Use Manus AI to Talk to Your Typeform 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 Typeform 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 Typeform data in real-time, without any data replication.

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

Step 1: Configure Typeform connectivity for Manus AI

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Connections and click Add Connection Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Typeform" from the Add Connection panel Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Typeform.

    Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the TypeForm Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\TypeForm.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for TypeForm (see below).

    TypeForm API Profile Settings

    Authentication to TypeForm uses the OAuth standard.

    To authenticate to TypeForm, you must first register and configure an OAuth application with TypeForm here: https://admin.typeform.com/account#/section/tokens. Your app will be assigned a client ID and a client secret which can be set in the connection string. More information on setting up an OAuth application can be found at https://developer.typeform.com/get-started/.

    Note that there are several different use scenarios which all require different redirect URIs:

    • CData Desktop Applications: CData desktop applications (Sync, API Server, ArcESB) accept OAuth tokens at /src/oauthCallback.rst. The host and port is the same as the default port used by the application. For example, if you use http://localhost:8019/ to access CData Sync then the redirect URI will be http://localhost:8019/src/oauthCallback.rst.
    • CData Cloud Applications: CData cloud applications are similar to their desktop counterparts. If you access Connect AI at https://1.2.3.4/ then you should use the redirect https://1.2.3.4/src/oauthCallback.rst.
    • Desktop Application: When using a desktop application, the URI https://localhost:33333 is recommended.
    • Web Application: When developing a web application using the driver, use your own URI here such as https://my-website.com/oauth.

    After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

    • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
    • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id that is specified in your app settings.
    • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to Client Secret that is specified in your app settings.
    • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown) Click Save & Test
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Typeform Connection page and update the User-based permissions. Updating 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. Creating a new PAT
  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 Typeform 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 Navigating to Manus AI settings
  2. Go to the Connectors section and click Add Connectors Navigating to Custom MCP connectors
  3. Locate Custom MCP Click Custom MCP
  4. Click Add custom MCP to select the configuration options Add custom MCP

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. Importing MCP configuration via JSON in Manus AI
  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.
    Configuring the CData Connect AI MCP Server directly in Manus AI
  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 Typeform data using natural language

With the CData Connect AI MCP configured in Manus AI, users can now interact with their Typeform 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 Typeform 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 Typeform data in real-time and provide responses based on live data. Chatting with live data in Manus AI

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