"role": "user", "content": message})

        messages = [
            {"role": "system", "content": "You are a data assistant..."},
            *self.conversation_history,
        ]

        tools = self._get_openai_tools()

        # Process until we get a final response
        for _ in range(10):
            response = self.openai_client.chat.completions.create(
                model=self.config.openai_model,
                messages=messages,
                tools=tools if tools else None,
            )

            assistant_message = response.choices[0].message

            if assistant_message.tool_calls:
                messages.append(assistant_message.model_dump())
                for tool_call in assistant_message.tool_calls:
                    result = self.mcp_client.call_tool(
                        tool_call.function.name,
                        json.loads(tool_call.function.arguments)
                    )
                    messages.append({
                        "role": "tool",
                        "tool_call_id": tool_call.id,
                        "content": json.dumps(result),
                    })
            else:
                content = assistant_message.content or ""
                self.conversation_history.append({"role": "assistant", "content": content})
                return content

        return "Max iterations reached."

Step 5: Build the chat application

Create an interactive chat application:


#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Interactive chat application for querying data with AI."""

from dotenv import load_dotenv
from src.connectai_openai import Config, MCPAgent

load_dotenv()

def main():
    print("=" * 60)
    print("CData Connect AI - OpenAI Chat Assistant")
    print("=" * 60)

    # Initialize
    config = Config.from_env()
    agent = MCPAgent(config)
    tools = agent._get_openai_tools()
    print(f"
Connected! {len(tools)} tools available.")

    print("
Chat with your data! Type 'quit' to exit.
")

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()

        if user_input.lower() in ("quit", "exit"):
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        response = agent.chat(user_input)
        print(f"
Assistant: {response}
")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Step 6: Run your application

With everything configured, run your chat application:


python examples/basic_chat.py

You should see output like:

============================================================
CData Connect AI - OpenAI Chat Assistant
============================================================

Connected! 8 tools available.

Chat with your data! Type 'quit' to exit.

You: What data sources do I have?

Assistant: You have the following data sources connected:

1. **demo_organization** (Google Sheets)
   - Tables: account, opportunity, tickets, usage

Would you like me to explore any of these in more detail?

Step 7: Example queries

Here are some example prompts to try with your data assistant:

Data discovery

"What data sources do I have connected?"
"Show me all the tables in demo_organization"
"What columns are in the account table?"

Basic queries

"Query the top 5 accounts by annual_revenue"
"How many support tickets are there by priority?"
"Show me all open opportunities"

Analysis

"Which accounts have the most critical support tickets?"
"Summarize the health of Aurora Healthcare Systems"
"Find accounts with high revenue but low product usage"

Step 8: Available MCP tools

Your AI agent has access to these CData Connect AI tools:

Tool	Description
`getCatalogs`	List available data source connections
`getSchemas`	Get schemas for a specific catalog
`getTables`	Get tables in a schema
`getColumns`	Get column metadata for a table
`queryData`	Execute SQL queries
`getProcedures`	List stored procedures
`getProcedureParameters`	Get procedure parameter details
`executeProcedure`	Execute stored procedures

Step 9: SQL query format

When the AI generates SQL queries, it uses fully qualified table names:


SELECT [column1], [column2]
FROM [CatalogName].[SchemaName].[TableName]
WHERE [column1] = 'value'
ORDER BY [column2]
LIMIT 100

For example, to query the account table from your Google Sheets:


SELECT [name], [annual_revenue], [industry]
FROM [demo_organization].[GoogleSheets].[account]
ORDER BY [annual_revenue] DESC
LIMIT 10

Troubleshooting

Authentication errors

Verify your CData email and PAT are correct in .env
Ensure the PAT has not expired
Check that your Connect AI account is active

No tools available

Confirm you have at least one data source connected in Connect AI
Check that your user has permissions to access the connection

Query errors

Use fully qualified table names: [Catalog].[Schema].[Table]
Verify column names exist using the getColumns tool
Check SQL syntax (Connect AI uses SQL-92 standard)

What's next?

Now that you have a working AI data assistant, you can:

Connect more data sources: Add Salesforce, Snowflake, or any of hundreds of supported sources to expand your data access.
Customize the agent: Modify the system instructions for your specific use case and domain.
Build production applications: Integrate the agent into web apps, Slack bots, or other interfaces.
Add streaming: Use chat_stream() for real-time response streaming.
Explore the examples: Check out the additional examples in the GitHub repository for data analysis workflows, multi-source queries, and more.

Resources

GitHub Repository - Complete source code and examples
CData Connect AI Documentation
CData Prompt Library - Example prompts for various use cases
OpenAI API Documentation
Model Context Protocol

Get started with CData Connect AI

Ready to build AI-powered data applications? CData Connect AI provides live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your AI applications.

Two ways to start: Developer Edition (free, MCP-only, limited sources/users/calls) or a 14-day Connect AI trial. Start building intelligent data assistants today!

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