Integrate Cursor with Live Jira Data via CData Connect AI

Yazhini G
Technical Marketing Engineer

Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Cursor to securely access and act on live Jira data from within the editor.

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor that embeds conversational and agent-style assistance alongside your development workflow. By extending Cursor with MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, you can give its AI agents secure access to external systems such as APIs and databases.

Integrating Cursor with CData Connect AI via the built-in CData MCP Server allows the editor's AI to query, analyze, and act on live Jira data without copying data into the IDE. The result is a development experience where you can chat with your governed enterprise data directly from Cursor.

This article outlines how to configure Jira connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required access token, register the CData MCP Server in Cursor, and then use the AI chat pane to explore live Jira data.

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 Cursor

Connectivity to Jira from Cursor is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Jira data from Cursor, start by creating and configuring a Jira connection in CData Connect AI.

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

Select Jira from the Add Connection panel

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
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 Cursor. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each integration to maintain granular access control.

Click the gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open Settings
On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
Give the PAT a descriptive name and click Create

The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use

With the Jira connection configured and a PAT generated, Cursor can now connect to Jira data through the CData MCP Server.

Step 2: Configure the CData MCP Server in Cursor

Next, configure Cursor to use the CData MCP Server. Cursor reads MCP configuration from an mcp.json file in the user configuration directory and exposes the registered servers under the Tools & MCP settings. Once configured, Cursor's AI chat can call the tools exposed by CData Connect AI.

Download the Cursor desktop application and complete the sign-up flow for your account
From the top menu, click Settings to open the settings panel
In the left navigation, open the Tools & MCP tab and click Add Custom MCP
Cursor opens an mcp.json file in the editor

Add the following configuration. Make sure to base64-encode your email:PAT before inserting into the header:

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

Configuring mcp.json with CData MCP Server

Save the file
Return to Settings and then select Tools & MCP. You can now see cdata-mcp enabled with an active indicator

Step 3: Chat with CData Connect AI from Cursor

From the top bar, click Toggle AI Pane to open the chat window
Test the connection by entering "List connections"
You can also run queries like "Query Jira data and list the high priority accounts"