Use Manus AI to Talk to Your JSON Services via CData Connect AI

Manus AI is an autonomous AI agent platform that helps users accomplish complex tasks through natural language from browsing the web to executing code and interacting with external services. When combined with CData Connect AI remote MCP, users can leverage Manus AI to interact with their JSON services in real-time, without any data replication.

This article explains how to connect to JSON using the CData Connect AI MCP Server and configure Manus AI to conversationally explore (or Vibe Query) their JSON services. With Connect AI, users can build AI agents with access to live JSON services, plus hundreds of other sources.

Step 1: Configure JSON connectivity for Manus AI

Connectivity to JSON from Manus AI is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with JSON services from Manus AI, we start by creating and configuring a JSON connection in CData Connect AI.

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

   See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models JSON APIs as bidirectional database tables and JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

   After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

   The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

   • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your JSON data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
   • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
   • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

   See the Modeling JSON Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

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

Add a Personal Access Token

A Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI from Manus AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, we are ready to connect to JSON services from Manus AI.

Step 2: Get started with Manus AI

Navigate to Manus and sign in to your Manus AI account. Once logged in, you are ready to configure the CData Connect AI MCP Server as a custom connector.

Step 3: Add the CData Connect AI MCP Server as a connector

Manus AI supports connecting to external MCP servers via its Connectors settings. There are two methods to add the CData Connect AI MCP Server: Import by JSON or Direct Configuration. Both methods are explained below.

1. In Manus AI, click on the profile icon and navigate to Settings
2. Go to the Connectors section and click Add Connectors
3. Locate Custom MCP
4. Click Add custom MCP to select the configuration options

Option A: Import by JSON

Use this method to quickly configure the MCP Server by pasting a JSON configuration snippet.

1. Select Import by JSON from the connector setup options.
2. Paste the following JSON into the configuration field, replacing the placeholder values with your Connect AI credentials:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "cdata-connect-ai": {
         "transport": "sse",
         "url": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp",
         "headers": {
           "Authorization": "Basic USER_NAME:YOUR_CONNECTAI_PAT;"
         }
       }
     }
   }
       

   Replace url with the Connect AI MCP URL, USER_NAME with your Connect AI email address, and YOUR_CONNECTAI_PAT with the Personal Access Token created in Step 1.
3. Click Import to apply the configuration.

Option B: Direct Configuration

Use this method to manually enter the MCP Server connection properties through the Manus AI interface.

1. Select Direct Configuration from the connector setup options.
2. Fill in the following fields:
   • Server Name: CData Connect AI
   • Transport Type: HTTP
   • Server URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
   • Custom Headers: Add a header with the name Authorization and the value Basic Base64Encoded(username:pat), replacing the placeholder with your Base64-encoded Connect AI email and PAT combination.
   
3. Optionally, enter a Note to provide Manus AI with instructions on how and when to use this MCP connector.
4. Click Save to establish the connection to the CData Connect AI MCP Server. Once saved, the connector will appear as active in your Connectors list.

Step 4: Query your JSON services using natural language

With the CData Connect AI MCP configured in Manus AI, users can now interact with their JSON services using natural language in any new Manus AI chat session.

1. Open a new chat in Manus AI.
2. Start asking questions about the JSON services. For example:
   • Show me all customers from the last 30 days
   • What are my top performing products?
   • Analyze sales trends for Q4
   • List all active projects with their current status
3. Manus AI will use the CData Connect AI MCP Server to query your JSON services in real-time and provide responses based on live data.

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!