Integrate Cursor with Live OData 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 OData services 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 OData services 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 OData 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 OData services.

About OData Data Integration

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

Access OData versions 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, working with legacy services and the latest features and capabilities.
Leverage advanced query options, including $filter, $select, and $expand, enhancing data retrieval from 3rd party tools.
Use Server-side execution of aggregation and grouping to minimize data transfer and boost performance.
Authenticate securely using a variety of schemes, including Azure AD, digest, negotiate, NTLM, OAuth, and more means secure authentication with every connection.
Use SQL stored procedures to manage OData service entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

Customers use CData's solutions to regularly integrate their OData services with preferred tools, such as Power BI, MicroStrategy, or Tableau, and to replicate data from OData services to their databases or data warehouses.

Getting Started

Step 1: Configure OData connectivity for Cursor

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

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

Select OData from the Add Connection panel

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to OData.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid OData user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid OData server organization root or OData services file.
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 OData connection configured and a PAT generated, Cursor can now connect to OData services 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 OData services and list the high priority accounts"