Interact with Live Paylocity Data in Meta Muse via CData Connect AI

Muse is Meta's personal AI agent for iOS, Android, and the web, built on the Muse Spark models. It connects to remote model context protocol (MCP) servers, so you can point Muse at a governed data source and let it discover and call live data tools.

Connect Muse to CData Connect AI through its Remote MCP Server, and Muse gains governed, real-time access to live Paylocity data. You can explore data, fetch records, and interact with objects using natural language prompts, with every request running against authorized sources.

This article shows you how to configure Paylocity connectivity in Connect AI, generate a personal access token, create a custom connector to the Connect AI Remote MCP Server in Muse, and interact with live Paylocity data from Muse.

Step 1: Configure Paylocity connectivity for Meta Muse

Connectivity to Paylocity from Muse is made possible through Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Paylocity data from Muse, start by creating and configuring a Paylocity connection in Connect AI.

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

2. Select Paylocity from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Paylocity.

   Set the following to establish a connection to Paylocity:

   • RSAPublicKey: Set this to the RSA Key associated with your Paylocity, if the RSA Encryption is enabled in the Paylocity account.

     This property is required for executing Insert and Update statements, and it is not required if the feature is disabled.

   • UseSandbox: Set to true if you are using sandbox account.
   • CustomFieldsCategory: Set this to the Customfields category. This is required when IncludeCustomFields is set to true. The default value for this property is PayrollAndHR.
   • Key: The AES symmetric key(base 64 encoded) encrypted with the Paylocity Public Key. It is the key used to encrypt the content.

     Paylocity will decrypt the AES key using RSA decryption.
     It is an optional property if the IV value not provided, The driver will generate a key internally.

   • IV: The AES IV (base 64 encoded) used when encrypting the content. It is an optional property if the Key value not provided, The driver will generate an IV internally.

   Connect Using OAuth Authentication

   You must use OAuth to authenticate with Paylocity. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Paylocity using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

   The Pay Entry API

   The Pay Entry API is completely separate from the rest of the Paylocity API. It uses a separate Client ID and Secret, and must be explicitly requested from Paylocity for access to be granted for an account. The Pay Entry API allows you to automatically submit payroll information for individual employees, and little else. Due to the extremely limited nature of what is offered by the Pay Entry API, we have elected not to give it a separate schema, but it may be enabled via the UsePayEntryAPI connection property.

   Please be aware that when setting UsePayEntryAPI to true, you may only use the CreatePayEntryImportBatch & MergePayEntryImportBatchgtable stored procedures, the InputTimeEntry table, and the OAuth stored procedures. Attempts to use other features of the product will result in an error. You must also store your OAuthAccessToken separately, which often means setting a different OAuthSettingsLocation when using this connection property.

4. Click Save & Test
5. 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 Muse. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each integration to maintain granular access control.

1. Click the gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open Settings
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
3. Give the PAT a descriptive name and click Create

4. Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again

With the Paylocity connection configured and a PAT generated, Muse can now connect to Paylocity data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Create a custom connector to the Connect AI MCP Server in Meta Muse

Muse has no manual "add MCP server" form. Instead, you ask Muse in plain language to build a custom connector that points at the Connect AI Remote MCP Server, a hosted, public HTTPS endpoint that speaks streamable HTTP. Muse builds the connector on its secure VM using the official MCP SDK, then discovers and calls the available Connect AI data tools.

1. Open Muse on iOS, Android, or the web and start a new chat
2. Ask Muse to build a custom connector to the Connect AI Remote MCP Server, giving it the server URL and noting that the endpoint is a hosted MCP server over streamable HTTP, for example:
   Create a custom connector to CData Connect AI. It is a hosted MCP server over streamable HTTP at https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp and it requires an Authorization header.
3. When Muse prompts for credentials, it opens a secure entry flow, separate from the chat, that saves the value in its Secure Credentials Store. Enter the Authorization header value in the format Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT

   Note: For the Authorization value, base64 encode email:PAT and prefix it with Basic. Enter it only in Muse's secure credential prompt, never in the chat.

4. Muse connects to the Connect AI MCP Server and lists the available data tools. Review the custom connector confirmation, then click Continue. When Muse offers to save the integration as a skill, choose yes so the connector is available in every future chat

With the custom connector saved, the Connect AI tools are available to Muse in any chat.

Step 3: Interact with live Paylocity data from Meta Muse

With the integration complete, interact with live Paylocity data directly from Muse through natural language prompts.

1. In a Muse chat, type a prompt that uses the Connect AI connector, for example:
   • Use the CData Connect AI connector to list all available connections
   • Show the available objects and fields for Paylocity
   • Fetch the top 5 records from Paylocity
2. Approve the tool call in the Sentinel dialog when prompted
3. Muse calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Paylocity data

At this point, Muse communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Paylocity data through remote MCP tools directly from your chats.

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