Integrate Devin with Live SAP Ariba Source Data Using CData Connect AI

Anusha M B
Anusha M B
Technical Marketing Engineer
Use the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable Devin, the AI software engineer, to securely access and query live SAP Ariba Source data.

Devin is an AI software engineer from Cognition that plans, writes, and tests code in autonomous sessions. It supports the model context protocol (MCP) through its built-in MCP marketplace, allowing you to install remote MCP servers and give Devin access to external tools and live data sources.

By integrating Devin with CData Connect AI through the built-in MCP Server, Devin gains governed, real-time access to live SAP Ariba Source data. You can list catalogs, explore schemas, and query records from SAP Ariba Source data using natural language prompts, with all data access running securely against authorized sources.

This article explains how to configure SAP Ariba Source connectivity in Connect AI, install the CData Connect AI MCP Server from the Devin MCP marketplace, and verify the integration by querying live SAP Ariba Source data from a Devin session.

Step 1: Configure SAP Ariba Source connectivity for Devin

Connectivity to SAP Ariba Source from Devin is made possible through Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with SAP Ariba Source data from Devin, start by creating and configuring a SAP Ariba Source connection in Connect AI.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Adding a connection in Connect AI
  3. Select SAP Ariba Source from the Add Connection panel
  4. Selecting data source
  5. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP Ariba Source.

    In order to connect with SAP Ariba Source, set the following:

    • API: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Supplier, Sourcing Project Management, or Contract API based on your business role (possible values are SupplierDataAPIWithPaginationV4, SourcingProjectManagementAPIV2, or ContractAPIV1).
    • DataCenter: The data center where your account's data is hosted.
    • Realm: The name of the site you want to access.
    • Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

    If you are connecting to the Supplier Data API or the Contract API, additionally set the following:

    • User: Id of the user on whose behalf API calls are invoked.
    • PasswordAdapter: The password associated with the authenticating User.

    If you're connecting to the Supplier API, set ProjectId to the Id of the sourcing project you want to retrieve data from.

    Authenticating with OAuth

    After setting connection properties, you need to configure OAuth connectivity to authenticate.

    • Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient.
    • Register an application with the service to obtain the APIKey, OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

      For more information on creating an OAuth application, refer to the Help documentation.

    Automatic OAuth

    After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

      APIKey: The Application key in your app settings. OAuthClientId: The OAuth Client Id in your app settings. OAuthClientSecret: The OAuth Secret in your app settings.

    When you connect, the provider automatically completes the OAuth process:

    1. The provider obtains an access token from SAP Ariba and uses it to request data.
    2. The provider refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.
    3. The OAuth values are saved in memory relative to the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation.
    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  6. Click Save & Test
  7. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions
  8. Updating permissions

With the SAP Ariba Source connection configured, Devin can now connect to SAP Ariba Source data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Install the Connect AI MCP Server in Devin

Next, install the CData Connect AI MCP Server from the Devin MCP servers list so your sessions can discover and call live data tools through Connect AI.

Note: Installing MCP servers in Devin requires the Manage MCP Servers permission. If you don't have this permission, use the Suggest option or contact your organization admin.

  1. Log into Devin and navigate to Settings and Connections, then select the MCP servers tab
  2. Search for CData Connect AI in the marketplace and select the verified listing
  3. Viewing MCP servers in Devin and searching for CData Connect AI
  4. Click Install and enable. When prompted, complete the OAuth flow to authenticate with your Connect AI account Installing the Connect AI MCP Server in Devin
  5. Once installed, confirm the Enable in sessions toggle is on and click Test tools. Devin validates the connection and lists the available Connect AI tools, such as getCatalogs, getSchemas, getTables, and queryData Verifying the Connect AI MCP tools in Devin

With the MCP server installed and enabled, the Connect AI tools are available to every Devin session in your workspace.

Step 3: Query live SAP Ariba Source data from Devin

With the integration complete, start a Devin session and interact with live SAP Ariba Source data through natural language prompts.

  1. From the Devin home page, start a new session
  2. In the session prompt, ask Devin to work with your Connect AI data, for example:
    • Can you list the connections in CData Connect AI
    • Show the available schemas and tables for SAP Ariba Source
    • Query the top 5 records from a table in SAP Ariba Source
  3. Devin calls the Connect AI MCP Server and returns live results from SAP Ariba Source data directly in the session. You can follow the tool calls, inputs, and outputs in the Progress panel Querying live data from a Devin session

At this point, Devin communicates with the Connect AI MCP Server and retrieves live SAP Ariba Source data through remote MCP tools directly from your sessions, whether you're exploring data, building features against it, or automating engineering tasks.

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