Build Agents in Relevance AI with Access to Live Zendesk Data via CData Connect AI

Relevance AI is an AI automation and agent-building platform that enables organizations to create autonomous workflows powered by natural language reasoning. Users can visually design agents that interact with APIs, databases, and third-party systems to complete everyday business tasks or data operations.

By integrating Relevance AI with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server, your agents can query, summarize, and act on live Zendesk data in real time. This connection bridges Relevance AI intelligent workflow engine with the governed enterprise connectivity of CData Connect AI ensuring every query runs securely against authorized sources without manual data export.

This article outlines the steps to configure Zendesk connectivity in Connect AI, register Connect AI in Relevance AI, and build an agent that interacts with live Zendesk data.

Step 1: Configure Zendesk Connectivity for Relevance AI

Connectivity to Zendesk from Relevance AI is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with Zendesk data from Relevance AI, we start by creating and configuring a Zendesk 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 Zendesk from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Zendesk.

   Connecting to Zendesk

   To connect, set the URL and provide authentication. The URL is your Zendesk Support URL: https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com.

   Authenticating to Zendesk

   You can authenticate using the Basic or OAuth methods.

   Using Basic Authentication

   To use Basic authentication, specify your email address and password or your email address and an API token. Set User to your email address and follow the steps below to provide the Password or ApiToken.

   • Enable password access in the Zendesk Support admin interface at Admin > Channels > API.
   • Manage API tokens in the Zendesk Support Admin interface at Admin > Channels > API. More than one token can be active at the same time. Deleting a token deactivates it permanently.

   Using OAuth Authentication

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for an authentication guide.

   👁 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 Relevance AI. 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. Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again

With the Zendesk connection configured and a PAT generated, Relevance AI can now connect to Zendesk data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Configure Connectivity in Relevance AI

The CData Connect AI MCP endpoint and authorization details are registered within Relevance AI so that agents can call live data from Connect AI.

1. Sign in to Relevance AI and create an account if you do not already have one
2. From the sidebar, navigate to Agents and then click on New Agent
👁 Creating a new agent in Relevance AI

3. Select Build from scratch and name the agent (eg; CData MCP Server)
👁 Building an agent from scratch

4. Inside the agent editor, select Advanced and then switch to the MCP Server tab
👁 Opening MCP Server settings

5. Click + Add Remote MCP Tools
6. In the dialog that appears, fill out the fields as follows:
• URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
• Label: Any custom label (eg; cdata_mcp_server)
• Authentication: Select Custom headers
• Add header key:value pair. Combine your email and PAT as email:PAT and encode that string in Base64 and then prefix with the word Basic
  • Key: Authorization
  • Value: Basic base64(email:PAT)
👁 Connecting to CData Connect AI MCP Server in Relevance AI

Click Connect to establish the connection. Relevance AI will verify your credentials and register the CData Connect AI MCP Server for use in agents.

Step 3: Build and Run a Relevance AI Agent with Live Zendesk Data

1. Switch to the Run tab for your agent
2. Enter a task for example, "List the five most recent incidents from ServiceNow"
👁 Running the Relevance AI agent

3. The agent will query Connect AI via the MCP endpoint and display live results from Zendesk data
👁 Example query result from Connect AI

With the connection complete, Relevance AI agents can now issue queries, retrieve records, and perform AI-driven tasks over live Zendesk data through CData Connect AI MCP Server.

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