Connect agents to external MCPs and tools

Connect your agents to external applications like Slack, Google Calendar, or any service with an API. Databricks offers several approaches depending on whether the external service has an MCP server, whether you need per-user authentication, or whether you prefer to call APIs directly from agent code. The following table summarizes each way to connect to external services:

Approach	Recommended use case
Connect agents to third-party tools with MCP Services	Use this approach for services that publish an MCP server. It offers automatic tool discovery and governed access through Unity AI Gateway.
External services with managed OAuth	Use this approach for Google Drive or SharePoint integrations. Databricks manages the OAuth credentials, so no app registration is required.
Call REST APIs directly from agent code	Use this approach to make direct REST API calls from agent code using the external service's own client SDK.
Unity Catalog function tools with HTTP connection	Use this approach for SQL-based tool definitions that wrap the http_request() function.

Approach	Recommended use case
Connect agents to third-party tools with MCP Services	Use this approach for services that publish an MCP server. It offers automatic tool discovery and governed access through Unity AI Gateway.
External services with managed OAuth	Use this approach for Google Drive or SharePoint integrations. Databricks manages the OAuth credentials, so no app registration is required.
Call REST APIs directly from agent code	Use this approach to make direct REST API calls from agent code using the external service's own client SDK.
Unity Catalog function tools with HTTP connection	Use this approach for SQL-based tool definitions that wrap the http_request() function.