Build Agents in Relevance AI with Access to Live ADP Data via CData Connect AI

Relevance AI is an AI automation and agent-building platform that enables organizations to create autonomous workflows powered by natural language reasoning. Users can visually design agents that interact with APIs, databases, and third-party systems to complete everyday business tasks or data operations.

By integrating Relevance AI with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server, your agents can query, summarize, and act on live ADP data in real time. This connection bridges Relevance AI intelligent workflow engine with the governed enterprise connectivity of CData Connect AI ensuring every query runs securely against authorized sources without manual data export.

This article outlines the steps to configure ADP connectivity in Connect AI, register the CData MCP Server in Relevance AI, and build an agent that interacts with live ADP data.

Step 1: Configure ADP Connectivity for Relevance AI

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

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

2. Select ADP from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to ADP.

   Connect to ADP by specifying the following properties:

   • OAuthClientId: The client Id of the custom OAuth application you obtained from ADP.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The custom OAuth application's client secret.
   • SSLClientCert: Set this to the certificate provided during registration.
   • SSLClientCertPassword: Set this to the password of the certificate.
   • UseUAT: The connector makes requests to the production environment by default. If using a developer account, set UseUAT = true.
   • RowScanDepth: The maximum number of rows to scan for the custom fields columns available in the table. The default value will be set to 100. Setting a high value may decrease performance.

   The connector uses OAuth to authenticate with ADP. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with ADP using the browser. OAuth access can be configured in ADP through ADP API Central. For more information, refer ADP's API Central Quick Start Guide and the OAuth section in CData's Help documentation.

   
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 Relevance AI. 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 ADP connection configured and a PAT generated, Relevance AI can now connect to ADP data through the CData MCP Server.

Step 2: Configure Connectivity in Relevance AI

The CData Connect AI MCP endpoint and authorization details are registered within Relevance AI so that agents can call live data from Connect AI.

1. Sign in to Relevance AI and create an account if you do not already have one
2. From the sidebar, navigate to Agents and then click on New Agent

3. Select Build from scratch and name the agent (eg; CData MCP Server)

4. Inside the agent editor, select Advanced and then switch to the MCP Server tab

5. Click + Add Remote MCP Tools
6. In the dialog that appears, fill out the fields as follows:
• URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
• Label: Any custom label (eg; cdata_mcp_server)
• Authentication: Select Custom headers
• Add header key:value pair. Combine your email and PAT as email:PAT and encode that string in Base64 and then prefix with the word Basic
  • Key: Authorization
  • Value: Basic base64(email:PAT)

Click Connect to establish the connection. Relevance AI will verify your credentials and register the CData Connect AI MCP Server for use in agents.

Step 3: Build and Run a Relevance AI Agent with Live ADP Data

1. Switch to the Run tab for your agent
2. Enter a task for example, "List the five most recent incidents from ServiceNow"

3. The agent will query Connect AI via the MCP endpoint and display live results from ADP data

With the connection complete, Relevance AI agents can now issue queries, retrieve records, and perform AI-driven tasks over live ADP data through CData Connect AI MCP Server.

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