Integrate Live Claude Compliance Data in the Windsurf IDE via CData Connect AI

Windsurf is an AI-native IDE built around Cascade, an autonomous coding agent that understands project context and executes multi-step tasks directly inside the editor. Cascade supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing the agent to discover and call external tools and data sources without leaving the development environment.

By integrating Windsurf with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP server, the Cascade agent gains governed, real-time access to live Claude Compliance data. This enables developers to list catalogs, inspect schemas, and query records from Claude Compliance data within the IDE using natural language prompts.

This article explains how to configure Claude Compliance connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required personal access token, configure the Connect AI MCP Server in Windsurf, and verify the integration by querying live Claude Compliance data from the Cascade chat.

Step 1: Configure Claude Compliance connectivity for Windsurf

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

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

2. Select Claude Compliance from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Claude Compliance.

   The driver connects to Claude Compliance using a Compliance Access Key, the only supported authentication method. Set the following connection property:

   • APIKey: The Compliance Access Key you created.

   Creating a Compliance Access Key

   1. Enable the Compliance API for your organization.
   2. Sign in to claude.ai as a primary owner or organization owner and open Organization settings > API > Keys.
   3. Select Create Key and assign only the scopes your integration needs:
      • read:compliance_activities for Activities and the typed activity views.
      • read:compliance_org_data for organizations, roles, groups, and settings.
      • read:compliance_user_data for users, chats, files, projects, and downloads.
      • delete:compliance_user_data for the explicit Delete stored procedures.
   4. Create the key and copy it when it appears. The key starts with sk-ant-api01- and is shown only once.

   Optionally, set OrganizationUUID to limit organization-scoped views (such as OrganizationUsers and ComplianceRoles) to a single linked organization. If it is left empty, those views default to the first available organization and do not include data from all linked organizations.

   
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 Windsurf. 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 Claude Compliance connection configured and a PAT generated, Windsurf can now connect to Claude Compliance data.

Step 2: Configure Connect AI MCP in Windsurf

Next, configure the Connect AI Remote MCP Server in Windsurf so that the Cascade agent can discover and call live data tools through Connect AI.

1. Download and install the Windsurf IDE
2. Open Windsurf, click your profile icon in the top right, and select Windsurf Settings
3. Under the Cascade section, locate MCP Servers and click Open MCP Registry
4. In the MCP Marketplace, click Add custom MCP in the top right
5. This opens the mcp_config.json file. Paste the following JSON:

   {
       "mcpServers": {
           "cdata-mcp": {
               "serverUrl": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp",
               "headers": {
                   "Authorization": "Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT",
                   "Content-Type": "application/json"
               }
           }
       }
   }
   		

   Note: Windsurf 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. Save the mcp_config.json file and return to the MCP Registry
7. Under Installed, confirm that cdata-mcp is listed and marked as Enabled

With the MCP server registered and enabled, Windsurf is ready to query live Claude Compliance data through Connect AI.

Step 3: Query live Claude Compliance data from Windsurf

With the integration complete, use the Cascade chat panel in Windsurf to interact with live Claude Compliance data through natural language prompts.

1. On the top bar of Windsurf, switch from Editor to Agent to open a new Cascade chat
2. At the bottom of the chat panel, confirm that the cdata-mcp server is listed and the toggle is enabled
3. Start interacting with the agent by entering prompts like:
   • List all catalogs in my cdata-mcp connection
   • Show the available schemas and tables for Claude Compliance
   • Query the top 5 records from a table in Claude Compliance data
4. The Cascade agent calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Claude Compliance data

At this point, your Windsurf IDE communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Claude Compliance data through remote MCP directly from the editor.

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