Integrating Boomi Agentstudio with IBM Cloud Object Storage Data via CData Connect AI

Boomi Agentstudio is an enterprise platform for designing, orchestrating, and governing AI agents that automate tasks, enhance integration workflows, and support intelligent decision making across business processes. When you connect it with CData Connect AI, Boomi Agentstudio can securely access, query, and act on live enterprise data such as IBM Cloud Object Storage through a standardized MCP tool interface.

CData Connect AI is a managed Model Context Protocol (MCP) platform that provides governed, real-time access to enterprise data systems. It exposes structured metadata, including catalogs, schemas, tables, and SQL querying across hundreds of data sources. With Connect AI, Boomi Agentstudio can incorporate live operational data directly into agent logic and workflow automation, eliminating the need for ETL pipelines, data replication, or custom integration code.

This article explains how to connect Boomi Agentstudio to a CData Connect AI MCP endpoint, configure access to your IBM Cloud Object Storage or any other supported data source, and begin issuing real-time queries from within your agent-driven workflows.

Prerequisites

• An account in IBM Cloud Object Storage.
• An account in CData Connect AI
• An account of Boomi Agentstudio.

Step 1: Configure IBM Cloud Object Storage connectivity for Boomi Agentstudio

For Boomi Agentstudio to access IBM Cloud Object Storage, create a connection to IBM Cloud Object Storage in CData Connect AI. This connection is then exposed to Boomi using the remote MCP server.

1. Log in to Connect AI click Sources, and then click + Add Connection
2. From the available data sources, choose IBM Cloud Object Storage
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage

   Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage

   If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:

   1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
   2. Navigate to the page, choose a name for your instance and click Create. You will be redirected to the instance of Cloud Object Storage you just created.

   Connecting using OAuth Authentication

   There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:

   API Key

   To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:

   1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
   2. Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
   3. On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
   4. In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.

   Cloud Object Storage CRN

   If you have multiple accounts, specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:

   • Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
   • Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.

   Connecting to Data

   You can now set the following to connect to data:

   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
   • ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
   • CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.

   When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.

   1. Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
   2. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Once authenticated, open the Permissions tab in the IBM Cloud Object Storage connection and configure user-based permissions as required

Generate a Personal Access Token (PAT)

Boomi Agentstudio authenticates to Connect AI using an account email and a Personal Access Token (PAT). Creating separate PATs for each integration is recommended to maintain access control granularity.

1. In Connect AI, select the Gear icon in the top-right to open Settings
2. Under Access Tokens, select Create PAT
3. Provide a descriptive name for the token and select Create
4. Copy the token and store it securely. The PAT will only be visible during creation

With the IBM Cloud Object Storage connection configured and a PAT generated, Boomi Agentstudio is ready to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage data via the CData Connect AI MCP server.

Step 2: Create a source using the CData Connect AI MCP endpoint

Start by creating a new MCP data source inside Boomi Agentstudio. This establishes a secure connection between Boomi and CData Connect AI, allowing agents to call MCP tools and work with live enterprise data.

To connect with Connect AI MCP as a source, follow the given process:

1. Log in to Boomi.
2. Open Services and select Agentstudio from the list.
3. Go to the Sources tab and click Create a new source.
4. In the Agent Designer window, open the Sources tab and choose Model Context Protocol (MCP) as the source type.
5. On the Create MCP Source screen, enter the following Configuration details:
   • Name: Provide a name for the source
   • Details: Add a short description for the source
   • Transport Type: Streamable HTTP
   • URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
   • Authentication: Basic Authentication
   • Username: Enter your Connect AI account username
   • Password: Enter your Connect AI PAT
6. Click Test Connection.
7. After you establish a successful connection, click Discover Tools. Boomi lists all MCP tools exposed by CData Connect AI, including queryData, getCatalogs, getSchemas, and getTables, along with the remaining tools, in the Tools tab.
8. Select all tools in the Discover and Select Tools section and click Continue.
9. In the Review section, verify the details and click Save.

Boomi adds the new source to the Sources tab.

Click the Tools tab to confirm that all tools from CData Connect AI appear in the list.

Step 3: Create a new agent

Create a new agent to interact with your IBM Cloud Object Storage data. The agent acts as the interface between your prompts and the tools exposed by Connect AI, enabling it to process queries and return intelligent responses.

1. Go to the Agents tab and click Create New Agent.
2. In the Agent Designer window, select Blank Template under the Agents tab.
3. In the Profile section, enter the following details:
   • Basic Information: Specify the goal, agent name, and agent picture.
   • Agent Mode: Select either Conversational or Structured mode based on how you want the agent to respond to prompts, and configure the mode accordingly.
4. Click Save and Continue.
5. In the Tasks section, define the actions your agent will perform:
   1. Click + Add New Task.
   2. In the Description tab, enter the task name and description.
   3. In the Instructions tab, click + Add New Instruction and describe how the agent should use the tool within this task.
   4. In the Tools tab, click + Add New Tool and select the tools exposed by Connect AI. Click Update Selected Tool, enable Requires Approval and Data Passthrough, save the task, and click Save and Continue.

   Note: You can add up to 25 tools across all tasks.

6. In the Guardrails section, define the rules, restrictions, and filters to ensure your agent operates securely and ethically. Add a blocked message, denied topics, word filters, and custom regex patterns as required. Click Save and Continue.
7. In the Review section, verify all details and click Deploy to deploy the agent.

After you deploy the agent, use it to generate accurate and contextual responses to your prompts in the chat interface.

Step 4: Prompt the IBM Cloud Object Storage data using the agent

After you create and deploy your agent, interact with your IBM Cloud Object Storage data using natural language prompts.

Follow these steps to prompt your IBM Cloud Object Storage data:

1. Go to the Chat tab and select your agent from the dropdown list.
2. Enter a prompt (for example, "How many tables are available in IBM Cloud Object Storage?").
3. The agent processes your prompt and returns the results.

Get CData Connect AI

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