Integrating Kiro CLI with ShipEngine Data via CData CLI

Kiro CLI is a terminal-based AI coding agent from AWS designed to take you from prompt to production directly in the command line. It understands your codebase through advanced code intelligence and context management and can autonomously execute multi-step workflows, running multiple agents in parallel, automating CI/CD pipelines, and integrating with external tools and data sources through native MCP support. Its support for agent steering files, custom agents, and agent skills 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, Kiro 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 ShipEngine data to Kiro CLI through CData CLI.

Prerequisites

1. Kiro CLI installed
2. CData CLI installed
3. Access to ShipEngine

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

Always use CData CLI with the official skill.

1. The official CData CLI Skill on GitHub can be downloaded using npx skills through the terminal:

   npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills

2. Follow the prompts in the terminal to install for Kiro CLI. 👁 Installing the CData CLI skill for Kiro CLI
   

Step 2: Set up the project directory

Create a project directory to contain all project files.

1. Navigate to your desired directory in the terminal and start a session with the kiro-cli command. 👁 Starting a Kiro CLI session
   

Step 3: Establish the driver and connection

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

I would like to build a command line app that connects to ShipEngine and checks for updates from BatchErrors. Make sure to include data from important columns like BatchId and Error.

This prompt automatically loads the skill and kicks off the following process. You can also manually prompt the agent for each step below.

1. Driver setup: Kiro CLI checks for an existing CData ShipEngine driver, or searches and downloads a new one:

• cdatacli drivers list

• cdatacli drivers search --driver "ShipEngine"

• cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id <artifact-id>

2. Activation: Activate the ShipEngine driver with a single command for a trial or full license:

•  cdatacli drivers activate "ShipEngine" --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --trial

• cdatacli drivers activate "ShipEngine" --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --key "<product-key>"

3. Establish ShipEngine connection: Check for existing ShipEngine connections or create a new one:

• cdatacli connection list

• cdatacli connection create --driver API --name my_api_connection --connectionstring "Prop1=value1;Prop2=value2;..."

4. Create a ShipEngine skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources that can be used to create a source specific skill to guide 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 ShipEngine" message, no driver instructions exist for this source. You can continue using the main driver skill.)

  cdatacli drivers skill "ShipEngine" > ~/skills/cdata-api/SKILL.md

Step 4: Query ShipEngine data

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

1. cdatacli query sql --connection my_api_connection --sql "SELECT * FROM BatchErrors"

Query ShipEngine data directly from your terminal with CData CLI

Kiro CLI and CData CLI together give your AI coding agent a direct path to live ShipEngine data without custom middleware, scheduled syncs, or manual setup at each step. Describe your goal, 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 API Driver for JDBC today.