Integrate Live Jira Data in the Windsurf IDE via CData Connect AI
Windsurf is an AI-native IDE built around Cascade, an autonomous coding agent that understands project context and executes multi-step tasks directly inside the editor. Cascade supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing the agent to discover and call external tools and data sources without leaving the development environment.
By integrating Windsurf with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP server, the Cascade agent gains governed, real-time access to live Jira data. This enables developers to list catalogs, inspect schemas, and query records from Jira data within the IDE using natural language prompts.
This article explains how to configure Jira connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required personal access token, configure the Connect AI MCP Server in Windsurf, and verify the integration by querying live Jira data from the Cascade chat.
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 Windsurf
Connectivity to Jira from Windsurf is made possible through Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Jira data from Windsurf, start by creating and configuring a Jira connection in Connect AI.
- Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
- Select Jira from the Add Connection panel
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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 Windsurf. 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
- Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again
With the Jira connection configured and a PAT generated, Windsurf can now connect to Jira data.
Step 2: Configure Connect AI MCP in Windsurf
Next, configure the Connect AI Remote MCP Server in Windsurf so that the Cascade agent can discover and call live data tools through Connect AI.
- Download and install the Windsurf IDE
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Open Windsurf, click your profile icon in the top right, and select Windsurf Settings
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Under the Cascade section, locate MCP Servers and click Open MCP Registry
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In the MCP Marketplace, click Add custom MCP in the top right
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This opens the mcp_config.json file. Paste the following JSON:
{ "mcpServers": { "cdata-mcp": { "serverUrl": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT", "Content-Type": "application/json" } } } }Note: Windsurf will use Basic authentication with Connect AI. Combine your Connect AI user email and the PAT you created earlier in the format email:PAT, base64 encode the combined string, and prefix it with Basic. For example, given [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ789, the Authorization header value becomes something like: Basic dXNlckBkb21haW4uY29tOkFCQzEyMy4uLlhZWjc4OQ==
- Save the mcp_config.json file and return to the MCP Registry
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Under Installed, confirm that cdata-mcp is listed and marked as Enabled
With the MCP server registered and enabled, Windsurf is ready to query live Jira data through Connect AI.
Step 3: Query live Jira data from Windsurf
With the integration complete, use the Cascade chat panel in Windsurf to interact with live Jira data through natural language prompts.
- On the top bar of Windsurf, switch from Editor to Agent to open a new Cascade chat
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At the bottom of the chat panel, confirm that the cdata-mcp server is listed and the toggle is enabled
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Start interacting with the agent by entering prompts like:
- List all catalogs in my cdata-mcp connection
- Show the available schemas and tables for Jira
- Query the top 5 records from a table in Jira data
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The Cascade agent calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Jira data
At this point, your Windsurf IDE communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Jira data through remote MCP directly from the editor.
Get CData Connect AI
To access hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today! Download a free 14-day trial of CData Connect AI today, and as always, our Support Team is available to assist you with any questions you may have.