VOOZH about

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/odoo-cloud-n8n.rst

⇱ How to Connect to Live Odoo Data in n8n Workflows and Agents (via CData Connect AI)

How to Connect to Live Odoo Data in n8n Workflows and Agents (via CData Connect AI)

👁 Yazhini G
Yazhini G
Technical Marketing Engineer
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable n8n to securely read and take actions on your Odoo data for you.

n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool that allows you to connect various applications and services to automate tasks and processes. When combined with CData Connect AI Remote MCP, you can leverage n8n to interact with your Odoo data in real-time. This article outlines the process of connecting to Odoo using Connect AI Remote MCP and creating a basic workflow in n8n to interact with your Odoo data.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Odoo data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between n8n and Odoo. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Odoo data using n8n, 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 Odoo. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Odoo data.

In this article, we show how to build a simple chat agent in n8n to conversational explore (or Vibe Query) your data. The connectivity principals apply to any n8n workflow. With Connect AI you can build workflows and agents with access to live Odoo data, plus hundreds of other sources.

About Odoo Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Odoo has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access live data from both Odoo API 8.0+ and Odoo.sh Cloud ERP.
  • Extend the native Odoo features with intelligent handling of many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many data properties. CData's connectivity solutions also intelligently handle complex data properties within Odoo. In addition to columns with simple values like text and dates, there are also columns that contain multiple values on each row. The driver decodes these kinds of values differently, depending upon the type of column the value comes from:
    • Many-to-one columns are references to a single row within another model. Within CData solutions, many-to-one columns are represented as integers, whose value is the ID to which they refer in the other model.
    • Many-to-many columns are references to many rows within another model. Within CData solutions, many-to-many columns are represented as text containing a comma-separated list of integers. Each value in that list is the ID of a row that is being referenced.
    • One-to-many columns are references to many rows within another model - they are similar to many-to-many columns (comma-separated lists of integers), except that each row in the referenced model must belong to only one in the main model.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to call server-side RFCs within Odoo.

Users frequently integrate Odoo with analytics tools such as Power BI and Qlik Sense, and leverage our tools to replicate Odoo data to databases or data warehouses.


Getting Started


Step 1: Configure Odoo Connectivity for n8n

Connectivity to Odoo from n8n is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Odoo data from n8n, we start by creating and configuring a Odoo connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Odoo" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Odoo.

    To connect, set the Url to a valid Odoo site, User and Password to the connection details of the user you are connecting with, and Database to the Odoo database.

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Odoo Connection page and update the 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 n8n. 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. 👁 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 connection configured and a PAT generated, we are ready to connect to Odoo data from n8n.

Step 2: Connect n8n to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to connect to CData Connect AI in n8n:

  1. Sign in to n8n.io or create a new account.
  2. Create a Workflow in n8n that uses the MCP Client tool. The example Workflow below acts as a chatbot. OpenAI was used as the Chat Model, and Simple Memory was used for the Memory. 👁 Example n8n Workflow using MCP Client
  3. Configure the MCP Client node in the Workflow:
    • Set Endpoint to https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp (found in the "Connect Data to AI" ribbon in Connect AI)
    • Set Server Transport to HTTP Streamable
    • Set Authentication to Header Auth and set the following properties to use Basic authentication:
      • Set Name to Authorization
      • Set Value to Basic EMAIL:PAT, replacing the EMAIL and PAT with your Connect AI email address and the PAT created previously. For example: Basic [email protected]:Uu90pt5vEO..."
      👁 Configure Header Auth
    👁 Configure MCP Client Node

Optional Step: Give the AI Agent context

This step establishes the AI Agent's role and provides context for the conversation through the System Message parameter in the AI Agent node. By providing a system message that explicitly informs the agent about its role as an MCP Server expert and lists the available tools, you can enhance the agent's understanding and response accuracy. For example, you can set the System Message to: 

You are an expert at using the MCP Client tool connected which is the CData Connect AI MCP Server. Always search thoroughly and use the most relevant MCP Client tool for each query. Below are the available tools and a description of each:
queryData: Execute SQL queries against connected data sources and retrieve results. When you use the queryData tool, ensure you use the following format for the table name: catalog.schema.tableName
getCatalogs: Retrieve a list of available connections from CData Connect AI. The connection names should be used as catalog names in other tools and in any queries to CData Connect AI. Use the `getSchemas` tool to get a list of available schemas for a specific catalog.
getSchemas: Retrieve a list of available database schemas from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog. Use the `getTables` tool to get a list of available tables for a specific catalog and schema.
getTables: Retrieve a list of available database tables from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog and schema. Use the `getColumns` tool to get a list of available columns for a specific table.
getColumns: Retrieve a list of available database columns from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog, schema, and table.
getProcedures: Retrieve a list of stored procedures from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog and schema
getProcedureParameters: Retrieve a list of stored procedure parameters from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog, schema, and procedure.
executeProcedure: Execute stored procedures with parameters against connected data sources

Step 3: Explore Live Odoo Data with n8n

With the Workflow created in n8n and the MCP Client connected, you can now interact with your Odoo data using n8n. The MCP Client node allows you to send queries and receive responses from the Odoo data source in real-time.

Open the Workflow in n8n and execute it to start interacting with your Odoo data. You can ask questions, retrieve data, and perform actions on your Odoo data using the MCP Client node: 👁 Example n8n Workflow Execution

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!