How to Connect to Live Dynamics CRM Data from Sourcegraph Amp (via CData Connect AI)
Sourcegraph Amp is a modern AI agent environment designed for building intelligent, production-ready assistants capable of stateful reasoning, automatic context management, and native MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration. When combined with CData Connect AI, you can leverage Amp to create agents that interact with your Dynamics CRM data in real time using natural language or SQL-based queries.
CData Connect AI provides a secure, cloud-to-cloud interface for accessing Dynamics CRM data. Through the Connect AI Remote MCP Server, Amp connects directly to Dynamics CRM, enabling live data queries and operations without replication. With optimized pushdown capabilities, CData Connect AI executes SQL operations including filters, aggregations, and joins directly in Dynamics CRM for fast, real-time performance.
In this article, we demonstrate how to configure the Amp agent to conversationally explore your Dynamics CRM data using natural language or SQL. With Connect AI, you can easily build agents that have secure, live access to Dynamics CRM along with hundreds of other enterprise data sources.
Prerequisites
- An active CData Connect AI
- The Sourcegraph Amp VS Code extension or Amp CLI installed
- Node.js v20 or higher installed
- Access to Dynamics CRM
About Dynamics CRM Data Integration
CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics CRM data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:
- Read and write data in the Dynamics CRM 2011+ Services and Dynamics CRM Online.
- Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
- Authenticate securely with Dynamics CRM in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
CData customers use our Dynamics CRM connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources) or analyze live Dynamics CRMa data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).
Getting Started
Step 1: Configure Dynamics CRM Connectivity for Sourcegraph Amp
Connectivity to Dynamics CRM from Amp is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Dynamics CRM data from Amp, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics CRM connection in CData Connect AI.
- Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
- Select "Dynamics CRM" from the Add Connection panel
-
Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics CRM.
The connection string options meet the authentication and connection requirements of different Dynamics CRM instances. To connect to your instance, set the User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, to valid Dynamics CRM user credentials and set the Url to a valid Dynamics CRM server organization root. Additionally, set the CRMVersion property to 'CRM2011+' or 'CRMOnline'. IFD configurations are supported as well; set InternetFacingDeployment to true.
Additionally, you can provide the security token service (STS) or AD FS endpoint in the STSURL property. This value can be retrieved with the GetSTSUrl stored procedure. Office 365 users can connect to the default STS URL by simply setting CRMVersion.
- Click Save & Test
Step 2: Set Up Amp for CData Connect AI
Copy the MCP Endpoint
Amp communicates with Connect AI through the hosted MCP endpoint:
https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
This endpoint provides secure, cloud-to-cloud communication between Amp and your Connect AI workspace.
Generate Base64 Credentials
To authenticate Amp with Connect AI, generate your Base64-encoded credentials. For example, in PowerShell:
{Convert}::ToBase64String{(Text.Encoding)}::ASCII.GetBytes("[email protected]:yourPAT")
Replace [email protected] with your Connect AI email and yourPAT with your Personal Access Token.
Register the MCP Server in Amp
Once you have your Base64 string, register the CData Connect AI MCP server with Amp using the following command:
amp mcp add cdata-connect-ai -- npx -y mcp-remote@latest https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Basic "
This adds your Connect AI configuration to Amp's settings file, enabling communication with CData Connect AI.
Verify Your Connection and Explore Data
- Create a New Thread
- Enter the Interactive Chat
- Verify MCP Servers
- Confirm Your Data Source
Start a new Amp session to begin interacting with your data:
amp thread new
Connect to the new thread using:
amp.
Inside the Amp shell, check your registered MCP servers:
list mcp.
Confirm that your connected Dynamics CRM data appears as a catalog by running
getCatalogs.
Step 3: Build Intelligent Agents with Live Dynamics CRM Data Access
With your Amp application configured and connected to CData Connect AI, you can now build sophisticated agents that interact with your Dynamics CRM data using natural language. The MCP integration provides your agents with powerful data access capabilities.
Available MCP Tools for your Agent
Your Amp application has access to the following CData Connect AI MCP tools:
- getCatalogs: Lists all data source catalogs (e.g., DynamicsCRM1)
- getSchemas: Returns database schemas within the connected catalog
- getTables: Lists all tables and views available under a given schema
- getColumns: Returns column definitions for a specific table or view
- queryData: Executes SQL queries (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)
- getProcedures: Lists stored procedures or API endpoints
- getProcedureParameters: Returns metadata for stored procedure parameters
- executeProcedure: Invokes stored procedures (e.g., Dynamics CRM actions)
Key Features of Amp
Amp provides several production-ready capabilities that make it ideal for building intelligent, data-aware AI agents:
- Automatic Context Management: Amp maintains and recalls conversational context automatically, enabling seamless multi-turn interactions without manual state tracking.
- Stateful Conversations: Preserve context and memory across multiple queries to create natural, human-like conversations.
- Native MCP Integration: Amp natively supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing secure, real-time access to live data from CData Connect AI and other MCP-compatible servers.
- Tool-Oriented Architecture: Tools are treated as first-class components with managed invocation, input validation, and error handling.
- Efficient Context Handling: Amp optimizes prompts dynamically, ensuring relevant information is preserved even when approaching model token limits.
- Cross-Source Querying: Combine and query multiple connected data sources within a single conversational workflow.
- Fine-Grained Permission Controls: Define and enforce tool access levels to maintain data governance and secure integrations.
- Developer-Friendly CLI and SDK: Manage MCP connections, configure agents, and test workflows easily from the Amp CLI or VS Code extension.
Example Use Cases
Here are some examples of what your Amp agents can do with live data access through CData Connect AI:
- Data Analysis Agent: Identify trends and anomalies in Dynamics CRM data.
- Report Generation Agent: Generate reports from natural language prompts.
- Interactive Chatbot: Explain insights conversationally using live data.
- Data Quality Agent: Monitor and flag real-time data inconsistencies.
- Automated Workflow Agent: Trigger alerts based on defined data conditions.
Testing Your Agent
Once your agent is running, you can interact with it through natural language queries. For example:
- "Show me all new leads from the past 30 days."
- "What are the top-performing campaigns this quarter?"
- "Analyze revenue growth and highlight anomalies."
- "Generate a summary report of current opportunities."
- "Find all records where status is pending approval."
Get CData Connect AI
To get live data access to 300+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your Amp agent environment, try CData Connect AI today!