Use Microsoft Copilot Studio to talk to your MongoDB 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 MongoDB 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 MongoDB data in real-time. This article outlines the process of connecting to MongoDB using Connect AI Remote MCP and creating a connection in Copilot Studio to interact with your MongoDB data.

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

About MongoDB Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from MongoDB has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

MongoDB's flexibility means that it can be used as a transactional, operational, or analytical database. That means CData customers use our solutions to integrate their business data with MongoDB or integrate their MongoDB data with their data warehouse (or both). Customers also leverage our live connectivity options to analyze and report on MongoDB directly from their preferred tools, like Power BI and Tableau.

For more details on MongoDB use case and how CData enhances your MongoDB experience, check out our blog post: The Top 10 Real-World MongoDB Use Cases You Should Know in 2024.


Getting Started


Step 1: Configure MongoDB Connectivity for Microsoft Copilot Studio

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

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

    Set the Server, Database, User, and Password connection properties to connect to MongoDB. To access MongoDB collections as tables you can use automatic schema discovery or write your own schema definitions. Schemas are defined in .rsd files, which have a simple format. You can also execute free-form queries that are not tied to the schema.

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

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to MongoDB 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 MongoDB Data with Microsoft Copilot Studio

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

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

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