Access Live Workday Data in Roo Code via CData Connect AI

Anusha M B
Anusha M B
Technical Marketing Engineer
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Roo Code agents to securely access and build applications with live Workday data through MCP integration.

Roo Code is an open-source AI coding agent that runs inside VS Code with real file system access, terminal control, and multi-step workflows. It works across entire project workspaces through specialized modes like Code, Architect, and Orchestrator. Available as a VS Code Extension for local development, or as Cloud Agents that integrate with Slack and GitHub. Roo Code natively supports MCP, connecting external tools and data sources via STDIO or Streamable HTTP.

By default, Roo Code has no access to live enterprise data. CData Connect AI bridges this gap by exposing 350+ data sources. Once connected, Roo can introspect live schemas, validate queries, and generate code directly inside VS Code, retrieved by real enterprise data.

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 Roo Code

Connectivity to Workday from Roo Code is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Workday data from Roo Code, 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 Roo Code. 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, Roo Code can now connect to Workday data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Configure Connect AI in Roo Code

CData Connect AI can be integrated with Roo Code by registering the MCP Server directly in the Roo Code MCP configuration panel. Once registered, Roo Code agents can call live Workday data through MCP tools without additional setup.

Method 1: Direct MCP configuration

Users can register the CData Connect AI MCP Server directly in the Roo Code MCP settings. Once registered, agents in any project can query live Workday data through MCP tools without additional setup.

  1. Open VS Code with the Roo Code extension installed
  2. Click the Roo Code icon in the Activity Bar
  3. Navigate to Settings, then choose MCP Servers in the Roo Code pane and turn on Enable MCP Servers, now click Edit Global MCP to open the MCP configuration file
  4. In the mcp_settings.json file, add the following inside the mcpServers object, replacing base64encode with your Base64-encoded email:PAT 
    {
    "mcpServers": {
        "cdata-mcp": {
            "type": "streamable-http",
            "url": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp",
            "headers": {
                "Authorization": "Basic base64encode(USERNAME:PAT)"
            }
        }
    }
}
  5. Save the file to register the MCP server
  6. Return to the MCP Servers panel 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, Roo Code agents can now query and act on live Workday data through Connect AI in any project.

Query live Workday data from Roo Code

With the MCP server configured, start a conversation in the Roo Code chat panel to interact with live Workday data.

  1. Open the Roo Code 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

Users can direct Roo Code to build a full application that connects to the CData Connect AI MCP Server through a natural language prompt. The agent gathers the required endpoint and credentials interactively, then generates a working application wired to live Workday data — all from the Roo Code chat panel inside VS Code.

  1. Open the Roo Code panel in VS Code and select your preferred model from the dropdown
  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. Roo Code 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. Roo Code creates the project directory, initializes a Node.js project, installs the necessary packages, and stores credentials securely in a .env file

At this point, Roo Code 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 inside VS Code.

Get CData Connect AI

To access 350+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Roo Code, 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.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect AI or sign up for free trial access:

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