Integrate Goose with Live UKG Pro HCM Data via CData Connect AI

Goose is an open source AI agent that runs locally on your machine and works with a wide range of LLM providers. It supports the model context protocol (MCP) through its extensions framework, so you can add external tools and data sources and give the agent access to live systems beyond the model's training data.

By integrating Goose with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP Server, Goose gains governed, real-time access to live UKG Pro HCM data. You can list catalogs, explore schemas, and query records from UKG Pro HCM data using natural language prompts, with all data access running securely against authorized sources.

This article explains how to configure UKG Pro HCM connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required personal access token, install and set up Goose, add the Connect AI MCP Server as a custom extension, and verify the integration by querying live UKG Pro HCM data from the Goose chat.

Step 1: Configure UKG Pro HCM connectivity for Goose

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

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

2. Select UKG Pro HCM from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to UKG Pro HCM.

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

   UKGProHCM API Profile Settings

   UKG Pro HCM uses Basic authentication combined with a customer API key to authorize access to the API. To connect, you will need your UKG Pro HCM credentials and a customer API key issued by UKG.

   Set the following connection properties to authenticate:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to Basic.
   • User: Set this to your UKG Pro HCM username.
   • Password: Set this to your UKG Pro HCM password.
   • ProfileSettings: Set this to a semicolon-separated list containing:
     • Host: Your UKG Pro HCM tenant hostname (e.g., yourcompany.ultipro.com).
     • CustomerAPIKey: Your UKG customer API key. This is passed as the US-CUSTOMER-API-KEY request header on each API call.

   To obtain your customer API key, contact your UKG Pro HCM administrator or refer to the UKG Developer Portal at https://developer.ukg.com.

   
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 Goose. 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 UKG Pro HCM connection configured and a PAT generated, Goose can now connect to UKG Pro HCM data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Install and set up Goose

Next, install Goose, choose an LLM provider, and add the Connect AI Remote MCP Server as a custom extension so the agent can discover and call live data tools through Connect AI.

1. Download and install Goose by following the official installation guide, then launch the application
2. On the Welcome to goose screen, choose an AI provider. Select Use Free/Local Providers to run a local model, or Connect to a Provider to configure a provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google, and enter the required API key
3. In the left navigation, click Extensions, then click + Add custom extension
4. In the extension dialog, configure the server with the following values:
   • Extension Name: CData MCP, or any name of your choice
   • Type: Streamable HTTP
   • Endpoint: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
5. Under Request Headers, add the following two headers and click + Add after each pair:
   • Authorization: Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT
   • Content-Type: application/json

   Note: Goose will use Basic authentication with Connect AI. Combine your Connect AI user email and the PAT you created earlier in the format email:PAT, base64 encode the combined string, and prefix it with Basic. For example, given [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ789, the Authorization header value becomes something like: Basic dXNlckBkb21haW4uY29tOkFCQzEyMy4uLlhZWjc4OQ==

   
6. Click Save to save the configuration
7. Return to the chat, click the extensions icon at the bottom of the chat input, and confirm that the configured MCP is enabled

With the MCP server added and an LLM provider configured, Goose is ready to query live UKG Pro HCM data through Connect AI.

Step 3: Query live UKG Pro HCM data from Goose

With the integration complete, use the Goose chat to interact with live UKG Pro HCM data through natural language prompts handled by the configured LLM.

1. With the CData MCP extension enabled, type a prompt in the chat, for example:
   • List catalogs from my CData MCP
   • Show the available schemas and tables for UKG Pro HCM
   • Query the top 5 records from a table in UKG Pro HCM data
2. Goose calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from UKG Pro HCM data

At this point, your Goose agent communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live UKG Pro HCM data through remote MCP tools directly from the chat.

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