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

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

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 Manus AI

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Connections and 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.

    Click Save & Test
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Workday Connection page and update the User-based 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.
  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 Workday 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
  2. Go to the Connectors section and click Add Connectors
  3. Locate Custom MCP
  4. Click Add custom MCP to select the configuration options

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.
  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.
  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 Workday data using natural language

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

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to 300+ SaaS, big data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!

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