Access Live Workday Data in Emergent via CData Connect AI

Yazhini G
Yazhini G
Technical Marketing Engineer
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Emergent agents to securely access and build applications with live Workday data through MCP integration.

Emergent is an AI-powered development platform that lets users describe what they want to build and have an autonomous agent generate full-stack web applications in real time. Agents can connect to external tools and data sources through MCP to retrieve live data and power their outputs.

By integrating Emergent with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server, Emergent agents gain governed, real-time access to live Workday data. This enables agents to query, analyze, and visualize Workday data: either by calling MCP tools directly during a session, or by generating a full application wired to live data, all without manual data exports or custom integration code.

This article outlines the steps to configure Workday connectivity in Connect AI, register the CData MCP Server in Emergent, and interact with live Workday data from Emergent.

About Workday Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Workday. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Access the tables and datasets you create in Prism Analytics Data Catalog, working with the native Workday data hub without compromising the fidelity of your Workday system.
  • Access Workday Reports-as-a-Service to surface data from departmental datasets not available from Prism and datasets larger than Prism allows.
  • Access base data objects with WQL, REST, or SOAP, getting more granular, detailed access but with the potential need for Workday admins or IT to help craft queries.

Users frequently integrate Workday with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses. Access is secured at the user level, based on the authenticated user's identity and role.

For more information on configuring Workday to work with CData, refer to our Knowledge Base articles: Comprehensive Workday Connectivity through Workday WQL and Reports-as-a-Service & Workday + CData: Connection & Integration Best Practices.


Getting Started


Step 1: Configure Workday connectivity for Emergent

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

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

    To connect to Workday, users need to find the Tenant and BaseURL and then select their API type.

    Obtaining the BaseURL and Tenant

    To obtain the BaseURL and Tenant properties, log into Workday and search for "View API Clients." On this screen, you'll find the Workday REST API Endpoint, a URL that includes both the BaseURL and Tenant.

    The format of the REST API Endpoint is: https://domain.com/subdirectories/mycompany, where:

    • https://domain.com/subdirectories/ is the BaseURL.
    • mycompany (the portion of the url after the very last slash) is the Tenant.
    For example, in the REST API endpoint https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/api/v1/mycompany, the BaseURL is https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com and the Tenant is mycompany.

    Using ConnectionType to Select the API

    The value you use for the ConnectionType property determines which Workday API you use. See our Community Article for more information on Workday connectivity options and best practices.

    APIConnectionType Value
    WQLWQL
    Reports as a ServiceReports
    RESTREST
    SOAPSOAP

    Authentication

    Your method of authentication depends on which API you are using.

    • WQL, Reports as a Service, REST: Use OAuth authentication.
    • SOAP: Use Basic or OAuth authentication.

    See the Help documentation for more information on configuring OAuth with Workday.

  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 Emergent. 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 Workday connection configured and a PAT generated, Emergent can now connect to Workday data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Configure Connect AI in Emergent

CData Connect AI can be integrated with Emergent in two ways depending on your account tier. Pro and Enterprise users can register the MCP Server directly in the Emergent UI, while free-tier users can describe the integration in natural language and have Emergent's agent build a connected application automatically.

Method 1: Direct MCP Configuration (Pro/Enterprise)

Pro and Enterprise users can register the CData Connect AI MCP Server directly in the Emergent UI. Once registered, agents in any project can call live Workday data through MCP tools without additional setup.

  1. Sign in to Emergent and create an account if you do not already have one
  2. Click to start a new project. Enter a Project Name and click Create Project
  3. In the project chat window, select your preferred model from the dropdown (e.g., Claude 4.5 Sonnet)
  4. Click the Advanced Controls icon and then click Select MCP Tools to open the MCP configuration panel
  5. In the Select MCPs to use dialog, click + New MCP Server to add a custom MCP server
  6. In the Configure New MCP dialog, fill in the following:
    • MCP Name: cdata-mcp
    • Description: (optional) A brief description of the server
    • JSON Configuration: Paste the following, replacing base64-encode-email-pat with your Base64-encoded email:PAT string:
    {
    "mcpServers": {
        "cdata-mcp": {
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-client",
                "connect",
                "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp"
            ],
            "command": "npx",
            "env": {
                "MCP_HEADERS": "{\"Authorization\":\"Basic base64-encode-email-pat\"}"
            }
        }
    }
}

    Note: Combine your Connect AI email and PAT in the format email:PAT, then Base64 encode the combined string. For example, given [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ, the value becomes something like: dXNlckBteWRvbWFpbjphSzkvbVB4Mi9Rcjd2TjQ...

  7. Click Verify and Save to register the MCP server
  8. Return to Select MCP Tools and confirm that cdata-mcp is listed and its toggle is enabled. If it is not enabled, toggle it on

With the CData MCP Server registered and enabled, Emergent agents can now query and act on live Workday data through Connect AI in any project.

Query live Workday data from Emergent

With the MCP server configured, start a conversation in the Emergent agent panel to interact with live Workday data.

  1. Return to the project chat and enter a prompt to explore your data, for example:
    • List all available catalogs in my cdata-mcp connection.
    • Show the schemas and tables available for Workday.
    • Query the top 5 records from Workday data.
  2. The agent calls the CData Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Workday data

Method 2: Build an application with natural language (Free)

Free-tier users can direct Emergent to build a full-stack application that connects to the CData Connect AI MCP Server through a natural language prompt. The agent will gather the required endpoint and credentials interactively, then generate a working application wired to live Workday data.

  1. Sign in to Emergent and open the chat window
  2. Enter a prompt that describes the application you want to build. For example: 
    I would like to build a small application that connects to a remote MCP HTTPS server.
I already have the MCP endpoint URL and the required credentials.
The application should:
  - Establish a connection to the remote MCP server
  - Authenticate using the provided credentials
  - Retrieve and list all available catalogs from the MCP

Please make sure the credentials are stored securely in a .env file
and not hardcoded in the application.
  3. Emergent will prompt you to provide the MCP endpoint URL and authentication credentials. Supply the following values:
    • MCP Endpoint URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
    • Authorization: Basic base64(email:PAT)
  4. The Emergent agent generates a full-stack application that connects to Workday data through Connect AI and renders live results in the App Preview panel.

At this point, Emergent has built an application that communicates with the CData Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Workday data, all from a single natural language prompt.

Get CData Connect AI

To access 300+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today! Sign up for a free 14-day trial of CData Connect AI, and as always, our world-class Support Team is available to assist you with any questions you may have.

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