Integrate Devin with Live Avalara AvaTax Data Using CData Connect AI

Devin is an AI software engineer from Cognition that plans, writes, and tests code in autonomous sessions. It supports the model context protocol (MCP) through its built-in MCP marketplace, allowing you to install remote MCP servers and give Devin access to external tools and live data sources.

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

This article explains how to configure Avalara AvaTax connectivity in Connect AI, install the CData Connect AI MCP Server from the Devin MCP marketplace, and verify the integration by querying live Avalara AvaTax data from a Devin session.

Step 1: Configure Avalara AvaTax connectivity for Devin

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

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

2. Select Avalara AvaTax from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Avalara AvaTax.

   The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

   • User: Set this to your username.
   • Password: Set this to your password.

   Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

   • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

   Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

   Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

   • AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
   • LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions

With the Avalara AvaTax connection configured, Devin can now connect to Avalara AvaTax data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Install the Connect AI MCP Server in Devin

Next, install the CData Connect AI MCP Server from the Devin MCP servers list so your sessions can discover and call live data tools through Connect AI.

Note: Installing MCP servers in Devin requires the Manage MCP Servers permission. If you don't have this permission, use the Suggest option or contact your organization admin.

1. Log into Devin and navigate to Settings and Connections, then select the MCP servers tab
2. Search for CData Connect AI in the marketplace and select the verified listing

3. Click Install and enable. When prompted, complete the OAuth flow to authenticate with your Connect AI account
4. Once installed, confirm the Enable in sessions toggle is on and click Test tools. Devin validates the connection and lists the available Connect AI tools, such as getCatalogs, getSchemas, getTables, and queryData

With the MCP server installed and enabled, the Connect AI tools are available to every Devin session in your workspace.

Step 3: Query live Avalara AvaTax data from Devin

With the integration complete, start a Devin session and interact with live Avalara AvaTax data through natural language prompts.

1. From the Devin home page, start a new session
2. In the session prompt, ask Devin to work with your Connect AI data, for example:
   • Can you list the connections in CData Connect AI
   • Show the available schemas and tables for Avalara AvaTax
   • Query the top 5 records from a table in Avalara AvaTax
3. Devin calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Avalara AvaTax data directly in the session. You can follow the tool calls, inputs, and outputs in the Progress panel

At this point, Devin communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Avalara AvaTax data through remote MCP tools directly from your sessions, whether you're exploring data, building features against it, or automating engineering tasks.

Get started with CData Connect AI

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