How to Query Live Salesforce Data Cloud Data in Claude Desktop

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an emerging, open-source standard for connecting LLMs with external services and data sources. Through MCP Servers, AI clients can perform actions like opening Jira tickets, posting Slack messages, committing GitHub branches and more. With CData Code Assist MCP, these capabilities expand exponentially.

CData Code Assist MCP provides schema-aware context to AI tools — whether you're using it for AI-assisted code generation in IDEs like Cursor, or for querying live data through chat interfaces like Claude Desktop.

In this article, we guide the reader through installing CData Code Assist MCP for Salesforce Data Cloud, configuring the connection to Salesforce Data Cloud, and asking questions of the data in Claude Desktop.

Prerequisites

You need to download Claude Desktop (download) and create an account before continuing.

Overview

Here's a quick overview of the steps:

1. Download and install the CData Code Assist MCP for Salesforce Data Cloud
2. Configure the connection to Salesforce Data Cloud
3. Ask questions about the data in Claude Desktop

Step 1: Download and install CData Code Assist MCP

1. To begin, navigate to https://www.cdata.com/solutions/codeassist/ and download the CData Code Assist MCP for Salesforce Data Cloud. 👁 Downloading the CData Code Assist MCP installer
   
2. Find and double-click the installer to begin the installation. 👁 Running the installer for CData Code Assist MCP (Google Sheets is shown.)
   
3. Follow the prompts to complete the installation. 👁 Completing the CData Code Assist MCP installation (Google Sheets is shown).
   

When the installation is complete, you are ready to configure Code Assist MCP by connecting to Salesforce Data Cloud.

Step 2: Configure the connection to Salesforce Data Cloud

1. After installation, the Code Assist MCP configuration wizard should open automatically. 👁 The Code Assist MCP configuration wizard.
   

   NOTE: If the wizard does not open automatically, search for "CData Code Assist MCP" in the Windows search bar and double-click the application. 👁 Opening the Code Assist MCP configuration wizard (Google Sheets is shown).
   

2. Click the dropdown menu in MCP Configuration > Configuration Name and select "
3. Name the configuration (e.g. "cdatasalesforcedatacloud") and click "OK."

   NOTE: This name is used as the name for the MCP server and as the prefix for all of the MCP Server's tools.

   👁 Naming the configuration.
   

4. Connecting to Salesforce Data Cloud

   Salesforce Data Cloud supports authentication via the OAuth standard.

   OAuth

   Set to OAuth.

   Desktop Applications

   CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop.

   You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the Salesforce Data Cloud console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth App in the Help documentation.

   Before you connect, set these properties:

   • : GETANDREFRESH. You can use to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the .
   • (custom applications only): The Client ID assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • (custom applications only): The Client Secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

   When you connect, the driver opens Salesforce Data Cloud's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

   The driver then completes the OAuth process as follows:

   • Extracts the access token from the callback URL.
   • Obtains a new access token when the old one expires.
   • Saves OAuth values in so that they persist across connections.

   For other OAuth methods, including Web Applications and Headless Machines, refer to the Help documentation.

   Enter the appropriate connection properties in the configuration wizard.

   👁 Configuring the Server to connect with a specific Spreadsheet.
   
   • Click "Connect" to authenticate with Salesforce Data Cloud through OAuth. 👁 Authenticating with Google
     

     NOTE: The configuration wizard should open your browser and ask you to sign into Salesforce Data Cloud. If your browser does not open, close the configuration wizard and re-open the application using "Run as Administrator" (see below).

     👁 Running the configuration wizard with elevated permissions.
     
   • Finally, click "Save Configuration" to save the configuration. 👁 Saving the Code Assist MCP configuration.
     

     NOTE: This saves the configuration details to a separate file and updates the Claude Desktop configuration file (claude_desktop_config.json) to start Code Assist MCP when the Claude Desktop client starts.

With Code Assist MCP configured, you are ready to start asking questions of your live data from Claude.

Step 3: Ask AI for answers from live Salesforce Data Cloud data

Now that we have installed Code Assist MCP and configured a connection, we are ready to start with Salesforce Data Cloud data in Claude Desktop.

1. Open Claude Desktop. It may take a moment for Code Assist MCP to start, but you will see the list of servers and tools available in the Claude interface (look for the settings icon below the prompt bar). 👁 The MCP servers menu showing available connections in Claude Desktop
   

   You can individually enable and disable specific tools by clicking on the server name. 👁 The expanded tool list for Code Assist MCP in Claude Desktop
   

2. Now that you have connected, you can ask Claude questions about the Salesforce Data Cloud data. For example: "Can you give me a quantitative analysis about my closed-won opportunities by industry?"

   NOTE: Claude may need to explore the Salesforce Data Cloud data to make sense of it before it can begin answering questions of the data. The tabular model presented by CData alongside the database tools available simplify the data exploration and analysis for an LLM.

   👁 Claude Desktop displaying a quantitative analysis of live data
   

Build with Code Assist MCP. Deploy with CData Drivers.

Download Code Assist MCP for free and give your AI tools schema-aware access to live Salesforce Data Cloud data during development. When you're ready to move to production, CData Salesforce Data Cloud Drivers deliver the same SQL-based access with enterprise-grade performance, security, and reliability.

Visit the CData Community to share insights, ask questions, and explore what's possible with MCP-powered AI workflows.