Use Manus AI to Talk to Your Zuora Data via CData Connect AI

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 Zuora data in real-time, without any data replication.

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

Step 1: Configure Zuora connectivity for Manus AI

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

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

   Zuora uses the OAuth standard to authenticate users. See the online Help documentation for a full OAuth authentication guide.

   Configuring Tenant property

   In order to create a valid connection with the provider you need to choose one of the Tenant values (USProduction by default) which matches your account configuration. The following is a list with the available options:

   • USProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.zuora.com.
   • USAPISandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.apisandbox.zuora.com"
   • USPerformanceTest: Requests sent to https://rest.pt1.zuora.com"
   • EUProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.eu.zuora.com"
   • EUSandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.sandbox.eu.zuora.com"

   Selecting a Zuora Service

   Two Zuora services are available: Data Query and AQuA API. By default ZuoraService is set to AQuADataExport.

   DataQuery

   The Data Query feature enables you to export data from your Zuora tenant by performing asynchronous, read-only SQL queries. We recommend to use this service for quick lightweight SQL queries.

   Limitations
   • The maximum number of input records per table after filters have been applied: 1,000,000
   • The maximum number of output records: 100,000
   • The maximum number of simultaneous queries submitted for execution per tenant: 5
   • The maximum number of queued queries submitted for execution after reaching the limitation of simultaneous queries per tenant: 10
   • The maximum processing time for each query in hours: 1
   • The maximum size of memory allocated to each query in GB: 2
   • The maximum number of indices when using Index Join, in other words, the maximum number of records being returned by the left table based on the unique value used in the WHERE clause when using Index Join: 20,000

   AQuADataExport

   AQuA API export is designed to export all the records for all the objects ( tables ). AQuA query jobs have the following limitations:

   Limitations
   • If a query in an AQuA job is executed longer than 8 hours, this job will be killed automatically.
   • The killed AQuA job can be retried three times before returned as failed.
   Click Save & Test
4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Zuora 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 Zuora 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 Zuora data using natural language

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

Get CData Connect AI

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