Interact with Live IBM Cloud Object Storage Data in Warp via CData Connect AI

Warp is an agentic development environment that combines a modern terminal with an AI agent. It supports large language model (LLM) interactions and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server integrations, so the agent can reach live external data sources without leaving the terminal.

By integrating Warp with CData Connect AI through its built-in MCP Server, the Warp Agent gets governed, real-time access to live IBM Cloud Object Storage data. You can explore IBM Cloud Object Storage data, ask questions in plain language, and work with your records without writing custom integration code.

This article walks through configuring IBM Cloud Object Storage connectivity in Connect AI, configuring the CData MCP Server in Warp, and interacting with live IBM Cloud Object Storage data from the Warp Agent.

Step 1: Configure IBM Cloud Object Storage connectivity for Warp

Connectivity to IBM Cloud Object Storage from Warp is made possible through Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with IBM Cloud Object Storage data from Warp, start by creating and configuring a IBM Cloud Object Storage connection in 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
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 Warp. 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 IBM Cloud Object Storage connection configured and a PAT generated, Warp can now connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Configure Connect AI in Warp

Enable the Warp Agent, configure an LLM provider, and the Connect AI MCP endpoint in Warp so the agent can discover and call live data tools.

1. Download and install Warp, and then sign up or log in to your Warp account
2. Click the Tabs panel icon at the top left of the window, or press Ctrl + Shift + B
3. Click Settings, expand Agents, select Warp Agent, and toggle Warp Agent on

Configure an LLM provider

The Warp Agent needs an LLM provider to interpret your prompts and decide which MCP tools to call. Add an API key for your preferred provider.

1. On the same Warp Agent page, scroll down to the Custom Inference section
2. Enter the API key for the LLM provider of your choice (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google)

Add the Connect AI MCP Server

1. Under Agents, click MCP servers, and then click Add
2. In the Add New MCP Server editor, paste the following JSON configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "CData_Connect_AI": {
         "url": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp",
         "headers": {
           "Authorization": "Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT"
         }
       }
     }
   }

   Note: Combine your Connect AI email and PAT in the format email:PAT, Base64 encode the combined string, and prefix it with Basic. For example, given [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ, the header value becomes something like: Basic dXNlckBteWRvbWFpbjphSzkvbVB4Mi9Rcjd2TjQ...

   
3. Click Save to add the MCP server
4. Under My MCPs, confirm that CData_Connect_AI appears with the toggle enabled and the tools available

With the MCP server and an LLM provider configured, the Warp Agent is ready to interact with live IBM Cloud Object Storage data through Connect AI.

Step 3: Interact with live IBM Cloud Object Storage data from the Warp Agent

Use natural language prompts in the Warp Agent to explore live IBM Cloud Object Storage data.

1. Click the icon in the left navigation bar and select Agent
2. Enter a prompt to interact with your data, for example:
   • List the sources available in my CData_Connect_AI mcp connection
   • Show me what I can explore in IBM Cloud Object Storage
   • Fetch the five most recent records from IBM Cloud Object Storage data
   
3. The agent calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from IBM Cloud Object Storage data

Your Warp Agent now calls the Connect AI MCP Server to interact with live IBM Cloud Object Storage data through remote MCP tools, all from the terminal.

Get CData Connect AI

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