Use Manus AI to Talk to Your Odoo Data via CData Connect AI

Anusha M B
Anusha M B
Technical Marketing Engineer
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Manus AI agents to securely answer questions and take actions on Odoo data.

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 Odoo data in real-time, without any data replication.

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

About Odoo Data Integration

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

  • Access live data from both Odoo API 8.0+ and Odoo.sh Cloud ERP.
  • Extend the native Odoo features with intelligent handling of many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many data properties. CData's connectivity solutions also intelligently handle complex data properties within Odoo. In addition to columns with simple values like text and dates, there are also columns that contain multiple values on each row. The driver decodes these kinds of values differently, depending upon the type of column the value comes from:
    • Many-to-one columns are references to a single row within another model. Within CData solutions, many-to-one columns are represented as integers, whose value is the ID to which they refer in the other model.
    • Many-to-many columns are references to many rows within another model. Within CData solutions, many-to-many columns are represented as text containing a comma-separated list of integers. Each value in that list is the ID of a row that is being referenced.
    • One-to-many columns are references to many rows within another model - they are similar to many-to-many columns (comma-separated lists of integers), except that each row in the referenced model must belong to only one in the main model.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to call server-side RFCs within Odoo.

Users frequently integrate Odoo with analytics tools such as Power BI and Qlik Sense, and leverage our tools to replicate Odoo data to databases or data warehouses.


Getting Started


Step 1: Configure Odoo connectivity for Manus AI

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

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

    To connect, set the Url to a valid Odoo site, User and Password to the connection details of the user you are connecting with, and Database to the Odoo database.

    Click Save & Test
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Odoo 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 Odoo data 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 Odoo data using natural language

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

  1. Open a new chat in Manus AI.
  2. Start asking questions about the Odoo data. 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 Odoo data in real-time and provide responses based on live data.

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