Use Microsoft Copilot Studio to talk to your Jira Data via CData Connect AI

Cameron Leblanc
Cameron Leblanc
Senior Technology Evangelist
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Microsoft Copilot Studio to securely answer questions and take actions on your Jira data for you.

Microsoft Copilot Studio is a no-code/low-code platform for creating AI Agents that can automate tasks, answer questions, and assist with various business processes. When combined with CData Connect AI Remote MCP, you can leverage Copilot Studio to interact with your Jira data in real-time. This article outlines the process of connecting to Jira using Connect AI Remote MCP and creating a connection in Copilot Studio to interact with your Jira data.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Jira data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between Microsoft Copilot Studio and Jira. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Jira data using Microsoft Copilot Studio, 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 Jira. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Jira data.

In this article, we show how to build a agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio to conversational explore (or Vibe Query) your data. The connectivity principals apply to any Copilot agent. With Connect AI you can build workflows and agents with access to live Jira data, plus hundreds of other sources.

About Jira Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Jira data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Gain bi-directional access to their Jira objects like issues, projects, and workflows.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to perform functional actions like changing issues status, creating custom fields, download or uploading an attachment, modifying or retrieving time tracking settings, and more.
  • Authenticate securely using a variety of methods, including username and password, OAuth, personal access token, API token, Crowd or OKTA SSO, LDAP, and more.

Most users leverage CData solutions to integrate Jira data with their database or data warehouse, whether that's using CData Sync directly or relying on CData's compatibility with platforms like SSIS or Azure Data Factory. Others are looking to get analytics and reporting on live Jira data from preferred analytics tools like Tableau and Power BI.

Learn more about how customers are seamlessly connecting to their Jira data to solve business problems from our blog: Drivers in Focus: Collaboration Tools.


Getting Started


Step 1: Configure Jira Connectivity for Microsoft Copilot Studio

Connectivity to Jira from Microsoft Copilot Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Jira data from Microsoft Copilot Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Jira connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Connections and click Add Connection
  2. Select "Jira" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Jira.

    To connect to JIRA, provide the User and Password. Additionally, provide the Url; for example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

    Click Save & Test
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Jira Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to Jira data from Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Step 2: Connect Microsoft Copilot Studio to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI MCP connection in Microsoft Copilot Studio:

  1. Under Tools, click Add tool, then click + New Tool.
  2. In the Add Tool window, search for and click CData Connect AI.
  3. In the Connect to CData Connect AI window, click Create to authenticate your connection CData Connect AI using OAuth authentication.
  4. Click Add and configure to add the CData Connect AI Tool to your agent.

Optional: Give the AI Agent context

This step establishes the AI Agent's role and provides context for the conversation through the Instructions property in the Agent. By providing instructions that explicitly informs the agent about its role as an MCP Server expert and lists the available tools, you can enhance the agent's understanding and response accuracy. For example, you can set the System Message to: 

You are an expert at using the MCP Client tool connected which is the CData Connect AI MCP Server. Always search thoroughly and use the most relevant MCP Client tool for each query. Below are the available tools and a description of each:
queryData: Execute SQL queries against connected data sources and retrieve results. When you use the queryData tool, ensure you use the following format for the table name: catalog.schema.tableName
getCatalogs: Retrieve a list of available connections from CData Connect AI. The connection names should be used as catalog names in other tools and in any queries to CData Connect AI. Use the `getSchemas` tool to get a list of available schemas for a specific catalog.
getSchemas: Retrieve a list of available database schemas from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog. Use the `getTables` tool to get a list of available tables for a specific catalog and schema.
getTables: Retrieve a list of available database tables from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog and schema. Use the `getColumns` tool to get a list of available columns for a specific table.
getColumns: Retrieve a list of available database columns from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog, schema, and table.
getProcedures: Retrieve a list of stored procedures from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog and schema
getProcedureParameters: Retrieve a list of stored procedure parameters from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog, schema, and procedure.
executeProcedure: Execute stored procedures with parameters against connected data sources

Step 3: Explore Live Jira Data with Microsoft Copilot Studio

With the Agent created in Microsoft Copilot Studio and the MCP tool connected, you can now interact with your Jira data using Microsoft Copilot Studio. The MCP tool allows you to send queries and receive responses from the Jira data source in real-time.

Open the chat window in your Microsoft Copilot Studio Agent to begin interacting with your Jira data. You can ask questions, retrieve data, and perform actions on your Jira data using the MCP tool:

Get CData Connect AI

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