Use Claude to Talk to Your Zendesk Data via CData Connect AI

Stanley Liu
Stanley Liu
Associate Technical Product Marketer
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Claude to securely answer questions and take actions on your Zendesk data for you.

Claude is a family of advanced large language models (LLMs) built by Anthropic, an AI research company founded in 2021. These models power the Claude conversational assistant and developer tools.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Zendesk data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between Claude and Zendesk. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Zendesk data using Claude, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Zendesk. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Zendesk data.

Step 1: Configure Zendesk Connectivity for Claude

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

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

    Connecting to Zendesk

    To connect, set the URL and provide authentication. The URL is your Zendesk Support URL: https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com.

    Authenticating to Zendesk

    You can authenticate using the Basic or OAuth methods.

    Using Basic Authentication

    To use Basic authentication, specify your email address and password or your email address and an API token. Set User to your email address and follow the steps below to provide the Password or ApiToken.

    • Enable password access in the Zendesk Support admin interface at Admin > Channels > API.
    • Manage API tokens in the Zendesk Support Admin interface at Admin > Channels > API. More than one token can be active at the same time. Deleting a token deactivates it permanently.

    Using OAuth Authentication

    See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for an authentication guide.

  4. Click Save & Test

Step 2: Connect Claude to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI connector in Claude:

  1. Sign in to Claude.ai or create a new account.
  2. Expand the left navigation menu.
  3. In the bottom-left corner, click your user name and select Settings from the menu. The Settings screen appears.
  4. In the Settings screen, click Connectors.
  5. Click the button to Browse Connectors.
  6. Search for "CData Connect AI" and click the listing.
  7. Click "Connect" and sign into your Connect AI account.
  8. After connecting, Claude opens a new chat.

Step 3: Explore Live Zendesk Data with Claude

  1. You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. Claude outlines the steps it uses to retrieve data from the source in CData Connect AI. Refer to CData's prompt library for prompt ideas.

NOTE: Claude's setup process is subject to change. Refer to Claude's documentation for the latest setup information.

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