Integrate Cursor with Live SharePoint 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 SharePoint data 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 SharePoint data 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 SharePoint 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 SharePoint data.

About SharePoint Data Integration

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

Access data from a wide range of SharePoint versions, including Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and above, and SharePoint Online.
Access all of SharePoint thanks to support for Hidden and Lookup columns.
Recursively scan folders to create a relational model of all SharePoint data.
Use SQL stored procedures to upload and download documents and attachments.

Most customers rely on CData solutions to integrate SharePoint data into their database or data warehouse, while others integrate their SharePoint data with preferred data tools, like Power BI, Tableau, or Excel.

For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's SharePoint solutions, refer to our blog: Drivers in Focus: Collaboration Tools.

Getting Started

Step 1: Configure SharePoint connectivity for Cursor

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

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

Select SharePoint from the Add Connection panel

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint.
Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation
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 SharePoint connection configured and a PAT generated, Cursor can now connect to SharePoint data 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 SharePoint data and list the high priority accounts"