Integrate Goose with Live Act CRM Data via CData Connect AI

Goose is an open source AI agent that runs locally on your machine and works with a wide range of LLM providers. It supports the model context protocol (MCP) through its extensions framework, so you can add external tools and data sources and give the agent access to live systems beyond the model's training data.

By integrating Goose with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP Server, Goose gains governed, real-time access to live Act CRM data. You can list catalogs, explore schemas, and query records from Act CRM data using natural language prompts, with all data access running securely against authorized sources.

This article explains how to configure Act CRM connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required personal access token, install and set up Goose, add the Connect AI MCP Server as a custom extension, and verify the integration by querying live Act CRM data from the Goose chat.

Step 1: Configure Act CRM connectivity for Goose

Connectivity to Act CRM from Goose is made possible through Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Act CRM data from Goose, start by creating and configuring a Act CRM connection in Connect AI.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select Act CRM from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Act CRM.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

   • Connecting to Act! Premium

     In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

     Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

   • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

     To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

   Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

A Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI from Goose. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each integration to maintain granular access control.

1. Click the gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open Settings
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
3. Give the PAT a descriptive name and click Create

4. Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again

With the Act CRM connection configured and a PAT generated, Goose can now connect to Act CRM data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Install and set up Goose

Next, install Goose, choose an LLM provider, and add the Connect AI Remote MCP Server as a custom extension so the agent can discover and call live data tools through Connect AI.

1. Download and install Goose by following the official installation guide, then launch the application
2. On the Welcome to goose screen, choose an AI provider. Select Use Free/Local Providers to run a local model, or Connect to a Provider to configure a provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google, and enter the required API key
3. In the left navigation, click Extensions, then click + Add custom extension
4. In the extension dialog, configure the server with the following values:
   • Extension Name: CData MCP, or any name of your choice
   • Type: Streamable HTTP
   • Endpoint: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
5. Under Request Headers, add the following two headers and click + Add after each pair:
   • Authorization: Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT
   • Content-Type: application/json

   Note: Goose will use Basic authentication with Connect AI. Combine your Connect AI user email and the PAT you created earlier in the format email:PAT, base64 encode the combined string, and prefix it with Basic. For example, given [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ789, the Authorization header value becomes something like: Basic dXNlckBkb21haW4uY29tOkFCQzEyMy4uLlhZWjc4OQ==

   
6. Click Save to save the configuration
7. Return to the chat, click the extensions icon at the bottom of the chat input, and confirm that the configured MCP is enabled

With the MCP server added and an LLM provider configured, Goose is ready to query live Act CRM data through Connect AI.

Step 3: Query live Act CRM data from Goose

With the integration complete, use the Goose chat to interact with live Act CRM data through natural language prompts handled by the configured LLM.

1. With the CData MCP extension enabled, type a prompt in the chat, for example:
   • List catalogs from my CData MCP
   • Show the available schemas and tables for Act CRM
   • Query the top 5 records from a table in Act CRM data
2. Goose calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Act CRM data

At this point, your Goose agent communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Act CRM data through remote MCP tools directly from the chat.

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