Integrating Claude Code with Okta Data via CData Connect AI
Claude Code is an AI-powered development environment that brings intelligent code generation, automation, and interactive reasoning directly into your workflow. By integrating it with CData Connect AI, you can enable Claude Code to securely access, query, and interact with live enterprise data, such as Okta, through a standardized MCP tool interface.
CData Connect AI is a managed MCP platform that exposes your enterprise data sources through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This allows Claude Code to work with catalogs, schemas, tables, metadata, and SQL-enabled data access from hundreds of data sources, without requiring ETL pipelines or custom integration code.
This article explains how to register the CData Connect AI MCP endpoint in Claude Code, configure your Okta or other data source connection, and begin issuing real-time data queries directly from the coding environment. We explore how Claude Code uses the built-in MCP tools, such as getCatalogs, getSchemas, getTables, and queryData to help you write, debug, and automate development workflows powered by live Okta data securely and interactively.
Prerequisites
- An account in CData Connect AI
- A Claude Code account.
- Visual Studio Code installed on your system.
Step 1: Configure Okta connectivity for Claude Code
For Claude Code to access Okta, create a connection to Okta in CData Connect AI. This connection is then exposed to Claude Code using the remote MCP server.
- Log in to Connect AI click Sources, and then click + Add Connection
- From the available data sources, choose Okta
-
Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Okta
To connect to Okta, set the Domain connection string property to your Okta domain.
You will use OAuth to authenticate with Okta, so you need to create a custom OAuth application.
Creating a Custom OAuth Application
From your Okta account:
- Sign in to your Okta developer edition organization with your administrator account.
- In the Admin Console, go to Applications > Applications.
- Click Create App Integration.
- For the Sign-in method, select OIDC - OpenID Connect.
- For Application type, choose Web Application.
- Enter a name for your custom application.
- Set the Grant Type to Authorization Code. If you want the token to be automatically refreshed, also check Refresh Token.
- Set the callback URL:
- For desktop applications and headless machines, use http://localhost:33333 or another port number of your choice. The URI you set here becomes the CallbackURL property.
- For web applications, set the callback URL to a trusted redirect URL. This URL is the web location the user returns to with the token that verifies that your application has been granted access.
- In the Assignments section, either select Limit access to selected groups and add a group, or skip group assignment for now.
- Save the OAuth application.
- The application's Client Id and Client Secret are displayed on the application's General tab. Record these for future use. You will use the Client Id to set the OAuthClientId and the Client Secret to set the OAuthClientSecret.
- Check the Assignments tab to confirm that all users who must access the application are assigned to the application.
- On the Okta API Scopes tab, select the scopes you wish to grant to the OAuth application. These scopes determine the data that the app has permission to read, so a scope for a particular view must be granted for the driver to have permission to query that view. To confirm the scopes required for each view, see the view-specific pages in Data Model < Views in the Help documentation.
- Click Save & Test
- Once authenticated, open the Permissions tab in the Okta connection and configure user-based permissions as required
Generate a Personal Access Token (PAT)
Claude Code authenticates to Connect AI using an account email and a Personal Access Token (PAT). Creating separate PATs for each integration is recommended to maintain access control granularity.
- In Connect AI, select the Gear icon in the top-right to open Settings
- Under Access Tokens, select Create PAT
- Provide a descriptive name for the token and select Create
- Copy the token and store it securely. The PAT will only be visible during creation
With the Okta connection configured and a PAT generated, Claude Code is prepared to connect to Okta data through the CData MCP server.
Step 2: Install Claude Code
Claude Code is distributed as an npm package. You can install it globally.
To install Claude Code on your system, open PowerShell, Terminal, or CMD as an Administrator and run:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Verify the installation using the following command:
npm list -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Expected output should be:
C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming pm `-- @anthropic-ai/[email protected]
Step 3: Authenticate Claude Code with Claude.ai
Link your local Claude Code environment with your Claude.ai account to enable secure access. In the terminal, run:
claude login
Claude Code outputs a URL, like:
Please visit https://claude.ai/login?code=
Follow these steps:
- Click the URL or paste it into your browser.
- Log in to Claude.ai.
- Claude.ai displays a verification code.
- Return to your terminal and enter/paste the provided verification code when prompted.
Once verified, you'll need to authenticate with Claude Code using an authentication code. Once done, your terminal should display:
You're all set up for Claude Code.
Claude Code is now linked to your Claude.ai account.
Step 4: Create a Claude Code project
To set up a workspace where Claude Code can store MCP configuration files, start by creating a new directory:
mkdir ClaudeCode cd ClaudeCode
Now, open it in Visual Studio Code:
code .
Step 5: Launch Claude Code and register the CData Connect AI MCP server
Before Claude Code can interact with Okta, you must register your CData Connect AI MCP endpoint. Claude Code uses this remote MCP server to securely access metadata, schemas, tables, and live query results.
Now register the CData Connect AI MCP server by running the following command in your Claude Code project directory:
claude mcp add connectmcp https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp \ --transport http \ --header "Authorization: Basic base64encoded(EMAIL:PAT)" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json"
Once added, verify that Claude recognizes your MCP server:
claude mcp list
If successful, you should see:
connectmcp: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp (HTTP) - ✓ OK
Start the Claude Code assistant and verify that it detects your MCP server. To run, use the given command:
claude
Once Claude Code loads, you should see:
Loaded MCP Server: connectmcp
This confirms that Claude Code is now connected to your CData Connect AI instance.
Step 6: Explore Okta metadata
You can now use Claude Code's natural-language interface to list catalogs, schemas, and tables in Okta. Ask Claude:
List all Okta catalogs using getCatalogs.
Claude automatically calls the appropriate MCP tool when you issue a request.
Try additional queries such as:
- "Show the available schemas."
- "List all tables in the Okta connection."
- "Retrieve the top 10 records from the Account table."
Claude Code uses the following MCP tools to interact with Okta in real time:
- getCatalogs
- getSchemas
- getTables
- queryData
These tools allow Claude Code to retrieve metadata and query live Okta data.
Step 7: Generate code and automation workflows
Use real Okta metadata to build working scripts directly inside your IDE.
Example prompt:
Write a Python script that queries Salesforce Contacts where LastName starts with 'A' using the MCP queryData tool.
Claude Code writes accurate code because it has:
- direct access to Okta schemas
- live query testing
- metadata introspection
All delivered through CData Connect AI.
Step 8: Build data-driven development workflows
Use Claude Code to generate, refine, and automate code that works with your Okta data using CData Connect AI.
With the CData Connect AI integration in place, Claude Code can help you build development workflows that rely on your Okta data. Although Claude Code does not include built-in real-time data connectivity, your configured MCP connection through CData Connect AI provides it with access to the metadata and query results for your request.
You can use Claude Code to automate tasks such as:
- generating scripts for data exploration
- creating integration test scaffolding
- validating queries against your Okta schema
- producing code for data extraction or transformation workflows
In this setup, Claude Code acts as an intelligent coding assistant that uses live Okta data from CData Connect AI to help you write and refine data-driven logic.
Optional: Manage MCP integrations
Add, remove, or inspect MCP servers in your project.
List MCP servers using the following command:
claude mcp list
To remove one, use:
claude mcp remove connectmcp
Modify the config by editing:
.claude/mcp.json
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