Use Claude to Talk to Your IBM Cloud Object Storage Data via CData Connect AI

Claude is a family of advanced large language models (LLMs) built by Anthropic, an AI research company founded in 2021. These models power the Claude conversational assistant and developer tools.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to IBM Cloud Object Storage data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between Claude and IBM Cloud Object Storage. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your IBM Cloud Object Storage data using Claude, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to IBM Cloud Object Storage. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested IBM Cloud Object Storage data.

Step 1: Configure IBM Cloud Object Storage Connectivity for Claude

Connectivity to IBM Cloud Object Storage from Claude is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with IBM Cloud Object Storage data from Claude, we start by creating and configuring a IBM Cloud Object Storage connection in CData Connect AI.

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

2. Select "IBM Cloud Object Storage" from the Add Connection panel

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 Save & Test

Step 2: Connect Claude to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI connector in Claude:

1. Sign in to Claude.ai or create a new account.
2. Expand the left navigation menu.
3. In the bottom-left corner, click your user name and select Settings from the menu. The Settings screen appears.
4. In the Settings screen, click Connectors.
5. Click the button to Browse Connectors.
6. Search for "CData Connect AI" and click the listing.
7. Click "Connect" and sign into your Connect AI account.
8. After connecting, Claude opens a new chat.

Step 3: Explore Live IBM Cloud Object Storage Data with Claude

1. You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. Claude outlines the steps it uses to retrieve data from the source in CData Connect AI. Refer to CData's prompt library for prompt ideas.

NOTE: Claude's setup process is subject to change. Refer to Claude's documentation for the latest setup information.

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!