Integrate Goose with Live Workday 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 Workday data. You can list catalogs, explore schemas, and query records from Workday data using natural language prompts, with all data access running securely against authorized sources.
This article explains how to configure Workday 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 Workday data from the Goose chat.
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 Goose
Connectivity to Workday from Goose is made possible through Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Workday data from Goose, start by creating and configuring a Workday connection in Connect AI.
- Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
- Select Workday from the Add Connection panel
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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.
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.
API ConnectionType Value WQL WQL Reports as a Service Reports REST REST SOAP SOAP
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.
- 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 Goose. 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
- Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again
With the Workday connection configured and a PAT generated, Goose can now connect to Workday 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.
- Download and install Goose by following the official installation guide, then launch the application
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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
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In the left navigation, click Extensions, then click + Add custom extension
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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
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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==
- Click Save to save the configuration
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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 Workday data through Connect AI.
Step 3: Query live Workday data from Goose
With the integration complete, use the Goose chat to interact with live Workday data through natural language prompts handled by the configured LLM.
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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 Workday
- Query the top 5 records from a table in Workday data
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Goose calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from Workday data
At this point, your Goose agent communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live Workday data through remote MCP tools directly from the chat.
Get CData Connect AI
To access hundreds of SaaS, big data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today. Download a free 14-day trial of CData Connect AI, and our Support Team is available to help with any questions you have.