Integrate Cursor with Live Excel Online Data via CData Connect AI

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor that embeds conversational and agent-style assistance alongside your development workflow. By extending Cursor with MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, you can give its AI agents secure access to external systems such as APIs and databases.

Integrating Cursor with CData Connect AI via the built-in MCP server allows the editor's AI to query, analyze, and act on live Excel Online data without copying data into the IDE. The result is a development experience where you can chat with your governed enterprise data directly from Cursor.

This article outlines how to configure Excel Online connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required access token, register Connect AI's MCP Server in Cursor, and then use the AI chat pane to explore live Excel Online data.

Step 1: Configure Excel Online connectivity for Cursor

Connectivity to Excel Online from Cursor is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Excel Online data from Cursor, start by creating and configuring a Excel Online connection in CData Connect AI.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a connection in Connect AI

2. Select Excel Online from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Excel Online.

   You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and then setting the following properties:

   • : Set this to the name or Id of the workbook.

     If you want to view a list of information about the available workbooks, execute a query to the Workbooks view after you authenticate.

   • : Set this to true if you are connecting to a workbook in a sandbox account. Otherwise, leave this blank to connect to a production account.

   You use the OAuth authentication standard to authenticate to Excel Online. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide. Getting Started also guides you through executing SQL to worksheets and ranges.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions
👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

A Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI from Cursor. 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
👁 Creating a new PAT

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 Excel Online connection configured and a PAT generated, Cursor can now connect to Excel Online data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Configure Connect AI in Cursor

Next, configure Cursor to use Connect AI. Cursor reads MCP configuration from an mcp.json file in the user configuration directory and exposes the registered servers under the Tools & MCP settings. Once configured, Cursor's AI chat can call the tools exposed by CData Connect AI.

1. Download the Cursor desktop application and complete the sign-up flow for your account
2. From the top menu, click Settings to open the settings panel 👁 Opening Cursor Settings
   
3. In the left navigation, open the Tools & MCP tab and click Add Custom MCP 👁 Tools & MCP tab with Add Custom MCP
   
4. Cursor opens an mcp.json file in the editor
5. Add the following configuration. Make sure to base64-encode your email:PAT before inserting into the header:

   {
    "mcpServers": {
    "cdata-mcp": {
    "url": "https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp",
    "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Basic your_base64_encoded_email_PAT"
    }
    }
    }
   }
   		

   👁 Configuring mcp.json with Connect AI
   
6. Save the file
7. Return to Settings and then select Tools & MCP. You can now see cdata-mcp enabled with an active indicator 👁 Connect AI enabled
   

Step 3: Chat with CData Connect AI from Cursor

1. From the top bar, click Toggle AI Pane to open the chat window 👁 Opening the AI pane
   
2. Test the connection by entering "List connections"
3. You can also run queries like "Query Excel Online data and list the high priority accounts" 👁 Querying Excel Online data from Connect AI
   

Cursor is now fully integrated with the CData Connect AI MCP Server and can act on live Excel Online data directly from the editor.

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