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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/salesforce-jdbc-cli-codex.rst

⇱ Integrating Codex CLI with Salesforce data via CData CLI

Integrating Codex CLI with Salesforce data via CData CLI

👁 Justin Floyd
Justin Floyd
Product Business Analyst
CData CLI gives AI coding agents direct, command-line-native access to CData Drivers across hundreds of data sources, allowing agents to manage licenses, configure connections, run SQL queries, and explore schema metadata, all without leaving the terminal.

Codex CLI is OpenAI's open-source coding agent that runs locally from your terminal, built in Rust for speed and efficiency. It can read, modify, and execute code on your machine through natural language instructions, handling multi-file edits, running shell commands, reviewing code changes, and launching Codex Cloud tasks. Its support for integrations, agent skills, and AGENTS.md configuration files makes it well-suited for structured, tool-driven workflows, making it a natural fit for connecting to external data sources through CData CLI.

By describing your data goals in plain language, Codex CLI can handle the full setup process, from driver configuration and license activation to connection creation and query execution, without manual intervention at each step.

This article details step-by-step directions for how to connect Salesforce data to Codex CLI through CData CLI.

Prerequisites

  1. Codex CLI installed
  2. CData CLI installed
  3. Access to Salesforce

About Salesforce Data Integration

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

  • Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
  • Create atomic and batch update operations.
  • Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
  • Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
  • See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.

Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:

  • other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
  • preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
  • databases and data warehouses.

For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.


Getting Started


Step 1: Download the skill (one-time setup)

Always use CData CLI with the official skill.

  1. The official CData CLI Skill is available on GitHub and installs through npx skills in the terminal: 
    npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills
  2. Follow the prompts in the terminal to install for Codex. 👁 Install for Codex

Step 2: Set up the project directory

Create a project directory to contain all project files.

  1. Navigate to the directory within the terminal and start a session with the codex command: 👁 Start a Codex session

Step 3: Establish the driver and connection

Describe what you want to accomplish in this session with the CLI and Salesforce data.

I would like to build a command line app that connects to Salesforce data and checks for updates from Account. Make sure to include data from important columns like Industry and AnnualRevenue.

This prompt automatically loads the skill and kicks off the following process. You can always manually prompt the agent for each of the following steps.

  1. Driver setup: Codex CLI checks for an existing CData Salesforce driver, or searches and downloads a new one: 
    • cdatacli drivers list
    • cdatacli drivers search --driver "Salesforce"
    • cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id <artifact-id>
  2. Activation: Activate the Salesforce driver with a single command for a trial or full license: 
    • cdatacli drivers activate "Salesforce" --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --trial
    • cdatacli drivers activate "Salesforce" --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --key "<product-key>"
  3. Establish the Salesforce connection: Check for existing Salesforce connections or create a new one: 
    • cdatacli connection list
    • cdatacli connection create --driver Salesforce --name my_salesforce_connection --connectionstring "Prop1=value1;Prop2=value2;..."
  4. Create a Salesforce skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources. You can use these to generate a source-specific skill file that guides the agent through best practices for the driver.
    • Run the following command and save the output to your skills directory, either at the project level or globally. (Note: If you receive a "No instructions available for Salesforce" message, no driver instructions exist for this source. You can continue using the main driver skill.) 
      cdatacli drivers skill "Salesforce" > ~/skills/cdata-salesforce/SKILL.md

Step 4: Query Salesforce data

With the CData driver fully configured, your agent can now execute queries and write code against live Salesforce data: 

cdatacli query sql --connection my_salesforce_connection --sql "SELECT * FROM Account"

Query Salesforce data directly from your terminal with CData CLI

Codex CLI and CData CLI together give your AI coding agent a direct path to live Salesforce data without custom middleware, scheduled syncs, or manual setup at each step. Describe your goal in plain language, and the agent handles driver configuration, connection setup, and query execution from start to finish in the terminal.

Download the free CData CLI and start a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Salesforce today.

Ready to get started?

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