Build PingOne-Connected Applications in Kiro with CData Connect AI MCP Server

Kiro is an agentic AI IDE from AWS that takes a spec-driven approach to software development, turning a natural language prompt into a detailed spec, then into working code, tests, and documentation. Available as a desktop IDE and CLI, Kiro supports remote MCP servers natively across all plans, letting agents pull live context from enterprise systems while they build.

By integrating Kiro with CData Connect AI through the MCP (Model Context Protocol), Kiro agents gain the ability to query, analyze, and act on live PingOne data directly inside any coding session. Connect AI manages authentication, security, and query optimization so you can focus on building intelligent applications, while Kiro handles spec generation, code writing, and task execution.

This article outlines the steps to configure PingOne connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required authentication credentials, register the Connect AI MCP Server in Kiro, and verify that your agent can successfully interact with live PingOne data during coding sessions.

Prerequisites

• Kiro account
• CData Connect AI account
• PingOne account with valid credentials.

Step 1: Configure PingOne Connectivity for Kiro

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

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection.
2. Select PingOne from the Add Connection panel.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to PingOne.

   To connect to PingOne, configure these properties:

   • Region: The region where the data for your PingOne organization is being hosted.
   • AuthScheme: The type of authentication to use when connecting to PingOne.
   • Either WorkerAppEnvironmentId (required when using the default PingOne domain) or AuthorizationServerURL, configured as described below.

   Configuring WorkerAppEnvironmentId

   WorkerAppEnvironmentId is the ID of the PingOne environment in which your Worker application resides. This parameter is used only when the environment is using the default PingOne domain (auth.pingone). It is configured after you have created the custom OAuth application you will use to authenticate to PingOne, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application in the Help documentation.

   First, find the value for this property:

   1. From the home page of your PingOne organization, move to the navigation sidebar and click Environments.
   2. Find the environment in which you have created your custom OAuth/Worker application (usually Administrators), and click Manage Environment. The environment's home page displays.
   3. In the environment's home page navigation sidebar, click Applications.
   4. Find your OAuth or Worker application details in the list.
   5. Copy the value in the Environment ID field. It should look similar to:
      

      WorkerAppEnvironmentId='11e96fc7-aa4d-4a60-8196-9acf91424eca'

   Now set WorkerAppEnvironmentId to the value of the Environment ID field.

   Configuring AuthorizationServerURL

   AuthorizationServerURL is the base URL of the PingOne authorization server for the environment where your application is located. This property is only used when you have set up a custom domain for the environment, as described in the PingOne platform API documentation. See Custom Domains.

   Authenticating to PingOne with OAuth

   PingOne supports both OAuth and OAuthClient authentication. In addition to performing the configuration steps described above, there are two more steps to complete to support OAuth or OAuthCliet authentication:

   • Create and configure a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application in the Help documentation.
   • To ensure that the driver can access the entities in Data Model, confirm that you have configured the correct roles for the admin user/worker application you will be using, as described in Administrator Roles in the Help documentation.
   • Set the appropriate properties for the authscheme and authflow of your choice, as described in the following subsections.

   OAuth (Authorization Code grant)

   Set AuthScheme to OAuth.

   Desktop Applications

   Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

   After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

   • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. To avoid the need to repeat the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken each time you connect, use InitiateOAuth.
   • OAuthClientId: The Client ID you obtained when you created your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret you obtained when you created your custom OAuth application.
   • CallbackURL: The redirect URI you defined when you registered your custom OAuth application. For example: https://localhost:3333

   When you connect, the driver opens PingOne's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The driver then completes the OAuth process:

   1. The driver obtains an access token from PingOne and uses it to request data.
   2. The OAuth values are saved in the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation, to be persisted across connections.

   The driver refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.

   For other OAuth methods, including Web Applications, Headless Machines, or Client Credentials Grant, refer to the Help documentation.

   
4. Click Save & Test.
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add PingOne 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 Kiro. 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 (e.g., Kiro MCP) and click Create.

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

Step 2: Register the CData Connect AI MCP Server in Kiro

Kiro connects to external data sources through MCP servers configured in a file called mcp.json. In this step, you will open that file, add the Connect AI server details, and verify the connection.

1. Open a project folder. Kiro requires an open project before its agent features activate. When Kiro launches, click Open a project on the Getting started screen (or click Open Folder in the Explorer panel on the left). You can open any existing folder or create a new empty one, it just needs to be open.
2. Open the MCP config file. Press Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + P (Mac) to open the command palette. Type MCP and select Kiro: Open user MCP config (JSON). This opens the mcp.json file where you register MCP servers for Kiro.
3. Generate your Base64 credentials. Kiro authenticates with Connect AI using your email and PAT, encoded together as a single Base64 string. Open a terminal and run the command for your operating system. Replace [email protected] with your Connect AI login email and YourPAT with the PAT you created in Step 1.

   Windows (PowerShell):

   [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes("[email protected]:YourPAT"))

   Mac/Linux (Terminal):

   echo -n "[email protected]:YourPAT" | base64

   Copy the output string. You will paste it into the config file in the next step.

4. Add the Connect AI server to mcp.json. Paste the following block into your mcp.json file. Replace your_base64_string with the string you copied in the previous step:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "cdata-connect-ai": {
         "url": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp",
         "headers": {
           "Authorization": "Basic your_base64_string"
         }
       }
     }
   }    

   
5. Save the file. Press Ctrl + S (Windows) or Cmd + S (Mac). Kiro picks up changes to mcp.json automatically, no restart is needed.
6. Verify the connection. Click the ghost icon in the left sidebar to open the Kiro panel. Under MCP SERVERS, you should see cdata-connect-ai with a green connected indicator. You can also confirm by typing the following in the Kiro chat panel:

   List all available connections from Connect AI.

   If your PingOne connection appears in the response, the MCP server is set up correctly and you are ready to query live data.

   

Step 3: Query Live PingOne Data from Kiro

With the MCP server registered and verified, Kiro agents can now access your live PingOne data directly in any session. Open the Kiro chat panel and use the following prompts to interact with your data.

The integration uses the following Connect AI MCP tools in sequence:

Open the Kiro chat panel and try the following prompts to interact with your PingOne data:

• "What tables are available in my PingOne connection?"
• "What are the top records in PingOne data ordered by revenue?"
• "List all active PingOne data and their current status."
• "Summarize PingOne data activity for this quarter."

Kiro automatically discovers all CData connections, selects the most relevant connection, discovers the schema, generates, and executes the appropriate SQL query, and returns live results directly in the chat.

Build real-time, data-aware applications with Kiro and CData

Kiro and CData Connect AI together enable intelligent, AI-driven development where natural language prompts are automatically translated into live data operations across enterprise systems, without ETL pipelines, data sync jobs, or custom integration logic. This streamlined approach delivers stronger governance, lower operational overhead, and faster, more grounded responses from AI-powered agents.

Start a free trial today to see how CData Connect AI can empower Kiro with live, secure access to hundreds of enterprise systems.